It's Sunday

Take a look at the moon tonight. It's so clear. We're in another hot streak, and all the plants are getting dry again. The creek behind our home is so dry, and I haven't seen it this bad in many years.

On a ride today I saw this small flock of turkey poults. They went in single file across the road and disappeared in the grape vineyards..

On Lake Erie I spotted these two Cormorants sitting on a half buried log.

One decided to take a swim.
Another hot day for us tomorrow. Scattered t-storms hopefully will reach us.
I need to make some zucchini crisp, and freeze some carrots.
We're giving our chickens extra light in the mornings now since the days have been getting shorter. This extra light keeps them laying much better through the winter months.
Have a good rest of the weekend.

World Bird Wednesday

I don't have much to add this week except these Turkey poults crossed the road not far from our house.. You would have to hurry with your pictures because these kids don't waste time getting out of sight.

Click on http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com to see more bird shots.
I might also add that a new predator has appeared on the scene since I've gotten more laying hens. This morning around 05:30 I awoke to the familiar sound of a hoot-hoot-hoot hoot of a Great-horned owl somewhere near my barn. The automatic light over the chicken pen was on, the roosters were crowing, and Mr. Owl certainly was reading the room! I'll keep you posted, hopefully with some pictures. PS, all the girls are kept inside at night, and I don't let them out till daylight.

World Bird Wednesday

I'm sorry I don't have a much better image for this week, but I just haven't seen anything interesting. I did see these turkeys this morning on the way to the feed mill. This hen and quite a few poults crossed the road in front of us. Of course a car was coming up fast from behind, and this is the only picture I got.
Click on over to http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com to see lots more birds.

World Bird Wednesday

Imagine how surprised I was this afternoon when I looked out under my bird feeder and spotted these 4 Wild Turkey hens. They seemed very interested in the sunflower seeds the birds have discarded.

They stayed for about an hour, and then flew away, but returned later to stay another hour.

I put out some corn, in hopes they will come back tomorrow.

Pretty colors in the hind wing and tail feathers, and these gals are really plump....

Happy World Bird Wednesday, and if you click on over to http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com you can see more birds.

Another Sunny Day!

We had another gorgeous winter day Saturday and when it's like this we don't want to stay inside, so we went for another ride in the country.
I'm sorry there aren't any new birds to photograph, just the same old gang everyday, so we went in search of other critters.
I just love the shot of this doe. I hadn't seen her tongue till I got home and uploaded all my pictures. We came across this small herd of deer coming back from a drink in the stream.

Sort of out of order, but this is the creek behind the house. There is some open water now, but the snow is really deep on the trail, and I probably won't go down again till more of it melts.

A view from up on the hill of Lake Erie showing plenty of open water here. All this warmer water will help bring us in the snow belt plenty of heavy snows if the conditions are right and a cold wind blows across the lake.

Back at the corn crib where the doe was I saw this bunny. It's the first I've seen in a couple years. When the Coyotes entered our area, the rabbits disappeared. This guy is either lucky or there aren't any Coyotes or Foxes around .

I just had to laugh when I saw this house with the turkeys waiting outside the windows. Apparently they aren't wild turkeys, and are watching the house waiting for someone to come out and feed them. When I stopped the van to take the picture, they all started gobbling and walking out the driveway toward me.

This is really a pretty drive.

In the summer there is more water in this little creek and it's full of wildlife. Wood ducks, woodpeckers, lots of bugs, butterflies, beautiful flowers and Dragonflies. Right now it is so quiet.

We are expecting warmer temperatures on Sunday followed by rain! Ugh! At least some of the snow will be gone, THEN back to reality. More snow and colder temps this coming week!

Cindy, If you are reading this, email me. I can't access your Blog.

DAY TRIP

On Wednesday we took a day trip to East Aurora, New York. We needed to pick up Gary's locomotive that we dropped off last week for service. We used our GPS and let " Lizzie" take us there on all the back roads.
On the way we passed an Amish man driving these 2 horses with a small boy riding on the back. Driving through Brockton, New York we see the arches in the center of town. They have Christmas lights on the arches and are very pretty when lighted at night.

In this little corn field is a small flock of about 10 turkeys.

I wasn't able to get very close, and because of the traffic, we didn't stay very long, but I wanted to catch the Tom strutting his stuff, and he was very proud. Unfortunately he just wouldn't turn toward us, so all I got was his back-side.

We decided to watch trains while we ate the picnic lunch I packed, BUT this car carrier train was sitting idle on the siding and was blocking all the rest of the tracks, so we moved to another area. I just liked this BIG old building. I have no idea what was in there, but it had plenty of room.

This old barn was another goodie. Would you believe out back was a pasture with 3 horses. I bet they live in this barn...

We had a good day. Gary got his locomotive back all fixed, and the weather cooperated till we got home, and then it began to rain. Very windy all day too. Have a great Thursday all.

On Wednesday morning I had a dentist appointment, and after we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few minutes. Behind the store I spotted this small flock of turkeys. I'm not sure what they were up to. It looks like they were all preening. They were too far away to see clear. Then I thought this church steeple looked cool through the trees.

When we got home we were greeted with an ice jam on the creek behind the house. It had broken loose above us, but now was directly behind our house and the water was rising.The temperature was in the 50's and so much snow melted. Thank goodness it didn't rain very much. As it is our sump pump is running again carrying out water from the sump hole in the basement that seeps in through the ground when the creek gets high.

It's now after 10:00 Wednesday night and the ice jam has moved down stream, but it has been raining and the winds are getting pretty strong. We'll NOT have a fire in the wood stove tonight just in case we lose the electricity over night.

Have a great Thursday.

Yesterday we had to go to town, and on the way back home we passed by a ground silo loaded with silage. The opening was crowded with wild Turkeys just helping themselves. Of course as soon as I stopped they began to fly away..

These 2 stuck around for another few minutes.

Back at home, more birds in flight.

Hail, Hail the gang's all here ! These Blue Jays are literally eating me out of house and peanut butter ! LOL

This guy isn't too sure he wants to land.

This one is doing a happy dance.

Good Morning all. It's 22º here and of course the skies are cloudy. From all the rain we had on Tuesday, the creek and streams are quite full. When French Creek gets over it's banks we get seepage through our back yard into our basement, and our sump pump ran off and on all day yesterday and all night. Guess that's better than having water all over the floor.
This cute little Chickadee stopped by for a snack. About the same time this male Downey woodpecker showed up with his red headband.

The footprints of a bird walker, most likely Mourning Dove.

This one of a hopper, most likely Blue Jay.

Our lower back yard with the high water. It's up about 2' in this spot.

Later yesterday morning we took our newspapers to the recycling center, and on the way back found a road less traveled. This stream was really rushing, and there had been 1/2" of fresh snow on everything.

Then we saw a couple deer. The 2nd one was not in the picture. She was behind some bushes. We also watched 2 really cute red Squirrels while we were stopped. They were running back and forth across the road, and all over the snow chasing each other. I tried to get some pictures, but they were SO fast!

About a mile up the road we spotted these turkeys. Apparently they have missed Thanksgiving's wrath. LOL.

OK, you all have a super day. We'll be working on some wood projects that Gary is making for a friend of ours, so it will be a busy day..