Resuscitating a Hummingbird

    Saturday night, when I returned home after working on the waterline, Joan told me there was a hummingbird trapped in the greenhouse.  It was fairly dark, but I went out to check.  I figured that since it was night, the hummingbird would be roosting on one of the wires or beams of the greenhouse, but I couldn’t see it, so I assumed it must have found a way out.

    The next morning, when I went out to the greenhouse, I noticed what looked like a dead hummer laying on the ground.  I picked up the ruffled little body, it moved a little, so I knew it was still alive.  It’s eyes were closed and I didn’t have much hope that it would survive, but I took it over to the hummingbird feeder, and thought that maybe I could get it to drink some of the sugar syrup, and that would give it some strength.

    I tried to put it on the feeder with it’s needle-like beak in the syrup, but it couldn’t even stand.  I just positioned it, lying on the feeder, with its beak in the sugar water.  It was very inanimate, it wasn’t sucking the syrup, so I tried massaging its tiny body, and blowing on it.  It did sort of respond, but still wasn’t eating.

    Joan got a syringe without a needle, and we drew up some of the syrup in it.  I closed the hummingbird up in my hand to warm it, and again put the syringe and syrup to its beak.  After about a half an hour of this, I noticed that it was sucking in the syrup.  It began to move more, and its eyes opened for the first time.

    Eventually, as its strength returned, it began to struggle, to free itself.  I let it try to fly, but it kept nose-diving to the ground.  I checked to see if one of its wings was broken, and discovered that one of its long wing feathers was, for some reason, stuck to the rear part of its body.  I gently unhooked it, and then the hummingbird tried to fly again, and this time it was successful. It buzzed into the air and flew away.

To view my paintings, go to www.davidmarchant.ca

Yumm, Junk Food

    Way back in 1969, I spent 2 months taking Peace Corp training for a program in the Philippines.  We were taught all about the culture and the only food we ate, was filipino food.  Lots of rice, and vegetables.  It was healthy and good, but the steady diet of it, left me craving a hamburger and some fries.

    Now, we try to eat healthy things, prepared in a healthy way, but that craving for junk food always lies right below the surface.  Joan, who is a very creative cook, and loves to experiment with new things also had a craving to get out the deep fryer, which we use less than once a year.  Yesterday, we got it out and invited some friends over to help us eat the deep fried results.

    Joan made several kinds of doughnuts, for dessert, and some Buffalo wings as part of the main course.  We all knew we were sinning when we sat down to the table, but we all loved it.  After the feast, we all waddled up, and sat on the lanai, enjoying the warmth and sunshine, and listening to the ducks quacking down on the pond.  

    Unfortunately for me, the evening ended on a bit of a sour note, because when the mosquitoes finally drove us to the house, Joan turned on the tap in the kitchen and discovered that we had no water.  I quickly called Glen, our neighbor, and I had to leave our company, put on my rain suit, grab a shovel, and join Glen to head up to the water falls to change our water intake screen.

    It was almost dark, when I got back home, our guests had left, but we had our water again.  I at least got a bit of exercise, hiking up the hill to the water fall, so I figured that I had burned off some of those delicious Buffalo wings and doughnuts.  

    Below is a photo of the junk food junkies.

Take a look at my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Glistening Peaks

    Yesterday really felt like the first day of Spring.  It was sunny and the temperature got up to 23C (73F).  Our snow covered mountains even showed off the warmth.  Usually the alpine snow has a dull appearance, sort of like white cotton cloth, but as sun warms the snow and it begins to melt, more light is reflected and the snow takes on a shine, sort of like satin.

    The peaks you see in the photo are part of the Cariboo range that borders the south edge of the Robson Valley.

View my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

A Day of Critters

    One of the things I like the best about living in the Robson Valley, is seeing all of the wildlife.  I have noticed that on those days you see an animal, you are very likely to see another one.  On other days, you see nothing at all.  Yesterday, was one of those days when all kind of things of wildlife was out showing themselves.

    In the morning when we were on our walk, a pair of wood ducks flew up from a pool in the woods.  In the afternoon, we drove to town.  We had just pulled out of our driveway, when we saw something in the distance walking up the road.  As we got closer, and it scampered across the road and up into the woods, we could see it was a fox.

    It was the most beautifully striking fox I had ever seen.  The front part of its body was reddish brown.  Its middle section was sort of alternating stripes of reddish brown and black.  Its hind quarters were mostly black.  It had a very bushy black tail, with a big white tip.  I was beautiful, and I wished I could have gotten a photo of it.

    After our shopping was done in town, Joan and I took a walk down the landing strip at the air field.  There we saw a wapiti (elk) who was grazing in the grass.  As you can see, I was able to get a photo of her.  When we got home, I spotted the first hummingbirds of the season.  Fortunately, I had just put the hummingbird feeder out in the morning.

    Our pair of hooded mergansers were swimming around in the pond, and periodically diving for fish.  I was watching them from the front window, when I noticed ripples and saw that the muskrat was swimming around.  I hadn’t seen it all year, and was beginning to think that it had taken off for somewhere else.  

    Yesterday was truly a remarkable day for seeing wildlife. 

To view my paintings, go to:  www.davidmarchant.ca 

Tiny Orange Cups

    I noticed these tiny fungus (1/3 of an inch, 1 cm across the top) popping up out of the moss in one place along our trail.  It happens every spring, and the fact that they are about the only thing with color always attracts my attention.

    Their scientific name is sarcoscypha occidentalis.  Don’t be impressed by my giving you the latin name, because I have to look it up every year.  To me, they are just “tiny orange cup fungus”. 

    In my mushroom guide it says they grow in eastern North America, but obviously some have spread a bit further than that.  It shows them growing out of the end of small decaying twigs.  I assume these guys are doing the same thing.

    It is always reassuring to me that the same natural organisms, generally show themselves in the same place, at the same time every year.

To see my paintings, go to:  www.davidmarchant.ca

My Speedee Mini-Show

    Speedee Printers in Prince George sells office and art supplies.  Every month they give over one of their storefront windows for artists to display their work.  May is my month.  We drove up to Prince George today, to deliver the paintings and set them up.  Then we did all of the other P.G. things, which of course, included a trip to Costco, where I got my winter tires taken off.  How is that for optimism.

    I purposely chose paintings that weren’t framed under glass because I figured the glass would cause too much reflection.  It was a good thing I did, because just the window by itself reflects plenty.

    We saw our first bear of the year on our drive back to McBride.  It was a black bear scrounging around for green grass sprouts on the edge of the road.

To view all of my paintings, go to:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Cosmic Reversal

    I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I fear that the cosmos is not unfolding the way it should.  For eons of time, in the northern hemisphere, winter was followed with a season of warming, called “Spring”.

    Now, for some unexplained reason, even though the warming had started in the interior of BC, suddenly for some unexplained reason, the seasonal direction reversed and it seems that we are moving back into winter.  I am very distressed with this situation, and I hope that someone will check into what happened and correct it.

    I took the photo along our trail this morning.

To view my paintings, go to:  www.davidmarchant.ca