Yesterday and today...

I used to love to sing...I was never particularly good at it, but it sure did make me feel good to try.  So tonight I sang acapella, Memory, from the Broadway musical, CATS,  to my dogs...Im happy they didn't begin to howl...lol  I Love Barbara Streisand's version ...I just don't hear her music much anymore.  

If you're familiar with the play, Grizabella has been ostracized by the fellow cats, And she is lonely and in much sadness.  The play is actually very moving and the costumes are amazing.   I watched a DVD version of the play...If you have never seen it I recommend it.  

Lately I have been going way back in time digging up memories...one line in the song says... "When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too, and a new day will begin." Each day we are creating the past the future is only alive in our thoughts...Actually when you think about it there is only Then and now.  There is NO future!! Wow. 

We definitely had winter this year.  By northern standards it was a cake walk but nothing is colder than a damp cold, the type we had.  So I feel like I've been curled up in a blanket for nearly a month.  Time to uncurl!

First of the year Ring Necked Ducks seen on Monday in a pond by the highway...

Soon enough Im sure I will be complaining about the heat, such is life eh? 

This little White Throated Sparrow will soon be heading back to breeding grounds up north and the birds in the tropics will be moving in here to take their  place...I hope

"It's so easy to leave me all alone with my memories of my days in the sun."

Today it was nice and warm so I took a walk around I haven't been going very far these days, seems Im completely content to just be at home with my simple life.  There was a beautiful crow on the ground this morning..

Then later in the day I had to go out and so I stopped at the Sewage Ponds, one part has been restored to a natural area...So I walked one of the trails around, found this Swamp Sparrow..

Moving  by the cattails lots of Song Sparrow skittered around they don't fly far and sometimes one would perch up to see what all the disturbance is about...

These two birds look  very similar but if you look closely one has streaks and a strong dot on the chest and the other does not.  

When the Sparrows leave and the Summer Tanager and the Flycatchers arrive the heat comes with them...up from the tropics..

 I left the ponds and went by the river to see what was out, a Bald Eagle flew over headed North but too far for a photo so I concentrated on the Double Crested Cormorants swimming and diving in the water.

I'm keeping this short since I posted on Wednesday give you guys a break, and thank you all for your visits.
Have a Happy Valentine's day...eat chocolate, stop and smell the flowers, and feed the birds!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Winter Solstice Approaching...

We had a sweet visitor early this morning before I made coffee I was at the window snapping this photo, its not Tulip but one of her friends 

She was so close to the fence 

This morning it's a little hazy as we have rain arriving on the weekend so the clouds are 

forming. 

earlier in the week it was very sunny and cold...

The crisp air makes for better photos with highlights and sparkle..

And some wonderful blue sky...

I actually sneaked up on this guy...when I first approached he was enjoying the view....

Then he heard me, 

And I guess he thought WHAT the heck...can't a bird get some peace n quiet anymore?

Then in true Mockingbird form he put his tail up and looked me right in the eye...

This is something I really enjoy interaction between myself and a wild creature who responds!  He stuck around only a couple minutes then off into the Brambles...

I stopped at Goodale park, it was soooo  dead but one Song Sparrow answered my phishing

Since they cut the trees  away from the one area by the lakeshore more of the Pitcher Plants have grown in, I guess that is a good thing, unless  you're a bug...
they are a pretty red color then they die back for the winter...

I made a stop at Quaker Cemetery A very old burying ground...

 it's been a long time since I stopped by here I knew they were building something behind it BUT why did they clear off so many trees?? LAZY contractors, they built cookie cutter housing right where it used to be  woods,  that area was part of Bramblewood...a very special place. 

I did find some seasonal  color and some birds...

At least the cemetery is securing  some green space 

Hope it stays that way...

 there's so many different types of trees all mature and providing food for birds...like this Cedar 

Over in the thick stuff near the edges of the cemetery I saw White Throated Sparrow and Easter Towhee, Dark Eyed Junco...

 ...but then I heard a crisp call from the Crepe Myrtle 

A Blue Headed Vireo, 

There has been a lot of growth in our town the past couple of years not sure I'm onboard with it..

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

State Line Fields

 I took a drive to a neighboring area to visit, some  large FIELDS.

When I go anywhere it's never to a mall, a restaurant, a movie, or a grand opening, 

its either a cemetery, a sewage pond,  a corn field,  a rocky shore line, a salt marsh,  or a swamp...

