Here he comes, center of picture
Look closely, there is a starling who just left the suet feeder heading right towards the camera. The yellow beak is in the center of the black body, and the out stretched wings are very blurry. We see the starlings getting a beak full of suet and flying off to, we assume, their nests. According to one of our resources the young starlings should be leaving their nests anytime now.
A beautiful splash of red
It’s always fun to see a new (to us) species coming to our backyard and our feeders. We are slowly putting together a pretty decent list of the birds we have seen. Yesterday a flash of red, white and black caught our eye. We first saw the Rose-breasted Grosbeak sitting on a swing frame.
Coming in for a landing
It wasn’t long before a second Grosbeak joined in on the feeding fun. They both found the glass shelf feeder and shared a meal together. These colorful birds are always fun to see and hear.
It was a pretty day so we went on a drive to a local park. This park has a river running through it and is home to lots of waterfowl. We were treated to an idyllic scene of an adult goose with 3 very young goslings poking around on the river bank. White ducks and Mallards were in the background enjoying the day.
Friday night is usually (for some) a date night. Well, this last Friday Sher and I decided to have a real date night. Off we went to a local bar named the West Side Pub & Grub. It used to be a semi rough place a couple of decades ago, but now it is a comfortable local bar that happens to serve great food. And we mean great food.
Early Friday night the crowd was small, maybe a dozen or so patrons. Sher ordered a frozen strawberry margarita, I opted for a Blue Moon long neck. I had heard that this place served a wonderful breaded tenderloin, and the fried spicy cheese curds we also highly recommended by our wait staff.
Shortly our food arrived. The fried cheese curds came in a miniature fryer basket, Cute. My tenderloin was HUGE. The picture tells the story, except it does not show how thick the tenderloin was. (3/8 to 1/2 inch) And so good. The fried spicy cheese curds were most delicious as well.
We found out there will be a live band next Saturday night. We’ll be back at the West Side Pub & Grub for dinner, followed by enjoying what is said to be a great live band. And our bartender explained that the restaurant locally sources all of the meat and most of the other supplies for the kitchen. That is also a very good thing.
We love Buck Creek Winery’s Road House Red and The Laughing Cow creamy spicy pepper jack cheese. What a great Saturday afternoon snack to share.
Nothing like getting photobombed by a twig!
It was a beautiful Thursday afternoon with mostly sunny skies and a very light breeze with temps near 65. The birds and a couple of squirrels were taking advantage of the food we had set out for their use.
We have been thrilled with the variety of species that have come to our feeders. Today we spotted a new little bird, a Carolina Wren, one we haven’t seen before . He decided to flit up into the tree and serenade us with a beautiful song!
Listening to our backyard friends is as fun as watching them,.
List of available saplings
The Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources once again provided free trees for anyone who wanted to come pick them up. Last year we picked up some free trees, and have had reasonable success with them.
This year the give a way was organized at the County Fairgrounds. The variety was larger than last year’s offering and I was pleased to see Red Buds on the list. They are so pretty each year!
There was a good sized crowd as soon as it opened
This is one of the two Pecan saplings now planted
This is our Black Cherry from last year. It has grown a lot!
As was the case last year, you could get a maximum of ten trees per household. We decided that this year I’d pick up two Red Buds, two Pecans and one Shag Bark Hickory. All five are now planted, and hopefully they will all survive. We did have a couple of losses last year due to (I think) pesky rabbits. This tree give a way is a great program.
Sher and I have talking about when we could get back to an Olive Garden restaurant. Today was that day. Our closest Olive Garden is across from the Greenwood Park Mall, about a half an hour from our place.
Delicious salad with fresh grated cheese.
Strawberry margarita and hot fresh breadsticks.
Minestrone (vegetarian) soup vegetables and seashell pasta
Chicken & Gnocchi soup with roasted chicken, traditional Italian dumplings and spinach
We timed our trip to arrive at the restaurant at 2:30 PM, which made us eligible for the all you can eat soup, salad and breadstick lunch deal. (offered M-F 11 to 3 for just $7.99 per person). Sher enjoyed a frozen strawberry margarita while I chose the peach iced tea. Delicious! We certainly took advantage of this deal: I had 2 1/2 bowls of soup with salad and breadsticks. We brought home some salad and breadsticks.
We felt very safe dining at this Olive Garden. Table spacing was in evidence, all staff and most patrons wore masks, and there were hand sanitizer stations in several locations within the facility. All in all, we had a great lunch date!
Sometimes there are birds that just stand out when you see them. Here is one:
This interesting gaze belongs to a White-crowned Sparrow. Below are a couple more images of the same bird after he flitted about a bit.
This is a direct quote from the allaboutbirds.org website “Scientists interested in movement and energetics have discovered that White-crowned Sparrows can run on a treadmill at a pace of about one-third of a mile an hour without tiring out.” I can’t imagine any self respecting bird allowing itself to be run on a treadmill.
It’s really neat to see a breeding pair of birds together. Yesterday we saw a pair of Cowbirds. There is a very interesting way that Cowbirds “raise” their young.
Male on the left, female on the right
The Brown-headed Cowbird is known as a “Brood Parasite” The Brown-headed Cowbirds do not make nests. Females put all energy into egg production, up to 3 dozen a season. Yes, you guessed it, the females lay their eggs in other birds nests. The eggs hatch before the host nest eggs do, giving the Cowbird young a head start. Some birds recognize these imposters and pitch the trespassers out of their nests. Some people consider Cowbirds a nuisance bird, as they are responsible for the destruction many songbird eggs.
Having spotted this pair, we can now surmise that somewhere nearby another unsuspecting bird family is wondering why that one chick is so much larger than the rest of their brood.
Roadtirement 