Sunday afternoon

Taking a ride through our Amish area, these girls and most likely one of the girls brother were out for a stroll.

Lots of "tired iron" around our area. This is an antique road grader. In earlier days it might have been pulled by horses, but in later years by a tractor.

Church is over for the Amish , and several of the families make their way home. Far up the road on the left you can see Mom and Dad each pushing a stroller and a buggy with their children inside. It is a long way up this hill, and I noticed at one time as we drove from behind, the Mom and Dad would change places possibly because  the buggy was heavier than the stroller and each would take their turn.

This buggy has at least 4 children in the back seat and Mom holding one up front.

I might have already mentioned this, but Fall is sneaking up on us. The Canada geese are nearly done molting and have gotten their new feathers. Now they can fly again, and are going through practice maneuvers with the youngsters. Most of the geese around here will stay put all winter as long as the creek doesn't freeze. If it does, they will fly a little South just to where they can find food.
Another beautiful day and much cooler.
Take care everyone.

It's Thursday

Back at the Malek park in Conneaut, Ohio you can see several Canada geese resting in the shade. It was a very hot day.

I found this Bullfrog sitting on the shore of one of the ponds. There is a small piece of Duckweed behind his left eye that looks somewhat like a heart.

Mr. Baltimore oriole in the foreground, and Mr. orchard oriole in the back.

A closer shot of the Orchard oriole. He is so dark. and always sits on this side of the feeder in the shade.

Mrs. Baltimore oriole.

There seems to be an unusual high number of Spittle bugs this year.
Spittlebug, common name for members of a family of plant-feeding insects, the nymphs of which cover themselves with a protective frothy material that looks like human spittle. Spittlebugs, like their relatives the aphids and cicadas, suck plant juices with their needlelike mouthparts. Although the bugs' feeding can distort or stunt herbaceous plants, they are generally harmless. Nymphs and their spittle can be washed off of plants with a forceful stream of water. About 850 species of spittlebugs are known worldwide, and 23 species are distributed throughout North America. They can be found on a variety of plants. Copied from the Internet.

We have lots of wild Phlox too. They attract plenty of butterflies, but on this day I didn't see any.. Just so beautiful.
We're in for a week of very hot temps. It will be a busy holiday on the roads and at the beaches on the area lakes.

Sunday

I've had a pair of Cardinals that come to my feeders every day. I only hope they bring their kids when they get bigger.

At the wetlands I saw a small flock of Mergansers too. I was really surprised that they stayed in sight. I also saw a Great Blue Heron too, but of course he flew away.



On our way to Erie, Penna this week we went by this wet land pond, and I noticed this pair of geese were acting very strange, and on closer look, I see why. They had goslings and were protecting them from another pair of geese nearby. The parents were moving around so fast, it was difficult to get good pictures.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend. We're in for another freeze tonight. Getting used to it by now. Take care.

World Bird Wednesday





Taking a ride on a beautiful day yesterday around the Peninsula on Lake Erie, I spotted this Canada goose out on the end of this old tree snag. Looking closer I see she is sitting on a pretty big clutch of eggs. She is right in plain site, so we can get more pictures as the eggs ( hopefully) hatch.

Of course I always have to take some shots of the gulls.

This guy had just caught a fish, and was so nice to pose for me.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. We had several bursts of snow this morning, with more accumulations coming our way tonight. Ho joy!
Do click on over to http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com to see lots more bird photos.

Weekend Reflections

Well, here it is another gloomy day off the Southern shores of Lake Erie. Although we live 25 miles from the lake itself, we are affected by it's weather conditions living in what's called the "snow belt" When the winds are from the Northwest, and the temps are just right, and the lake waters aren't frozen, we could be in for a dandy storm, BUT this winter has been so different. Most of the winds have been from the South bringing with it warmer weather, thus limiting the vast amount of snow we usually get, and the lake still hasn't frozen. To date we are 100" below last year. Of course we all know how tricky Mother Nature is, and this could all change in an instant!
Happy Weekend Reflections, and if you'll click on http://weekendreflection.blogspot.com you can see what a cool meme this is and what a great job James has done with it.
This picture is in the same area as my header..

World Bird Wednesday

I haven't been anyplace special this week or seen any unusual birds except a very fast flying Kingfisher, so these domestic geese will get the vote for today. Please excuse the light smear on my lens. Didn't see it till it was too late.

They all just hung around the waters edge for the longest time, but as soon as I turned to photograph some flowers, off to the water they went.

You probably can't see them, but there are some youngsters in the back.

At first they all bunched together-

And I love this shot--

Little by little they formed a straight line and swam out to the other side of the lake.
Happy WBW to everyone, and do click on http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com to see lots more birds.

World Bird Wednesday

I know, I know, there are Canada geese everywhere, but when I'm near them I just can't resist taking pictures. Now that the goslings are growing up, they actually take on the appearance of their parents-somewhat.

I love the fuzzy faces and heads. They are so adorable!

Happy World Bird Wednesday and do click on over to http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/ to see lots more birds.

Mishmash

Although not the best picture, you can see 4 male Baltimore Orioles all trying to get to the grape jelly. A female Ruffed Grouse scurries across the road in front of our van.

This is the only picture I have of a Bobolink. I have tried for a long time, and I just can't seem to get one to hold still. They are very spooky.

Driving by this farm today I really got the attention of this Llama when I began humming to him.

It rained all day yesterday and this pair of House Finches still showed up at my feeders.

A trip to Lake Erie, and these Ringed Gulls were looking for something to eat when the waves retreated.

Down on the beach were several Turkey Vultures swarming around a dead deer.

All the while in the same area this Canada goose family didn't seem too worried.

This big guy landed not far from us, but didn't stay long.

And here he is taking off.

Hope you didn't get too bored. The weather hasn't been all that good lately either. I hope to go back to take more pictures of the Eagles again this week. The eaglets should be big enough to see from the ground now.

Weekend Reflections

It's the week-end again, and with all the Canada geese around, I thought this would be a good time to post one of them.
Happy Weekend Reflections to everybody, and do click on over to http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com to see what James has done with this fun meme.

Here, There and Everywhere

With all the heavy fog and dew lately it's a good time to look for spider webs. We took a ride to see the Steel Head Trout run. The stream was full of 100's of these fish. In this shot you can see one of the fish jump the falls. No fishermen on this day though. The waves in the lake were too high and the wind was really strong. This stream is off limits to fisher people as it is a nursery stream.

A small flock of Canada geese came fairly close, and I found one that is a cross between a Canada and a domestic goose.

This is one of the black Squirrels that live in Westfield, New York. There are lots of them and they are fairly large and well fed.

Down by the lake a huge flock of Gulls swarm around a person throwing crackers to them.

It's Concord grape season around here, and you should smell the air! It's heavenly..

The Hydrangea trees are in full bloom. They make such gorgeous dried flowers. I like to take a drive by this cemetery where they are, when they fall off the tree and gather up a few for decorations.

And there are some ever bearing red raspberries ripe. Lots more berries are coming on IF we don't get a killing frost.

It's been a really cold and gloomy today. The temperature this morning was 37 deg. About normal for this time of year I guess. Tomorrow more rain in store. The rain is taking down some of the pretty leaves, and I hope by the time the sun does shine again, there are some of them left to photograph.