The dense morning fog deposited a multitude of water droplets on the leaves of our rose bushes. Every square inch was touched with a moisture laden blessing.
Nature
Yes its name is Question Mark
This unique butterfly was spotted in our screen room tent right outside of the back door. This butterfly is interesting as it will winter over by hiding in protected spaces. It lives on tree sap, rotting fruit and animal droppings. It only drinks nectar as a last resort. We’ve never seen one before.
Roses opened
A couple of days ago we posted a picture of two buds. Today they both opened and showed off their color.
Pretty phlox picture
Couldn’t resist the alliteration. These phlox are pretty, regardless.
Could have been embarrassing
Sher and I see it everyday: squirrels hopping from tree to overhead lines and back again. This morning we saw a juvenile squirrel almost miss.
This fellow was going from the tree branch to the immediate left over to the wire. Usually a small stretch is all that’s required. He missed getting his back legs on the wire, and he ended up in the position you see. A little struggle and he was successfully on his way down the wire.
A flash of red on final approach
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.
I see you!
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.
Nests? We don’t need no stinking nests
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.
Suet yourself
Always looking for a new thing, we decided to try our hand at making our own suet. An internet search produced several different recipes. A quick trip to the store and we had what we needed to get started.
- crunchy peanut butter
- Crisco
- corn meal
- quick cook oats
- white flour
- bit of sugar
The simple ingredients were fairly easy to mix in the pan over medium heat. Once everything was mixed we pressed it into the aluminum pan, roughly an inch thick. After setting in the freezer for about we cut the the appropriate size cakes for the cages.
Couple of starlings going bonkers over the new suet
The results? The birds went nuts over the home made suet when we put it out. Sher and I had a ball watching all different species enjoying the new suet. It seems like the starlings especially had gotten a sugar high. They acted like like a bunch of kids who got into the candy a half hour before bedtime.
Suet showdown or “I’m bigger than you”
Woody, our male Pileated Woodpecker showed up and immediately went to the suet cage. The starlings who had been swarming the suet cage scattered as soon as Woody landed and began to feed. Shortly after one starling flew back to the cage, but wisely landed away from the suet and the woodpecker’s beak.
Roadtirement 