Category: Birds

WORLD SHARING AS WE MARCH DEEPER INTO JUNE – Marilyn Armstrong

Share Your World 6-17-19

If you were suddenly injured or died, are your bedside table drawers ready for someone else to go through them?   If you care to share, what’s the most unusual item someone might find, that might be potentially embarrassing?

Empty pill containers, old connectors for devices I never used and probably don’t own anymore, a variety of odds and ends … who knows? Maybe old pieces of jewelry?

If I’m dead, I can’t think of anything less important than the contents of my night table drawer.

What keeps you going? 

My survival instincts. Garry. The dogs. Pure nosiness and a driving desire to see what is going to happen next.

Share a photo or a sentence about ‘your favorite thing(s). Credit to Judy Dystkra-Brown in response to this: 

ttps://pilotfishblog.com/2019/06/08/lens-artists-photo-challenge-49-favorite-things/   

At the end of the song “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.,  where did they all go?

I don’t know the song. Sorry!

What are you grateful for right now?

The usual stuff. It’s what we are all grateful for: being alive, having a life worth living, our dogs, cats, friends and an occasional day full of sunshine!

SOME OF THE LAST OF THE BIRDS – Marilyn Armstrong

They are not the very last. We’ll put the feeder back up in November when the weather begins to get cold. And I have a lot of folders of birds with a fair number of unprocessed photographs. But now, it’s time for our cohort of squirrels to go back to the forest and rediscover the joy of squirreldom.

This morning I went out on the deck and there were half a dozen of them. Two in the feeders, another couple on the railing, and a few on the deck itself. I suppose they were all awaiting their turn. I finally went out onto the deck and physically ejected them. They apparently believe it’s their personal stash of goodies and are protecting it from humans and birds.

If I didn’t think Duke would jump the fence and break all his bones on the way down, I’d put him out there to guard the stash. Sadly, he is a jumper and Gibbs mostly wants lots of time spent napping on the sofa. Chasing squirrels is not high on his agenda.

And, I should add, with considerable determination.

Lady Cardinal in a tree
Rosefinch and Cowbird
Rosefinch on the rail
Possibly pregnant squirrel?

Now that I look at the pictures I realize I have more of them. Possibly a lot more of them. So you’ll see more. I have to process more of them too.

FOOTSES AND LEGSES – Marilyn Armstrong

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Feet and/or Legs

Feet and legs. Okay. Got that. Let me see what in my archives I can find and post. It’s always a bit of a gamble, but I’ll do my best!

Gotta love the feet and legs!
I’m walking here …
Photo: Garry Armstrong – That horse has attitude!
Just rolling!
Thinking of a warm barn?
The Duke
Gibbs’ feet
Garry’s and the Duke’s feet and legs
Lots of legs

ALL LINED UP? – Marilyn Armstrong

For Judy. All lined up!

Solomon’s seal
Solomon’s Seal
Geese ilined up on a green river
Ducks on Boston Commons
Flocks of Goldfinch
Christmas parade
Quietly afloat down the river – Photo: Garry Armstrong
Swan family all lined up
The whole family!

MORE BIRDS – MR. AND MRS. CARDINAL WITH COWBIRDS – Marilyn Armstrong

I thought everyone was going to get tired of birds. Honestly, I thought I would get tired of the birds, but it turns out, I  find them beautiful and love having them around.

I yell at the squirrels, but I don’t mind them having a piece of the buffet. I would just prefer they not eat all of it every single day. I have switched to cheaper feed. I really couldn’t keep up the high-class buffet with such massive eating going on!

The trouble is, our squirrels are becoming less and less afraid of me. Now I have to make loud noises or they just sit there and stare back at me and I swear they are saying, “Oh yeah? And what’re you gonna do about it?”

Truthfully, not much. Make more noise? Wave the broom at them? Or, we could train them to be better trained members of our burgeoning household.

The brightest Cardinal in our garden
Mrs. Cardinal is flirting with me
Peek-a-boo!
Cowbird and Cardinal — sharing the feeder
One more Cardinal and Cowbird. The Cowbirds are not easily frightened. Only the big woodpecker -with that long beak who pecked him in the head — that got his attention
That is a beak and a half and that is also a rather large woodpecker

AND SUDDENLY, IT’S ALL GREEN – Marilyn Armstrong

RDP Wednesday – BREATHTAKING

It’s gray, rainy, cold and the world is made of mud. No hope of flowers because it still feels like the end of winter.

Then, suddenly, the sun appears and you get a couple of warm day and the world explodes in color. Breathtaking barely describes it. It’s like a new world, a new planet. The sky is blue, the birds are singing. Of course, the squirrels are still eating all the seeds, but the lawn got mowed, the dead bushes are gone, there’s a tall fence to keep Duke in the yard where he belongs … for today, at least, the world is just perfect.

Garry went out and took pictures yesterday. Me too. I got serious about birds. He got serious about Uxbridge. There are so many pictures, I have barely had time to scrape along the edges of the more than 200 pictures from just yesterday. Call this “Breathtaking Sample 1” with more to follow!

From Garry Armstrong, the village and neighborhood:
Photo: Garry Armstrong – This picture is my favorite.
Photo: Garry Armstrong – The brand new crossing sign in the middle of town.
Photo: Garry Armstrong – At home in the woods
Photo: Garry Armstrong – The crossroads of Uxbridge
Photo: Garry Armstrong – The perils of not having a newspaper or even a radio station — we didn’t know there was a vote — or for what!
From Marilyn Armstrong, more birds and a squirrel.
The determined squirrel
Cowbird with Hairy Woodpecker – sharing!
A beak and a half
One Woodpecker
Cowbird with Hairy Woodpecker – sharing!
Eating well!

RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER – Marilyn Armstrong

I don’t usually get to take a lot of pictures of favorite birds, but this guy really settled into the feeder today and he didn’t flutter off the moment I had the camera up and ready. That’s not entirely true. He flew off a few times into the tree, cracked open some seeds, then came back to the feeder. Sometimes, it just takes patience. And waiting!

The following four pictures were taken from wildlife groups.

Pileated-Woodpecker
Red-Headed Woodpecker – Photo: Brian Wolf
Pileated Woodpecker in flight

Before everyone points out that this bird has a red head and not a red belly, I know that. But there already is a Red-headed Woodpecker who looks a lot like this guy, but his entire head is solid red, not to mention the Pileated Woodpecker who has a red topknot and is about the size of a medium-gauge hawk and a beak you wouldn’t want to mess with. I’m pretty sure he’s the bird the creators of Woody Woodpecker had in mind.

The following are pictures I took this morning. Even though this bird looks (to me) as if he has an orange rather than a red head, I have been assured that he is a Red-bellied Woodpecker and not a Gold-fronted Woodpecker.

The only difference between the two is the color of their head. Worse, they live in the same parts of the country.

However, this is quite a thin bird and I’m pretty sure he’s recently fledged so possibly has not fully developed his colors yet.