Gloomy Thursday

Back on Lake Erie, there continues to be plenty of water birds to photograph. Here we see a Herring gull. Below is another one and a Coot just taking off.

Along this portion of the beach you can always find so many Canada geese.

I'm not sure why these birds don't mix, but it looks so funny with the gulls on one side, and the geese on the other. They probably don't speak the same language. LOL

This is an area where we always used to see deer and turkeys. Not so this year. I'm not sure where they all went, but this group was the first we saw in a long time, and then they decided to leave.

Another gloomy and really cold day. The weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny and warmer. I'll take it.

Winter just won't give up!

Here it is one day from April and as I post this blog it is snowing! Yes, the ground is covered, and the weather folks say we might get a couple inches by morning. At any rate it was a beautiful day, and I got some pictures of this Common Merganser pair. A little farther on the Allegheny river near Warren ,Pa we found the Mute Swan pair. I posted pictures of these two last Spring with their cygnets, and they are again sitting on eggs, but on this day they were both in the water, and I had treats for them

Near home an Amish farmer spreads manure on the fields of his farm.

It's maple syrup time here, and lots of the sugar Maple trees have the buckets hanging on them.

Near that corn crib where I always see the deer, another small herd was there for a snack.

Along "our" creek the Beavers have been busy even though the water is still high. You can see they haven't taken any of the branches yet.

My oldest cat Maggie, will be 24 years old this summer. She is still in fairly good health, and loves sitting next to the house soaking up some sun.

Just an average Wednesday

Nothing special, just a few pictures from around home.
A really cool moon shot tonight. This opossum was eating underneath one of my birdfeeders yesterday afternoon. They shouldn't be seen in the daytime.

Mrs. Cardinal seems to be napping. Remember yesterday it was a nice warm day and she is no doubt soaking up the sun.

The greedy Blue Jay hogs the suet.

I spotted this little doe on one of our trails yesterday afternoon.

This little Chickadee says a prayer before lunch.

Finally, I have seen this Cardinal several times, and he has no tail. The bird has no trouble flying, and I wonder if he got caught by Mr. Cooper's hawk but managed to get away?

Have a wonderful Thursday.

More warm weather for a few days. Oh how nice!

Winter birds, and deer

This is what our back yard looked like most of the day Wednesday. On again off again and we got 9"of snow in 24 hours.. Total snowfall for the year to date is 148" Enough to go skiing don't you think? LOL High up in a Willow tree the Bald Eagle keeps an eye on everything.

At the corn crib, the deer have knocked down the snow fence and hop over the electric fence meant to keep them out.

Yesterday the Cooper's hawk spent the entire day spying on my birds. In this shot I noticed a red spot on the front breast feathers. I think he had made a kill although I couldn't find any feathers around. It didn't appear to be an injury since he wasn't having any problems flying.

Sometimes the only pictures I can get are the rear view.

This Carolina Wren scolds the Cooper's hawk.

More snow predicted for tonight and tomorrow. After all it IS winter

Have a great rest of the week everyone.

Wednesday down by the Lake

It began Wednesday with more of the same. Clouds and gloomy weather. We decided to check out the Peninsula on Lake Erie. We did find lots of ice fisher folks. The house boats are frozen in place too with only one ice fisherman enjoying the day.

No picnics today either. Way too cold and windy.

There are ice dunes forming at the waters edge. On the right you can see the breakers that keep the sand from washing away from the beach.

One of the smaller sand dunes. They are formed by the waves washing up on the beach and freezing. Some of them are hollow and if you were to walk on them you could fall through into the water.

The snow on the sand makes for interesting patterns.

On the way home I found these two young deer resting after a yummy meal of corn from this corn crib. The farmer had put up a snow fence to keep them out, but as you can see they have knocked it down.

Have a wonderful rest of the week. We are expecting some warmer weather and hopefully it will melt some of this snow.

Of deer, ducks, and birds

All these images except the first one were taken at home. This buck happened to raise his head for a picture as we drove home from a train watching day. Those antlers are covered with "velvet" Down on the creek trail I was just about to head back to the house when I heard a splashing noise in the water. This doe and fawn had come down for a drink. The flies were really bothering them, and the fawn kept jumping and kicking as it ran through the water.

Back at the house the House Sparrows are still at it. Feeding these big babies. They all are very capable of taking care of themselves.

I saw this Great Blue Heron too, so I felt excited that this one didn't fly away , and when he did move it wasn't very far from his original resting spot.

This says it all. "Don't take my picture!"

Shooting into the sun

This afternoon in the same area I saw these 2 immature female Wood ducks. They didn't fly away either, and I think they did see me.

Folks, it's another hot and humid day. According to the weather guys, 5 more days of the same in store. We're beginning to stack wood, but only work a short time during the morning when it is cooler. One thing, the sweet corn has been fabulous!

Just Stuff

I never get tired of Cardinal pictures. This one appears to be checking out the ground below for any cats! On one of our trips I saw this very same Eagle that I posted a couple weeks ago in the same tree. I'm wondering if there is a good supply of food nearby..There isn't any water within seeing distance.

Some just stuff from last week. This is another view looking North of the creek behind our house only up the road a ways. From all the warmer days we've had this week more of it has opened up. On one of our rides we saw 2 small doe foraging through the field for grass. This one ran away through snow up to her belly and could hardly keep going.

I love the snow on her nose. She sure is fuzzy too..

Around the house I see some ground frost. On grass, and in the dirt.

We've had an entire week of nice weather. I'm sure we WILL pay for it too.

Hope everyone is having a nice week-end.