A little front yard and a little back yard

This is a Gold Finch feeder and the seed holds are reached by hanging upside down. the Gold Finches are very adapt at this trick, as you can see by this picture the House Finches are totally confused. I thing one of them is asking the other "How does he do it?"


Butter Flies from the front yard. A little nectar and a little sun. Do you see the caterpillar next to the Butter Fly? I didn't until after I put the picture on the computer.




Squirrel hanging out on the garage roof, watching me and eying the nuts in the nut feeder. Had to chase him away a few times later in the day.



And yes, the squirrel found the sun flower seeds and is good at hanging upside down too.



Back to the front yard and Butter Flies




Gold Finch doing its upside down feeding.



Black Capped Chickadee



Not our first Humming Bird, but the first male. Wouldn't you know it he ducked his head into the feeder right as I shot the picture.



Blue Heron out at Lake Evergreen. Just chilling on the south end of the lake.



Blue Jay at the bird bath. The white blobs are water drops.



The Northern Cardinal is still one of the prettiest birds around.

Downey Wood Peckers

This noon was a treat, not only a good salad for lunch, but a male Downey and what appears to be a young male Downey both at the nut feeder. The first two pictures show the adult male with its beak inside the young Downey. They did this about 3-4 times and I was able to capture a couple of these incidents photographically.

Owl at Soccer Game

I received a web address for a video of an owl at a soccer game in Europe. This audio is not in English but the Owl stops the game as it flies between goal posts and the crowd cheers. Amazing that the owl did not seem to be bothered by the crowd or noise. I think it may have wanted the ball. Enjoy the video, click on the link to the right.

Click on the Link on the right to see the humming birds!

The Link to the right was sent by a friend. It has pictures of humming birds from beginning to the time the young are ready to leave the nest. Great pictures! Not mine, but wish they were.





It clouded up last evening and I down played the threat of rain full well knowing that it wouldn't rain. Wrong again! All over Bloomington-Normal the rain came and went either sprinkling or pouring. After we arrived home the rain really came down hard here. The grass really needed the rain and wild life seems to have enjoy it also.

This morning I noticed that both finch feeders were hanging empty with the bottoms laying on the ground under the thistle seed. I don't know if the heavy rain caused this or the pesky squirrels. After church today I went out and restored one of the finch feeders, refilled the nut feeder and put out more corn for the squirrels.

It didn't take long to have visitors. The male Downey was back to pecking at the nuts almost as soon as I got back inside. One of the Gold Finches has already found the refilled finch feeder.

I see a very young rabbit has found its way into the back yard as well. Above are a couple of pictures from today and yesterday.

All in all a quiet Sunday in the anormalbackyard.

Retirement?

I think I have everything wrong. I am the one who should be retiring and enjoying my old age, instead I am working multiply jobs to allow those on welfare to leisurely enjoy life!

Here is a prime example of what our welfare society is doing while we work to provide for them!

Back to Work! No bird watching today.

Today is a quiet day, but I will expand upon yesterday and the shots I missed.

Besides the colorful birds we had visit us, we had a groundhog that was eying the flower bed when our dog decided to exit the back door via the dogie door and that ended any possibility for a picture.

Then a short time later a humming bird buzzed the area not stopping long enough to get a good view let alone a picture. It is days like yesterday that make the old backyard a good place to sit and enjoy nature.

My wife found out all about nature as she visited out behind the fence and discovered that yes, poison ivy does exist and yes it does itch. I think squirrel are resistant to poison ivy, too bad I would transplant some directly under the nut feeder.

If you haven't been to my photography site use the link to view an added 440+ pictures of Jessica and Peter's wedding.

Found in the group of wedding pictures of 116 is a picture taken just before Paul the Best Man signs and plays his guitar. In the picture you see him smiling as he looks toward our granddaughter. As Paul Harvey would say, "Now the rest of the story".

During the wedding Dani was singing the song "The wheels on the bus go round and round, and swish swish swish." As Paul got ready to sing and play his guitar he asked Dani if she wanted to join him sing. Those of us up front got to hear both her singing and his question and fortunately someone took the picture at the right time to capture the moment, probably not even knowing what was transpiring.

Sunday afternnoon has been very active in the ole backyard

Multiple colors of birds visited this afternoon. This time camera was ready.


Starting with the black and white Downey Woodpecker






Next two of the three Black-Capped Chickadees at the nuts.





The Northern Cardinals added red to the colors.





The male House Finch adds a different red to our colors




Then we have a female Cardinal, more House Finches, a Starling trying to get food from the top of the feeder, Grackel up in the tree and thin a Cow Bird in flight.






Adding a beautiful blue, and no Blue Jays, rather an Indigo Bunting





Gold Finches add the bright yellow with a touch of white and black.






Now for the up close and personal Squirrel pictures. He/she is staring in the window at me as it creeps closer to the nut holder until it wraps itself around the nut holder.









Now this squirrel had to leap up and grab the corn on the bungee cord and hold on for dear life as he grabbed kernels of corn.