On This day It was a huge wide open field, where people had been reporting the American Golden Plover.  I had not seen an A. Golden since the late 90's on a sod farm Southwest of me, so I figured it was time to see them again.    The fields were huge,  I had my scope if I needed it,  but they ended up being about 90 ft from the road so I saw them with my binoculars and I counted 18 birds but could only get a group shot of 14 so I went with a count of 14 to be safe,  a Northern Harrier scattered them after I had about 20 minutes to try for photos.  

This is a heavy crop of  4 of them grouped together, you want to look for wingtips that extend well beyond the tail, and a broad white line above the eye and in breeding plumage  that line in the male becomes almost a large backwards S down the neck and onto the chest. This is non breeding plumage birds.  This is the closest shot I got, the wind just wouldn't allow me to get a sharp focus...

You can see the big dark eyes,  I enjoyed being out in the open without trees blocking my view....

It's only a 44 minute drive, and the dirt road passes over into North Carolina...here is where I crossed the State Line..

  

Some others saw lots of Horned Lark also, I didn't see a single one! These fields were huge...I did see Some White Throated Sparrow, 

Eastern Towhee, 

And the Savannah Sparrow, 

Several  Song Sparrow 

And about 21 species all together It was a good day for a drive in the country. 

that was earlier in the week....

Today I took the painted rock up to Mary's Hill...the rock I chose is one I brought with me from Colorado, it's a very 3 dimensional rock...

This is the south end of the rock 

The view today was very nice as the last of the fall color is still hanging on the trees down the slope...

On the upper part of the rock I painted in a rainbow, 

A little hard to see I sprayed it with some gloss Finish to protect the paint so hopefully it won't fade off too fast....there's some trees, a pond, and some flowers on the rock, it's a landscape of what we always enjoyed about  the trips we made to Sandhills thru the years...

I placed it at the foot of this tall pine that over looks the hill..on the upper side of the dirt road...

See the one in  center with a long limb pointing down to the right...

And here it is....

The really special thing is as I started out this morning to drive over, a dark cloud came up fast and it began to sprinkle and I had to turn on the wipers for a few minutes then this came out...

That is the one and only rainbow I've seen all year long...

I took it as a HUG....

Hope you all have a fine Thanksgiving if you're celebrating.  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Bumpy Week

This has been a weird week....Like a black cloud hanging around...
Annie had to go to the vet with an anal sac abscess.  It scared me since she had a tumor removed from that area in 2016.  She is on Meds for 20 days...and she is doing well so far. 

nothing better than a roll in the grass..

 Before that I took them swimming and Flossie got stuck in Quick Mud...and was really lame for a few days; more lame than usual.  I had to get myself stuck in order to get her out and  destroyed my favorite flip flops in the process,  ah dang!

Tuesday we had a really strong storm lots of wind took out our electric and one of my tall bird houses,  Blue Birds had a nest build going on, so I put it back up on Wednesday morning  and  they are trying to get it fixed up again...felt sorry for all the hard work they did.  I was able to save most of their nest work...but it was a little topsy-turvy

 they worked sooo hard all day. 


So not a good way to begin the week...but it got a little better..

went one day with the bike, and that was the best day of this week...

The red line is my track out and back...and this photo below was taken in the area at the tip of the lake

Riding and birding too...I find that  birds don't flush away as fast as when Im on foot or in my van...so that is cool.  

A buckeye butterfly 

A Solitary Sandpiper poked around in the mud by the lake edge...and later I found a second one...

The Dutch Iris at Martin's Lake

Tree Swallows seem to be interested in this Wood Duck Box..

The Spotted Sandpiper was there also 

Up in the trees an Eastern Phoebe waits for me to pass by..

And the Red Eyed Vireo tries to hide up in the shadows...

A Great Blue Heron stands tall at the back of the lake...

I rode along the road from the photo blind parking down the road and to the lake making stops at key spots along the way and that worked out really great. 

An Acadian Flycatcher posed for me quickly...

And the Yellow Rump's are so beautiful in their breeding plumage

Back at the homestead, the mother's day cactus is doing her thing...our friend Nettie, who passed last year, gave this plant to me years ago, So happy Mother's Day Mom and Nettie,

And I put the Knock Out Roses in the ground they are doing good so far

the Carolina Wren was in the front yard.

And these two Downy Woodpeckers had some sort of stand off going on...

And this was the lightest moment of the week, a male who pulled out all the stops to try and impress the love of his life...

House Finch's Love Dance

I think she handled it like a mature lady...lol. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.