Happy May Day

 One of my tulips, the first year they haven't been eaten by deer.

 The pond is full of water this spring, it has been completely dry for at least a year. We saw a red headed woodpecker this morning! There used to be quite a few down by the river in years past, but for the past couple of years we haven't seen any. Probably displaced by the &*#+ starlings.

 A box turtle on the path, she hid into her shell when we got close.

A bouquet for May Day/Beltane on the deck. I put out the hummingbird feeders awaiting the first arrivals. The weather today was perfect -  80 degrees and sun - a great beginning for the "lusty" month of May.

New Yard Bird (a day in April 2012)

(Another unpublished post - this one from April of 2012. Guess I was waiting for the photo Terry got, if I find it I will add it.)

And it's a good one. Pileated Woodpecker!!!!! Saw it yesterday big as life on a hickory tree in the backyard.

A beautiful couple of days, saw a snake sunning on a rock in the creek.

Finished "The Hunger Games" and started Carole King's memoirs.

Worked in backyard, T helped set up the hammock, the bird bath and the wren house. Weeded yesterday, lots of that darn Japanese honeysuckle. Got some poison ivy too, but I showered with p.ivy soap as soon as I came in house after throwing clothes in the washer. So far, so good.

Visited Dad on Sunday, he's doing so much better than last week.

MBS Day 2 from 2011

Terry petting Chet Baker (Julie Zickefoose's Boston Terrier, who now has his own Facebook page).

Me and T outside Hoover Auditorium

T with his just purchased spotting scope

Birding with Al Batt, David Bird, etc. Saw lots of warblers that morning.

Found some unpublished posts from when I took a "leave of absence" from this blog. These photos were taken at Midwest Birding Symposium at Lakeside, Ohio in September of 2011. Terry and I are registering for the 2013 symposium today!

Lakeside!

Lobby
Staircase

Our Room

Arrived in Lakeside about noon on Thursday. Time for the Midwest Birding Symposium 2011 at last! This time we are staying at the Hotel Lakeside, built in 1873. It was very windy and the lake was choppy and rough, but the boat cruise went on this evening.

On the way here we stopped at East Harbor State Park, and saw two unfamiliar gulls. Looked them up- greater black-backed gull and Bonapartes gull-two new birds for us!

Empty Nest

I hadn't seen or heard the parents this morning, so I went out to look in the nest and the babies have fledged! I had hoped to see them learning to fly, but they must have taken right off while I wasn't there to see. No evidence of foul play; the nest is intact and empty. It's pretty quiet in the yard now.

Babies

The eggs have hatched. As I was sewing, I watched the adults going to the nest with bugs in their beaks. When I went out and peeked into the nest I saw little baby birds.

Expecting

Four eggs are in the nest.

Carolina Wren Nest

The other day as I was at my sewing machine, a Carolina wren pair were singing loudly right outside the window. I watched as they built this nest in a hanging flower basket. Today, I went out to check the nest because it had been so quiet, and was surprised when the female flew out.

I quickly took photos and went back inside. A few minutes later she returned.
It will be fun watching this new family.

As you can see the deer (or rabbits or both) are munching on my hosta, leaving bare stems sticking up. In the past I've put netting over my plants but birds get caught in it, so that was nixed. We have some repellant spray but apparently that wears off too soon. Next I plan to try fishing line and soap.

Goslings

Walked to the river this morning and got photos of a "gaggle of geese" with their babies swimming up the creek. (you'll probably have to click on the picture to make it big enough to see them.)

Also got a picture of the Sangamon taken from the bridge looking east.

Summer is Here

It was 90 degrees and humid for a few days this week, but today absolutely beautiful!
We had drumming circle outside, and I saw my first lightning bug this evening. Another bird was added to our yard list: yesterday I heard a yellow-billed cuckoo.
Photo from Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.)

Wild Things in Winter Yard

Its been 11 days since we've had any sunshine, until today the sun shone weakly through some thin clouds, and then at the time I went to work at 5 it shone brightly.
Here are photos of a squirrel, house finch, nuthatch and cardinal that T took with his new camera.

Snow!

We got a beautiful sparkly fluffy snowfall starting on Saturday evening. Lots of visitors came to our bird buffet.

Happy Winter Solstice!

I had just finished decorating the tree and was looking out the winter and there on a branch nearby was our owl visitor looking at us. (double click on the picture to get a close-up view)

Owl in Our yard

 

This is a big barred owl that was sitting in our tree yesterday morning.

Midwest Birding Symposium

Terry and I had a wonderful time Sept. 17-19 at the MBS in Lakeside Ohio. We stayed at the Evening Song Cottage Bed & Breakfast, went on a sunset cruise on Lake Erie, heard great naturalist speakers, saw some birds (including an osprey and a caspian tern), ate good food (especially Buckeye Classic ice cream), bought "birdy" stuff at the marketplace, Terry gave me Julie Zickefoose book "Letters from Eden" that she signed for my birthday, and walked around the town with cute little cottages. We enjoyed very beautiful weather and it was all over too soon.

Walk to Pond

Morning walk to Kingfisher Pond, the egret was there again today. Also I took a picture of "The Scream" tree.

A Winter Walk

T and I went for a walk to the pond, the trail is still snowpacked and icy in places, but the temperature was tolerable and at this point of seemingly unending cold weather we just have to get out into the sun and fresh air.
We spotted a song sparrow, my first sighting this year, although it is a pretty common bird. They'll be visiting our feeder too. We heard a quiet song,
sounding like a house finch maybe, but it was probably the song sparrow. The photo above was taken by Laura Erickson, I've heard her speak at MBS and follow her blog and podcasts.

47th Yard Bird!

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009 we saw our 47th yard list bird, a brown creeper.

Bald Eagle on Lake Decatur

On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, I saw a bald eagle fly over the dam as I was waiting at the stop light, my first Decatur sighting! This is a video of a mature and immature bald eagle from You Tube.