We were in the yard playing with dogs and I was able to snap a couple of nice photos of woodpeckers and Steve’s favorite bird, the white breasted nuthatch.
A storm of ducks
February 25, 2010 By
We had a winter storm here on Monday night. Tuesday morning I was leaving for work, and 4 ducks were in the end of the driveway. We are about a mile from the river and other sources of water. We see waterfowl flying throughout the year, but rarely in winter. Most of the water close to the house freezes over in the winter, so it was odd to see the ducks.
They came up by the house and walked all around. Steve’s friend had snowplowed these trails through the deep snow and they just walked all around the trails. Steve was home and took a bunch of pictures of them.
What a lot of changes for one week?! A new dog and now four ducks!
It was hard to keep the dogs away from the them. Quincy did chase after them and caught up to them once. She seemed curious about the and smelled them. That’s how we learned their wings were clipped. They couldn’t fly away from here. She just sniffed them though and went into her play stance like she was going to play with the ducks!
They came just a few feet from the back door!
We did give in and feed them some corn eventually. They seem to be staying here, th
ey’ve been here for a week now.
We are trying to find a home for them. They are just camped out in the front of our house by the road. We have a stand of trees near the ditch and they are somewhat protected against the wind. I don’t know how long they are going to stay, but so far they seem to be doing okay. You can see them here marching right past our feeder area.
Steve took the picture to the right. I really think it turned out nice!
My First Hawk Picture
January 16, 2010 By
This photo is taken through the window, so it’s not the best. This hawk sat in a tree right behind the red shed for quite a while. I didn’t have the camera handy though, so by the time I was ready, I only had time for one shot! You can very clearly see the markings on the chest and the talons, though, so I’m not too disappointed.
Long time no blog
January 4, 2010 By
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. For New Year’s I thought I should write some kind of blog and get back on track with this.
Update on Shadow (my found Plott Hound): We ended up not keeping Shadow. No one ever contacted me from the Michigan CoonHound Rescue despite my repeated emails, phone calls, facebook requests and Tweets trying to get their attention. I wasn’t really impressed by that. I honestly needed some help with that dog and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. I think she was mostly a Plott Hound. My Dad used to breed Walker Hounds and one of his buddies is still really into hounds of all kinds. He ended up taking her. He was all set up to have the hounds. He had 3 in his pack already. He hunts Bear, Raccoons and Cats with them. She turned out not to be into Bear or Cat hunting, but he is going to keep her around for the raccoons. At least she is well fed, cared for and safe. I never could have kept her from running in our unfenced yard.
Update on Quincy (My beautiful Basset Hound): Quincy has been doing really great. She is completely housebroken and spends all of her at home days now free of the crate. We ended up taking the crate out of the house and she hasn’t seemed to mind. She still gets some crate time at Doggie Day Care. Steve and I are considering getting her a new basset hound friend in the spring from the same breeder (if at all possible).
Update on the House: Steve and one of his friends covered the crawlspace in a 6 mil plastic. They used spray on adhesive to adhere it to the walls of the foundation and allow any moisture to run off and prevent it from getting stuck under the plastic. This completely solved our moisture problem in the house. It is now almost too dry!
Update on The Backyard: We’ve been keeping up with the feeders, but I haven’t had time in my schedule to participate in Feeder Watch (no 2 days in a row to be able to watch). We are seeing the usual suspects. Also, we were observing at least one bat every night until pretty late in the fall, so I am pleased to report that our local bat population seems not to have changed. Steve and a couple of his friends saw a mole in the backyard above ground this fall. That was our one notable sighting. Squirrel numbers are down from last year (only about 4 – 6 per day instead of 10 – 18). I have still been seeing pheasant and turkeys, but not in the backyard, just in the neighborhood.
Update on Steve & I: I am going to rededicate myself to this blog and some outdoor photography. I’ve been admiring a lot of other people’s nature photos on Facebook and resolve to take more of my own. We also are going on a New Year’s diet and hopefully going to get a little more active, hopefully that will include spending more time in the backyard.
So, how have your new year’s been? Any new interesting winter bird sightings? More posts to come (with pictures!).
Northern Flicker in the Yard
July 2, 2009 By
We saw a Northern Flicker in the yard exhibiting some weird behavior. It was eating ants, it hung out for over an hour. However, sometimes it would lay its wings flat across an ant hill or something that it had found in the yard. Here’s some photos.
In the picture to the left, you can see the flicker spreading its wings.
You can see the red patch on the head in the picture to the right.
Here he is digging into the ant hill.
