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.
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.
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.
When I first spotted this woodpecker I thought it was a Male Northern Flicker. With our camera I captured this image of the pretty woodpecker next to the suet feeder.
Turns out this is a female Red-bellied Woodpecker. The female is distinguished from the male in the red nape vs. the male with a red cap. This bird can stick its sticky saliva covered barbed tongue a full 2 inches past the tip of the beak, letting it successfully catch food deep in crevices.
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.
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.
Sher enjoying good times with one of our granddaughters
Roadtirement wishes all mothers a most happy day. You are loved and appreciated! Do everything you can to make this day special for your Mom.
Squirrels often appear in our backyard. Sometimes one, other times up to 8 together.
Roadtirement 