Buggin' is Distracting

Well, searching for grasses leads to searching for wildflowers

leads to finding cool insects...

leads to being more curious about everything...

and then I forget to do other important things like...

leaving the cleaning for later...laundry maybe can wait....

But then I get back at it. 
You know, mowing, cleaning, making supper stuff, hanging out laundry...

and then I stop and see... 

the bumble bees...

working on the sage plant flowers on the porch...

a little bit later, I drop my basket of clothes and sit to watch a Red Admiral..

he/she is fluttering about on a Forget Me Not flower...

another flutter-by...attracts my

eye...

a Silver Spotted Skipper...

A cardinal swoops into my view and now I have to sit on the porch bench and watch him...

I go back to grab the sheets off the line and checked on my shady wildflower garden. I have to stop again...

more time watching and wondering...

I find the Ultimately Coolest Bug ever...

on a Coreopsis flower...waiting...waiting for a victim...

The Assassin Bug or
Ambush Bug

I watch this insect and wonder why no one has modeled a science fiction creature after this amazing looking insect.

close up...cropped....

I spy...

another type of fly...

on a Hosta Leaf...

time to get back at it...

beds to make, laundry to fold..

but dang, buggin' is a lot more fun...

If it were not for my dad, I may have never picked up this hobby...

Birdy Birdy

Hey you in the house!
Fill the feeders!

Eagles just hanging out.

At first there were two....

And after I got done putting sand, grit, and hay chaff on the driveway and up the hill...

There were three!
[Two were close together]

I sent Charlie into the house. He'd be just a nice snack for these beauties.
They stayed for a couple of hours and then flew off. 

I was pretty happy.

Earlier last week I went to the creek for a walk and saw dozens of Cedar Waxwings eating on what I think were either dried up cherries or Buckthorn berries.

What an incredible site they were!

Yesterday while spreading some chaff near the house [due to the icy driveway], I heard a Robin! I wonder if he/she were lost. 

Two winters ago I did spot a small flock of them in the valley where I found the Cedar Waxwings. 

I had one of these guys land on my mitten and grab feed. It took me about 20 minutes of standing absolutely still with a mitten full of birdseed before they came. Twice a Tufted Titmouse landed on me and took feed.

Hubby got to watch from inside the house. He though it was pretty cool.

Christmas Eve

I usually write something fun and witty around Christmas time. There is the story about how I was convinced by Grandma Pearl that all animals talk at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve.

I'm not going to be a Debbie Downer so here is some of the action we've had at the bird feeders that past few days while we've endured the Artic Blast and subsequent winds. 
Thankfully, we are in the woods and in a hollow. While doing chores I could hear the winds roaring on the ridge.

Olive texted me to say that the cold and the wind chills were so intense that one of her sliding glass doors cracked. Can you imagine that?

Doing chores...Insulated pants, layers, coveralls, and an insulated flannel over the coveralls. Mask, fur hat, goggles and -- no glasses to fog up --. The wind chills were ... well -39? Let's just say that I knew bare skin would frostbite in less than a few minutes outside.

I did walk to the ridge to get the mail after chores as there were some meds for Rich that were delivered.

I walked up along the woods to watch the winds gust and blow snow across our road. My neighbor Olive, lives on that corner on the ridge and it is Wide Open. She told me it sounded like a freight train was idling outside her house. I didn't try to take pretty pictures, just a quick one of the road.

I was protected from the fierce winds by the woods but when I looked east across the ridge, I could see a haze. It was blowing snow that looked like it was a fog!

Those are not my tracks. Those are tracks of a deer.

We spent the day indoors of course and the birds were very active. I am glad that I ignored Rich telling me that feeding the birds was a waste of money. He often watches them and discusses what they are doing at the feeders and in the trees around us.

Enjoy the birds, we did!

It's Christmas Eve so I'll be making a special meal for us and we will open Charlie's present and Rich's gift.

Rich's daughter came Tuesday with her hubby and our grandson. She spent the day cooking her father's favorite meal and we had a really great day.
It was a great surprise and it made Rich smile all day and into the next when he got to eat Prime Rib and all the fixin's as left overs!

His daughter also sent him a Lego John Deere Technic Lego Tractor and spreader to work on! 

From our place to 

yours...

All in a Sunday

All week the weather has been pretty darned yucky. Perhaps I got the March blahs?

That beautiful weather we had last weekend spoiled me for the weather we had this past week. Sure I went out and played in the rain one day, but snow and sleet mixed on and off for the rest of the week was just too much bleh for me. The winds howled and icky stuff came down from the grey sky. [How's that for a weather summary?]

I thought a quick trip on Sunday morning to the KVR Ponds would be a great way to chill out after crummy weather.

It was 15 degrees when I walked from the Visitor Center down the steps and over the rock blocks to the valley. I didn't hear much noise. Last time I'd visited during the warm weather, every bird was making a racket. The red wing black birds had been swarming the area.

It was pretty quiet considering that the KVR website had said things were picking up at the ponds early this week. After the past two days of freezing temps the ponds had ice on them again.

