Getting toward the end of summer

Lazy summer afternoon, but plenty of activity in the ole back yard. While I didn't get a picture I had nearly fifty birds at the feeders at one time. Of course, that includes the ground feeders underneath the feeders. Yesterday and today I caught fleeting glances of an American Red Start but unable to get a picture. Below are a few of the many pictures taken.

I think this bird sitting on the fence is saying "I think it time to sit over here out of the way of that nasty Blue Jay."



The old water bucket has collected a few leafs from last fall, but the Wren doesn't mind.



One more pictures of one of the Hummingbirds



This squirrel was hamming it up, think it was saying "Take my picture, I am cute!"



Just a sample of many at the feeder, but at times this group would be considered small.



This squirrel found a good sunny place to rest and watch all of the activity.



The young Cardinals are out, look at their colors. Look a little sickly, but they are just immature and will one day be beautiful like mom and dad.





Could this be the "Lonesome Dove"



As I go out front to the corn flowers this finch nestles among the plants looking for the delicious seeds.

More random pictures

Young Robins can have a beauty all their own. The butterfly, squirrel and humming birds all add to the beauty of the Normal Back Yard.

Random Pictures from Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend

It is Labor Day Weekend and I am sitting at the computer posting to this blog. I got up around 7:30am, rather late this morning for an old person. My dad would have said it was very late as he was usually up at 5:00am. I never quite understood why he got up so early with nothing to do but watch TV or putter around his house and yard. Any way the humming birds were out an about flying back and forth from the front to the back feeder. August is the time that the migrate South for the Winter and I have been fortunate enough to have at least three that have stayed with around here this last week. They are so interesting to watch.

The other birds are finally arriving for breakfast. I have spotted 2 grackles, 2 blue jays, several sparrows, a robin a couple of squirrels and out behind the fence the groundhog was making his way back to his burrow under the garage. As I was writing our rabbit ventured in looking for food.

Our dog Ninja has Congestive Heart Failure and last week was in A-Fib. We tried to treat her with medication as prescribed by the vet, did you know that they actually use some of the same meds that people use. Anyway, she had what was considered a low dose and her heart rate dropped like it should, but it went down to 80 beats a minute which would have been fine if she were sedated. I guess the normal rate for a dog is closer to 120 beats a minute. Today I will post a couple of pictures of Ninja so that my sons and their families in Georgia and California can see her.






My newest daughter-in-law told me before she left for California that I should take Ninja for car rides to keep Ninja happy. Well, yesterday Ninja and I went out west of Bloomington-Normal. Took my camera with and stopped along side of the road took a few pictures.

This picture was taken through the sunroof on my Dodge. I thought it was a "corn fed" dove, in any case it seemed to be watching over the corn and bean fields.



My wife has been using some of my pictures to create birthday and anniversary cards. Since a lot of the pictures are birds and butterflys she doesn't think they do well on cards for men and boys. So I found a field with 4 horses and took a couple of pictures of the horses. The horses were not too cooperative has they gave me more hindsight than picture views.

Hummers, Black Caps and the Wet Look

Monday afternoon the Hummingbirds came a visiting our back yard. We now refer to them as the Hummers. Most of this week we have been entertained by their antics. One will come to the feeder and then fly off high into the tree, then the second Hummer will come to the feeder only to have the first one dive down and try to chase the second one away. This happened frequently this week.

Here is one of the pictures, hard to catch them sitting still.



This Black Capped Chickadee made a visit to our sunflower seed feeder and you can see the seed in its beak.



Out back at the bird bath a Robin looks kind of sporty with his wet head look. Seems like back in the 50-60tys some of the guys had haircuts like this.




After the fund of chasing around the back yard it was time for the Hummers to drink the sugared water for more energy. This time they parked a little longer for the picture taking session.

Friday Night on the town

We traveled to Funks Grove tonight to see the birds at Sugar Creek Nature Center on our way back home we saw a couple of police cars do a U-Turn a few minutes later another police car whizzed by heading South. As we started to get onto the Interstate the Southbound squad car had done a U-Turn and headed North. My wife commented that it was like watching the Keystone Cops. As we neared Bloomington we saw flashing red lights ahead of us. Since the police cars had red and blue lights we assumed it was probably an ambulance or fire truck. As we got closer we noticed smoke and a glow in the sky on the West side of Bloomington. Off of Market Street we found the police cars and the source of the smoke. These are a couple of the pictures I took from the scene.






Wife found this squirrel reclining as he ate, kind of relaxed don't you think?



While at the Sugar Creek site we were able to enjoy at least three hummingbirds. Getting a little dark at the time and they move pretty quickly but a couple of the photographs turned out so here they are.