Junkyard Bird

Last weekend we drove down the 605 Freeway in search of a down & dirty nitty gritty urban area for Bill to photograph and to later possibly paint. I think we exited on Valley Boulevard and parked in a Big K-Mart lot to unload our bikes and hit the road. We went through City of Industry, Puente Hills & Walnut just to mention a few.

The day was grey and so was the areas we biked through & that's fine with me but most of the bike ride itself was pretty uneventful. That was until we were headed back to the car down Valley Blvd. when we heard a familiar squawk and I might add a very, very loud squawk. We pulled over to discover a Red Macaw in the parking lot of some sort of auto repair business. The Macaw cried out for attention and seemed entertained for the few moments we spent with him. It was getting dark out so a lot of the photos didn’t turn out.

This Macaw was well protected by his junkyard dog buddy in the bottom photo who I nicknamed Cujo!

Happy Bird Day

Old Mr. Diry Beak wishes you all a Happy Bird Day!

I hope you enjoy your meal as much as Mooky enjoyed his.

From Sink to Sack

So I came home from work one evening to find this little fellow in the kitchen sink & I might add he decided to get himself stranded on the garbage disposal side... not too smart little guy!

As you may remember from one of my earlier posts "Lizard Rock & Crazy Wild Trumpet Tree" that these lizards usually frighten me because they move so quickly & seem to pop out of no where!

Bill came to my rescue and captured this little beast in a Ziplock bag & set him free in the backyard!

Mooky Monday

Look at me I’m on the couch exactly where I’m not supposed to be!

Wait a minute... what's happening?

Hey this flying pillow game is fun! Wheeeeeee!

Let's do it again!

Mooky occasionally flies or walks over to the couch while I’m sitting and watching television. Now he knows he’s not supposed to be there but then again how much fun would it really be if he wasn’t breaking house rules. If he walks over to me I’ll pick him up and give him a love fest… that’s me petting him until he’s had enough & pinches me! But if he flies over I send him back to his perch without a love fest. I’m hoping this will teach him good behavior. My thinking is that maybe he’ll realize he’s allowed to visit me on the couch if he intentionally walks over for affection/attention but if he flies over just to be bad he has to go right back to his perch.

But as you can see Mooky has turned being sent back to his perch into a new game… the Amazing Flying Pillow game. Sometimes I have wonder who’s training who!

Coyote Calls In The Dark

It's Halloween Night and the coyotes are out to play!

Watch out Mooky!

And He's Off!

Down from his cage and seeking adventure! Where will Mooky go?

With endless options available… Mooky has chosen to perform his "Upside Down Head Foot Bop Dance" perched on the shower curtain rod!

Usually these little Mooky adventure walks have a more destructive outcome but luckily this day he only felt like shaking his groove thing on the shower curtain rod. Although I'm sure if I would have allowed him to stay up there for any length of time there would have most certainly been more than innocent bird dance performed.

You never know with this little guy!

Elephant Seals & More

There were a ton of Elephant Seals on the beach... no pun intended!

This little Conure was on vacation with his family too!

2 Crows hoping to get a cracker from tourist!

Ground Squirrel enjoying a cracker!

On our way to Cambria we stopped at the Elephant Seal Vista Point off of Highway 101 not far from Hearst Castle. There were plenty of seals but they were on the far side of the beach as you can see in the first photo.

I actually found myself enjoying taking pictures of the crows & ground squirrels. One tourist, the Conure’s owner, was feeding them crackers even though there were signs saying,” Please Do Not Feed The Animals”. Apparently the signs don’t work too well because the crows & ground squirrels were very friendly… at one point a ground squirrel tried to crawl up my leg hoping to get a treat.

Where's That Daddy At?"

Back from vacation already… why does the time seem to go by so quickly while on vacation? I bet I’m not the only one to ask that question!

I took lots of photos while on vacation but haven’t had the time to go through them to see what’s worthy of posting.

Just to get something new up here’s a video clip of Mooky on vacation with us standing on his travel cage asking “Where’s that Daddy At?” and “Where’s that Daddy Addy Addy At?” This is his new thing to say when Bill leaves the room or just isn’t in his sight. He says it very quickly in a sort of baby voice. Hopefully you can make it out! And for even more entertainment value he throws a fart sound in there for you too!

Lizard in a Crack & Be Back In a Week!

This is a photo I've been trying to capture for some time now. I've noticed this little fence lizard sunbathing in between the cracks of our redwood fence several times but this is the first time I was lucky enough to get a photo of him... I only wish it could have been a bit more of a close-up shot! He is quite the cautious little fellow!

We're off to San Luis Obispo again this year! See ya in a week!

Don't have too much fun without me!

Ring My Bell

If you listen closely in the very beginning of the video you can hear Mooky say, "Kiss"! He says it so sweetly and usually he leans over and gently pecks me on the lips with his beak. Now as far the bell ringing goes that's a whole other story. He rings his bell to either get attention or to let Bill or me know it's time to shut-up or leave! Mooky also likes to attack the bell as if he's honing his fighting skills... not quite sure why he needs fighting skill!

The noise in the background is the fan... this was filmed during one of the really hot days we were experiencing in California. Hopefully in the future I can get him to talk while I film him sans the fan noise!

A Deer Post

These are a couple of deer I spotted up in the Sierra Madre canyon on one of my early morning walks. In the first photo they’re eating a lovely purple plant in someone's yard... luckily I haven't had any problems with deer eating my plants but that’s probably because we live below the canyon and the deer usually don't come down from the canyon too often.

On occasion they do visit searching for food when it’s really hot. I’ll spot them across the street in the settling ponds standing under the big oak trees chewing on plants. I love to watch them and of course I always try to get a snapshot of them if possible. They usually ignore me and go about their business or they move to another spot where they can't be seen.