Above you can see a little better image of the Northern flicker. It is eating at ant hills.
We also saw this rabbit in the same area, it eventually scared off the flicker.
The Northern Flicker was in the yard for over a half hour. It was very neat to watch. It was really focused on getting the ant hills. I was glad to be able to watch it for so long. We’ve usually only seen them fleetingly. It seemed like it had yellow underneath the feathers, but I really wasn’t sure if it was the Yellow Shafted or Red shafted variety.
Back to Birdwatching
June 21, 2009 By
Well, I’ve abandoned this site just for a short period of time. I’ve worked the last 13 days in a row. Today is my first day off. I’m glad that little stretch is over and now my summer can really start.
UPDATES:
Steve has been seeing several toads regularly. We still haven’t seen “Porch Toad” from last year. We also haven’t seen as many toads as last summer. We also haven’t spent as much time outside at night. We’ve both been pretty busy and a lot of early morning work days equals a lot of early to bed nights. Luckily we haven’t seen any more toads with the same injuries or wounds as the toad we removed from the backyard a month ago.
Bird feeding has been going pretty well. Steve has been keeping up with the feeding while my work schedule was making things really hectic. He has even continued making his own nectar. It has been a huge hit. Yesterday, when I got home from the tractor show, I was able to observe at least 3 male orioles at one time. The jelly feeder was a hotbed of activity.
I did miss the fledgling season for woodpeckers and that is so unfortunate. It is one of my favorite sights of late spring. We have seen glimpses of the Eastern Towhee, but no new pictures.
Steve and Brian moved the stump away from the pole feeder. Squirrels had learned to leap off of the stump and get onto the feeder. We were able to retain the sod from the new location, so the yard still looks intact.
Our vegetable plants (in containers) are doing great. I think that Steve has kept up with the watering (what would I do without him?). We have several peppers ready for harvest right now. The tomato plants are bouncing back. The dill is growing like crazy and I’m not sure what to do with it.
Our daylilies are blooming today. This should also help to get the hummingbirds more active in the yard. Currently, they dart in for the nectar and then head back into the forest immediately.
We’ve been seeing a LOT of rabbits lately. I suppose that leaving Quincy in the kennel last summer kept them at bay somewhat. She is such a house dog now that we haven’t put her in the outdoor kennel as much during the day. The dog grows lazier by the day. In fact, she is sleeping on the couch right now.
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It is good to be back. I’ll have regular updates coming now and will also begin a few more projects on the main site in addition to this blog.
Birdwatching and Bird Photos
May 3, 2009 By
So, since, I received my new camera, I’ve been practicing. So far, I’m still just using the Auto Mode, trying to figure out all of the features. I’m only about halfway through reading the book. Steve and I are both very interested in learning more about digital photography and particularly in wildlife photography. Here are some of my “practice shots”. I’m sure that this camera is making me a better photographer than I really am. Here is the camera that we are working with.
So, on to the photos
One view of an American Goldfinch This one is a House Finch in the Apple Tree
A male Northern Cardinal in the tree A female Northern Cardinal eating seed
Male Rose Breasted Grosbeak eating Male Rose Breasted Grosbeak in Apple Tree
This is a Chipping Sparrow. My favorite Pic so far. Black Capped Chickadee
Steve’s favorite, the White Breasted Nuthatch.
I’ve been really pleased with the camera so far. It’s been really neat to try and get some good shots. Woodpeckers and nuthatches have been the most difficult to photograph. I was trying very hard to get a photo of the Red Breasted Nuthatch, but he was just too quick. My ultimate goal for this summer is to get a few shots of our Ruby Throated hummingbirds. Sparrows are pretty easy. They really aren’t afraid of us. They’ve been great for practicing. They also actually look really beautiful, also. It is pretty easy to overlook them at the feeder for the more flashy colorful birds, but they are really interesting.
I also saw the Eastern Towhee again yesterday. He was in the hoods doing the double scratch in the leaves just behind the feeders and red shed. I was able to just barely photograph him. He was a little far off for the zoom on the camera and I didn’t want to try and get closer and scare him off. The interesting thing is that this is the exact same place I spotted him in last year. I wonder what is so great in these leaves? Here is the picture I got, not my best work, but you can clearly see his “orange/brown” sides.
We also did a bunch of work outside yesterday. We bought a couple new Shepherd’s hooks to hang our nectar on for hummingbirds and orioles. We also added some annuals to the flower bed near the red shed, planted annuals in the “stump”, tried to revive one of our juniper bushes that has failed to thrive, and mulched the flower bed. Here is a shot after the work was done.
