Sunday December 23, Snow gone but a visitor comes.

Sunday afternoon and the Bears and Packer are playing on TV. The Pack is getting beaten bad by the Bears and everyone is amazed. I decided to fill the feeders with bird feed and nuts. It is very cold and windy. Once inside I decided to check out the other scores on the computer and occasionly glansing to see if any new birds were visiting. Suddenly a rap on the window and I turned to see what bird had decided to visit the glass window and noticed a large bird fly up toward the house and land in our Sumac tree/bush. One other Chistmas day we had a Hawk visit and sure enough we have another one, this one a little more brazen as it was close to the house.

The first picture shows it with its back turned and you are able to see the tail. I am guessing it is a a Sharp Shinned Hawk as opposed to the Cooper Hawk. It does appear to be immature. I was able to snap off a few more pictures which were zoomed in more and the hawk obliged by turning around to face me. Look down to the lower right corner close to the house.

Out Back One more time

This is a decorated Christmas Tree at the Medical Center out back. Not only the the workers at the center decorate the tree with lights, but God decorated with His natural snow covering.



Our one Flicker made it out for a bite of nuts.




Our Wren couldn't resist the new treats/

More Winter Scenes from the Normal Backyard

This is our Snow Bench, not many people have one of these, see how the snow has accumulated and nearly covered.



The Snow Bench with the water bucket and Bird Snow Bath.



Even the Feeders had snow covered roofs.



A day after the big snow this pictures shows a drop sparkling from the snout of the water bucket as the snow began to melt.

More Winter Postings of December

The trees were covered with snow. Even the sides accumulated snow.



Here is a squirrel looking through the fence with the clump of snow on his nose.



Even climbing around in the trees meant plenty of snow sticking to the squirrels.




The Nuthatch wasn't deterred by the snow.

December Ice and Snow Storms, every week end

Winter arrived last week and did we have snow! This Junco sitting on a limb, yes somewhere under the snow is a limb.



A Winter scene from the family room computer chair.



Even the Doves were struggling to dig deep into the snow to find food.



This Squirrel hanging out as snow covered nearly everything.



Another Winter scene outback.

November in Normal

The more hearty birds are hanging out this November in our backyard. Here are few of them for your view pleasure.

This Wren sharing nuts with the Downy Wood Pecker.



Here are a couple more pictures of the Wren at various places in the back yard.




Our Downey shares the nuts with this Red Breasted Nuthatch.



This silly squirrel! I think it might have been a little chilled, but it almost looks like it is be punished. Maybe it's mother said "Go to your room your bad squirrel!" Look at how he has his nose to the tree limb, he was there for quite a long time.



The Junco's are usually ground feeders, but this one decided to pose for a picture on the remains of a rack formerly used to hold a water tray.



The female Northern Cardinal hustling up some grub for her self.



This male Northern Cardinal maybe standing guard for the female or just resting to let the food digest a bit.



The White Breasted Nuthatch is a little larger than the Red Breasted seen above. We have a couple of each of these birds. According to Jeannie at Wild Birds Unlimited "the nuthatches are the Winter equivalents of the ever so active Summer Humming Birds".

Bald Eagle

Most of us have to work, some of us older ones wish we didn't have to work, but sometimes being at work provides delight. Like today, I was about brain dead when I looked out the window which faces north. What appeared to be a long distance away was a bird, in fact it appeared to be a rather large bird considering the distance. As this bird struggled against the wind in its southward flight I could see that it was indeed a large bird. Then it would catch a draft and soar upward in a circle. I was expecting to see a Turkey Vulture as we have many of these in the area. As it continued to approach my view point I was excited to see this magnificent bird with a white neck ring and the flayed feathers. What a beautiful sight to see a Bald Eagle from my work window! The camera was at home, but I am sure I wouldn't have gotten a clear picture as the Eagle soon passed the viewing sight and only the memory survives.

Thanks Giving Day

There has been a lot of activity since my last posting. The road trip to Georgia in my wife's red van took us twelve hours each way, but the sights were beautiful down and back. Then catching up on missed work and seeing the dentist and doctor and training of Office 2007 doesn't leave much time for anything else.

The Normal Back Yard has quite busy this morning. I was able to get out and fill the feeders during a quiet time, lifted the ice off the bird bath leaving fresh cold water and even putting up a few ears of corn for the squirrels. After I cleared out of the way the birds and squirrel descended upon the meal place before them. Today we had plenty of sparrows, both White Breasted and Red Breasted Nuthatches, Male and Female Downey Wood Peckers, a lonely Flicker, Doves, four to five squirrels, a Blue Jay and a few Cardinals.

I have been told that a hawk has been frequenting the backyard off and on for the past couple of weeks. The wife has seen it but been unable to capture a picture. The birds certainly scatter when the hawk is present.

The inside of the house is smelling of baked chicken and ham with baked beans and dressing. It was hard to eat just a bowl of Heart Smart cereal this morning with all of these smells penetrating the homestead.

Here are a few pictures taken since we returned, some even this morning.

One of the many Nuthatches hanging around.



Here are a couple pictures of the Northern Flicker that has been visiting.





One of several Red Breasted Nuthatches



At the feeder is a Gold Finch and a White Breasted Nuthatch



What a boring yard with out the squirrels performing tricks to get the corn.




Here is a Male Downey Wood Pecker on one side and a Red Breasted Nuthatch on the other side of the nut feeder.



The Male Downey Wood Pecker love the nuts




And once again the Red Breasted Nuthatch hanging out.

Georgia and back in a little over four days

Went to Georgia to visit the Georgia Peach this past weekend. As you can see she has intense eyes.



Here she is a princess, as luck had it we viewed Cinderella a couple of times.



Dad's a Bears Fan, so like father like daughter.



Chipmunks abound down here and they are cute.




Now this is a rat and they abide down here too, to many in fact.



Georgia has its share of Nuthatches, saw 6-7 feeding one after another.



This appeared to me to be a Savannah Sparrow, but thanks to Matt Fraker who is great at giving me helpful advice when I run into the wall it is more likely a Song Sparrow. As Matt says "This is a good picture of a tough sparrow. It looks to me like a Song Sparrow -- longer tail, chest smudge, and general coloration. Although this Song is lighter and sort of gentler in tones than most of the ones here, most savanna's will be richer in these lighter tones, with a fine even chest streaking, and usually more yellow (and this can be REAL yellow) right by the beak." Isn't it nice to have experts to call upon!



Back in Normal we see a few of the many Gold Finches eating the thistle seed in our back yard.