Beating The Heat

Thank goodness the heatwave finally broke this week! The temperature in the house was as high as 94 degrees. We actually have central air conditioning but in these extremely high temperatures it is basically worthless. Every time I go to turn it on the breaker switch is flipped... so I have to go outside and flip the switch to make it work. I have a problem with this since we had a complete remodel done on the house just 4 years ago. All new electrical and all new air conditioning unit.... go figure!

I think Mooky has the right idea. He'll fly to his room which is mostly dark because the shutters are closed to keep the house cool and sits on the fan. He'll stay there for hours not making a sound. When he has to poop, eat or have a drink of water he'll fly to his perch in the living room to do so. The temperature in his room is always a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house and Mooky is smart enough to take advantage of it!

Praying Mantis Update

The other day when I went to turn the lights on in the garage I found the Praying Mantis again! I say again because I believe it’s the same Praying Mantis from my post titled “Garden Visitors” but of course I have no way of knowing for sure. But I’m pretty convinced it’s the same one since the garage door is just a few feet away from the planter where the cone flowers are planted & we usually keep the garage door open all day.

I put a piece of paper towel near him to crawl onto so I could place him back in the garden. He seemed happy to get back to the cone flowers but since then I haven’t seen him… maybe he snuck back into the garage!

Tomatoes and More Tomatoes!

Let me start this post out by saying that I love tomatoes... the more the better!

In the past seasons I planted my vegetables in containers because of those little critters called Gophers. I can remember one year weeding in the garden and just like in a cartoon I saw one of my green bean plants disappear down a gopher hole. Since I didn't see many traces of gophers this year I decided to plant my tomatoes directly into the ground. The only problem was that the plants grew so fast I never got a chance to stake them properly as you can see in the first photo.

After getting such a bountiful harvest from these messy looking unsupported plants I’m considering never taking the time to stake again!

Blue Bathroom Ducky

That's one Big Blue Ducky...

But I'm going in anyway!

What, did you think a Blue Duck would stop me?

And I made it!

Shredding toilet paper and protecting the bathroom linen closet with his life is just another one of Mooky’s favorite past times. With luck on his side he’ll sneak past the The Stuffed Army , slip through the living room blockade and waddle down the hallway to the linen closet hoping not to be intercepted by either Bill or me. Once he’s made it through this obstacle course and into the bathroom he may find the linen closet door closed… drats his plans are foiled. And if it’s open he still has the Blue Bathroom Ducky to deal with!

It depends on his mood because on this day he wasn’t about to let the Bathroom Ducky stop him… let’s face it he went through a lot to chew on some toilet paper.

Garden Visitors

So I spent another Saturday working in the garden. You know the usual stuff pulling weeds, trimming things and planting some new plants I got at the Farmer's Market. I originally intended to post photos of my progress in the garden and the new plants I planted but since I had the opportunity to take these pictures I decided to post them instead.

The Praying Mantis has been on the Cone Flower since Saturday and was still there as of this Wednesday morning. I keep hoping that I'll have the good fortune to photograph him devouring another creature but so far nothing.

Not that this has anything to do with these lovely creatures I posted but I wanted to share one frustration I have and that is the supposed kink-free hose that always kinks! I even invested in one of those coil hoses and guess what it kinked more than the regular hose.

Does anyone else share this frustration?

I Want To Be Taken Seriously

This weekend I tried to get a new video clip of Mooky to post but he just wasn’t having any it. He’s turned into quite the little temperamental Star. Nope… there was no performing from him this weekend. Oh he was up to his usual Mooky tricks but purely for his own entertainment. Maybe he wants to be taken serious. You know like when Julia Robert’s cut all of her hair off and Johnny Depp didn’t want to be cute anymore.

I think this photo portrays Mooky's serious side... what do you think?

A Small View of my Garden

Cone flowers, French Lavendar, Butterfly Tree, & Sage.

Newly planted Cone Flowers.

I like to plant vegetables & herbs anywhere I can find room... here you can see some Swiss Chard & Basil.

Saturday I spent time planting and cleaning up this planter and the planter on the opposite side of it which has 2 huge Mexican Sage plants & a Rosemary bush. (I'll post pictures of them another time when they're in bloom.) It was a beautiful day, a little warm but tolerable.

Eventually I hope to have a completely drought tolerant garden. This area is just the start... it's filled with French Lavendar, Yarrow, Cone Flowers & a couple of other plants I can't remember the names of but are also drought tolerant.

Dinosaur Roar

I recently got a SVP Digital Comcorder for my birthday which turned out wasn’t very Mac compatible. So after doing some research online I found this very easy to use, inexpensive, compact replacement and best of all Mac compatible called the Flip Video Camcorder. So far I’m very pleased with it but I can’t say the same for Mooky. He seems to be a little leery of this new device which doesn’t make sense to me since he’s such a ham when I take his picture with my digital camera.

But luckily he seems to be warming up to it and I was able to get this small sample of his Dinosaur Roar to post. Hope you enjoy it and who knows what video clips the future may bring!

Mooky's Wingys

This weekend Mooky was very cooperative. He must have sensed I was desperately in need for a photo to post. While I was watching some silly movie on the Lifetime Movie Network (Please tell me I’m not the only one who watches LMN movies!) he was whistling (The Bridge Over the River Kwai theme song), singing & flapping his wings. So I thought let me pull myself away from this movie that I have probably already seen 3 times or more & see if I can get a photo of his antics. I went over to him with my camera and just simply said “Wingys” and to my surprise he started flapping his wings for me.

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them because I got so many good shots I will have to do a Mooky's Wingys Part II.