Pond Ice:

However, I did find signs of the coming spring.

Pussy Willows:

I found a couple of new spots to 'spy' on the birds, but still was far enough off not to bother them. 

Geese and Sandhill Cranes:

I heard some cranes coming and tried to do a panning motion to catch them in flight. I didn't do so well, but I tried.

Flying Cranes:

Next I saw a group of 10 soaring Turkey Buzzards. Uffdah, they are back which means they will compete with the Eagles for food. 

I was so tickled to see and then get a decent shot of a female cardinal on the way back to the car. I like this shot better than the photos I've gotten of them at our feeder and pine trees.

Female Cardinal:

The biggest surprise was when I thought I saw a Bluejay then I realized it was a Kingfisher! This is the second time in my life I've seen these guys, but I've never really looked before.

Kingfisher:

I did see Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese and they were hiding on the far side of the pond in the marsh grasses.

Charlie was happy to see me when I got home....and the other half was doing his morning nap. He says he has to nap to have energy to have lunch.

Charlie was a nag all afternoon. He wanted to get out and hike.

I finally relented and off we went. Charlie was tracking something in the woods and kept stopping to sniff and then chase the scent on the ground as if he were some sort of tracking dog. I only wish I could share in his sense of smell and figure out what it was he was chasing.

He had a lot of pent up energy and I just followed him through the woods.

He did end up leading me to a neat spot with some mossy logs that had more cool lichen on them.

But that is for another time.

Twwweet Tweet Lil Birdies!

The dull overcast light of Tuesday's winter weather was actually pretty nice for bird photography. This is a subject I always avoided because I thought 

1. It was easy

2. It was boring

3. It wasn't exciting

I was wrong on all 3 accounts.

It is hard, interesting to watch, and challenging to get a decent shot.

 
I'd washed my windows on Sunday when it was warm and took the screens off in hopes of being able to 'shoot' through the glass. 

I was thrilled when this Titmouse huddled under the porch roof out of the pelting sleet. It took several shots but this is the one I liked because it looks like he/she has Attitude and he is staring right at me. He was also within 10 feet of the window.

None of the shots will be 100% clear and perfect. But it was a fun learning experience.

The cardinals came by to brighten the scenery too. All the birds like to perch on the same general area of the pines that are in front of the house. This male cardinal sat for a long time unlike the Juncos and Chickadees who were darting all about.

One of the things I wanted to do was get a Titmouse in flight. I watched a video on tips for shooting birds in flight. My reaction time is slower than the birds. Fortunately, after a ton of misses, I got a Titmouse launching. 

Ideally, according to the experts, I should have had the camera on a tripod and should have had  Continous Tracking AutoFocus set with the multi shot setting on. I used multi shot, but the CT-AF wasn't on. 

Oh well, it was exciting to see how they fly anyway. There is also the option of Pro-Capture on this camera which starts to take a shot before you press the shutter. I'm not sure how that works, but it is wicked fun.

And I started to watch carefully. I think I can almost predict a take off. But I miss most of the time.

The Titmouse quickly flew out of focus. 

I watched the birds interact. This Junco sat quietly on the branch for a long time before he/she decided that the Chickadee was too close.

Fight Club!

The Chickadee moved higher into the tree.

To celebrate the 2-22-22 event, I kept watching and decided to give up. I started to put the camera away when this happened!

Twos!

So you ask. How many shots did I take just to get a few? Hmmm. Do you want to guess or should I tell you?

For the Birds again

The sun was so warm yesterday afternoon, that I could sit on the porch and watch the birds at the feeder. They flit between the feeder and the pine tree and Hickory. 

What I didn't realize, is that I'd learn about bird habits and how they interacted. Generally I glance out the window and admire the birds I do know. It is fun to watch them come in, eat and leave.

So I watched. This guy is a bully as well as the Flicker.

He/she chases all the other birds away. Bully!

The Juncos seem to be more sociable. They even let other birds sit on branches near them. 

There are certain times that everyone seems to want to feed at the same time.

The cardinals are morning and late afternoon feeders. I generally see the lady cardinals before the sun shines into our hollow in the morning.

The male cardinals make their appearance and always stand out. He didn't really go to the feeder but seemed content to watch all of the other birds.

The Nuthatch would hit the feeder and immediately go to the pine tree where it would run up and down the bark.

The Tufted Titmouse is fun to watch also. He/she takes the seeds from the feeder to the tree and it appears that she tries to break it open on a branch?

She/he was really quite entertaining. My step daughter told me that she puts out peanuts for her Titmice. 

I never thought much of photographing them either and did NOT realize exactly how hard they can be to photo! There is no way I got decent photos easily. The ones here are a few I picked out of many, many others. Thank goodness for the ability to delete the crappy ones!

I am so proud of myself for being able to sit for one whole hour and just watch.

I'm the kind of person whose feet need to keep on moving unless I am asleep.

Well, I got the driveway and turn around areas shoveled out with the skid steer and I did not run into anything.

I dislike that machine and like it also.

If I ever had my choice, I'd get a little Mule or UTV type thingy to attach a plow to and push it around.