Chris went out earlier to take some photos of them. As you can see many of them are pretty tolerant of us.

Here are a couple of the photos he took.

Well this winter finally took its toll on the steps and they were starting to fall apart and become unsteady, so Chris decided now was the time to rip them up and start again. So the other day we went from this:

To this:

We now have a lovely rockery area which we will plant out later!!

The next stage was building a main step from pavers and we are then going to build a deck and steps leading from this to the door.

Since the weather took a turn for the worse we, or rather Chris has had to stop, but we are planning on getting the wood for the deck & steps this week, so we can make a start on the rest of it.

Other news:

Yesterday we saw the pair of flickers for the first time this year. They were hammering away in the back garden. We also spotted the thrasher the other day, but not since.

We definitely have two black squirrels, one very black the other more ginger. They both turn up most days, usually separately. We are hoping they are nesting near by and will bring babies over. Our reds are starting to molt and their coats are getting very tatty. Chipmunks are everywhere!

Weather is still very changeable lately. One day we have 21C, the next it is 4C. We have had rain, snow, thunder and lightening, sunshine, you name it we have had it. The other night we had a huge thunderstorm which woke us up several times during the night. One particularly loud bang which rocked the house had us thinking we had been struck, but we could not see any damage. The next day we found out large areas surrounding us were without electric, but we were okay, so somewhere close definitely got hit.

Whilst I was on the phone to my aunt in Spain yesterday morning we went from bright sunshine, to cloudy skies then snow, all within an hour. She was a bit shocked we were still in danger of snow as it is April. In Spain they are in the mid 20′sC with bright sunshine, but have had quite a bit of rain. When we went to bed last night there was a light covering of snow on the ground, but it had vanished this morning.

Hopefully the weather will get better for May, especially when for when our daughter and girlfriend arrive. We have so much planned to do that it will be a shame if the weather spoils it.

Our black squirrels are still regular visitors. This is one on our deck. As you can see this one is actually pretty red in colour, but next to the real reds, he is pretty black. We know we have more than one black one as they vary in colour so much. Nice to get a bit of variety though.

Also we have lots of chipmunks running around. This is just one of many.

Spoke to my aunt and uncle in Spain yesterday and it is mid 20C there at the moment and no humidity, so pretty perfect.

Today is the last day of March and it is once again snowing, but they promise that it will be temporary and that we will have sun over the weekend with temps around 10C.

Lots of grackles and red-winged blackbirds in the garden. The gold finches are also starting to change colour ready for the mating season. No sign of the cowbirds yet, sure they will arrive soon.  The deer are getting more absent as the weather improves, so we are not going to see too much of them now.

Our visiting black squirrel comes by most days. It is the longest any black squirrel has stayed with us. He comes by, eats for a while and then disappears. The reds don’t seem to mind him for some reason and let him stay, very unusual. We have lots of chipmunks about again, chasing each other round the garden frantically. The killdeer are back but we haven’t seen much of them. Hopefully they are nesting and will reappear soon, with chicks.

Visited a new mall (well new to us) last week. Fairview Mall in Toronto. It was pretty big and quite nice, not sure it is any better than say Pickering which is nearer for us, but at least we have explored it. It must be in a very Asian community as many of the people there were of Asian origin. It is also close to Ikea which of course we had to pop into whilst there. A bit disappointed as we didn’t find much we liked but did come back with a new kitchen mat which we needed.

Hoping to get over to the States sometime in April, but will wait for the weather to clear a bit. Might go to Syracuse, or perhaps Rochester. Time to stock up on summer clothes! Most shops are in the transition stage still so not all have very much in the way of summer stuff, but hopefully within the next few weeks that will change.

This morning we happened to spot a black one in the front garden eating the seed with three reds close by. He sat very still eating whilst the reds rushed around chasing each other and getting all worked up.

And another, just catching one of the reds in ballistic mode being chased down the tree by another red.

As you can see the black squirrel is far bigger than the reds, but they are most definitely dominant. Soon after taking these pics the black was chased off.

Since Christmas we have had plenty of snow, but not as much as many other places in the country or indeed New York state under the lake. We currently have about a 6 inches of snow outside but lots more is promised tomorrow night – could be another foot if the forecast is correct. We have also had really really cold temps. This photo was taken earlier this month – 17th Jan. With the windchill it actually felt like -36C.

This has led to several extreme cold weather alerts – thank goodness for heating!

The deer have been in the garden most nights and once again the snow tracks in the garden make it look like Times Square. Along with the deer we have lots of rabbits – five the other evening all eating bird food under the tree, squirrels, birds etc. We have had one unexpected visitor and that is a mole or vole, not sure which. He spent most of yesterday poking his head out of a hole and steeling the bird seed we had put out. Very amusing to watch. Here is a video I took.

Does he look cute of what?

Our baby bunny is now a big bunny but is still as inquisitive as ever. He is also very playful as we often see him trying to engage chipmunks and squirrels in play, however they are not so willing. If he happens to find another rabbit in the garden, which is not unusual he will try to play with them. Sometime this is successful, but more often than not they see him off. If they do play they chase each other round the garden and lightening speed, then take turns to jump over each other which can be highly hilarious for us human watchers. This is him on the deck.

We also had a wasp wandering round the hummingbird feeder and Chris managed to get this rather good shot.

Talking of hummingbirds, we are inundated with them at the moment. We think we have at least three separate families. We have determined this by the location they fly to after feeding and there are three distinct locations. The feeders a busy with activity as each pair apparently has two babies, so we have around a dozen birds. I still find it hard to believe we get such tropical birds here in Ontario, but I am so glad we do.

We also had a black squirrel visit for about half an hour the other morning. However the territorial reds soon made him leave.

Last but not least here is a chipmunk looking rather cute with his full cheek pouches.

Is this the look of a chipmunk with indigestion??

He has started to get more inquisitive and came up to the deck yesterday which he had never done before.

As you an see he still does have some red in his coat when the sun catches it, but is very grey compared to the reds.

I mentioned before about how huge he is compared to our regular reds. I tried to get a photo to give a comparison, but due to their wariness of each other it has been difficult. I managed to get this rather poor photo, but you can see how much bigger he is.

Last night we saw him collecting grass and debris from the garden and taking it up one of our trees, so maybe he is sleeping there.