Saturday, March 31, 2018

Hanging On.......


The colors of a female goldfinch are really wonderful.  The colors of the back feathers stays a natural brown and blends well with those striking black and white lines. I have shown a lot of photos of birds but the pose of the bird makes the photo a higher quality photo if it is a good position.  I am sure National Geographic would crop out a lot of this photo but I like the loose string sticking out the sock feeder.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Two Bad Bird Shots.........


I was not fast enough to get my camera up and running while he sat on the edge of the birdbath.  I was so late that I got a suspended cardinal fleeing the area.



My second unusual shot is the goldfinch standing firm on the top of the feeder. She never did turn around for me as he was watching the activity going on at the other feeder.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Spring Bloom......


A pleasant surprise was to find this crocus in bloom yesterday. I have counted at least four more that will be blooming. The flowers close up at night and probably will not open today with it being so very windy and cold. That spot of color out there is so great to see with things being pretty brown and gray outside.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Moon Glow.......


I am enjoying the ability to capture the moon’s image.  I have to admit that the Elements app allows me to pick an adjustment that makes the sky go darker than it really is.  The moon isn’t effected by it but the background makes it look better. I noticed by the charts that this moon is coming up at 3:19 in the afternoon and stays up until 7:00  the next morning.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Wild Strawberry.....


I noticed this spot of green a few days ago in the front garden planter.  I have never seen it before but I am sure it was there last year. I do believe it is a wild strawberry plant.

Monday, March 26, 2018

Sun Setting in the City......


I was surprised to capture a sunset in my neighborhood.  The horizon of houses does work as long as the clouds don’t cover it up first.  The clouds were in a strange pattern that was scattered in all directions

The time change has caused us to be able to get up in daylight and supper seems to be at a strange time now when it is still so daylight. I sometime say out loud that I can’t believe it is six o’clock.

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Sunday Breakfast........


The Saturday snow left this new layer of white and cold. The birds have to struggle a little to get to the fallen seed.

It really isn’t too difficult though when two squirrels are busy scattering it on to the deck floor. The juncos had been gone from the feeders for a while but now with the new snow they are back.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Breakfast........


The female house finch doesn’t seem to be so bothered with the ice coating on the feeder.  The snow flying in the air doesn’t bother it either as it tries to get something to eat in the morning.

Her mate is trying to poke through the ice coated sock. I had to move it back into the right position as the wind was so strong that it was wrapped around the support lodge. These are the only two birds that I have seen at the feeders this wintery morning.

Friday, March 23, 2018

Fluffy Clouds Plus a Front......


You are seeing a mixed bag of tricks here with the broken up clouds and the eventual front coming in for tomorrow. The front almost covers up the sun as shown in that split in the clouds. The front that finally gets here will put seven more inches of snow on the ground about a county away from us.  We are to get a couple of inches from that front. I don’t know if we will see sun today.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

New Growth....Rose Bush.


I transplanted a rose bush from the old place to the new place.  It was a pleasant surprise to see this one sprout coming up from the base.  Now that I have enlarged the photo I am pleased to see many sprouts.  As Sherlock says, I will have to engage my little grey cells,  to remember what the color of the rose bush will be. I do remember planting it, as the soil is more made up of clay than good Iowa topsoil. I do think that I put some good soil on it when I back filled it. As the day goes on I will try to remember what roses that I tried to move.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Sunshine........



My tree down the way seems to be my trademark sign in all of my sunrise shots. The broken branch is gone  now from the winter weather taking it off the tree.

Back in February you can see the distance of the location of the sun to the tree. In time of one month the earth has tilted back a lot. The above tree is located dead center of the horizon in the photo at right. The sun is the only way that I can tell where true east is located from my house but that keeps shifting on me daily.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Goldfinch Surprise..........



The goldfinch stays in Iowa all winter but they do show up when they discover some free thistle seed.  I first saw one of them on the deck and it looked small compared to some of the other birds out there. I then looked again a few minutes later and a pair of them are on the sock.

They turn a brownish color for the winter and you can see the bright yellow color is coming on with new feathers in the above photo. The bottom bird may be the female goldfinch. After checking at three different web sites, I did find the explanation of the difference in color of the male and female birds. A college site shared that the female does get yellow on it but not to any degree as the male gets totally yellow with black wings.  During the winter both are green brown.  In my photo you can see the female at the bottom of the feeder. The female will be yellow on its side and partial head but will keep a brown green coat on its back and neck.

It is so exciting to see them coming back to the feeder.

Monday, March 19, 2018

Mourning Doves.....


I found these two birds resting on my deck floor yesterday morning.  I had seen some Eurasian ringneck doves earlier this non spring season  but not any mourning doves.  The ringneck is a larger bird that has migrated into our country 30 years ago through Florida.  It didn’t take long for them to be all over the United States. These kind of doves are the ones I would see on the farm when I was a kid. Their call is distinctly and my parents would tell me the sound was from a rain crow.  They were telling untruths to me that got me into trouble as an adult. I can still see them flying up onto the woven wire fence of the farm’s vegetable garden while working in the garden.  They were and still are so stately looking.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Invasion of the Red.......


My wife noticed him yesterday in our bird's staging tree.  He was staring at the blue spruce and all those pinecones. This morning he showed up on the deck railing giving be much joy. I really like red and this guy really is flaunting his colors.


In the tree yesterday he just perched on the branch and looked around.  I have yet to see a female cardinal but there is hope.


This morning he was gleaning the seeds that were scattered on the deck floor. He is a gift, as I could have had hundreds of photos of him. I finally just quit clicking photos and watched him worked.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Two in a bush....more on the ground......


Two robins in the tree means nothing as there are a dozen of them on the ground. We were messing with our border collie this morning as he doesn’t think he can use his hind legs today. I looked out the front door window and all I could see is lots of birds.


I grabbed the camera and took a shot out the side door window. There are over a dozen or more out there looking for dried up fruit from the tree. I don’t know this as a fact but if the males come earlier then I am betting these are female robins.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Community Feeder.......


They really do not get along that well but I captured the moment before they started to tangle.  The house finches really are the most aggressive and do keep others away from the feeders.

They don’t look so tough but I did read that they too are f rom the sparrow family.  I guess they have more attitude toward who controls what territory.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

What is Wrong with this Photo......


You just can’t click fast enough because you might lose your subject in the photo.  This one shows that I was zoomed in for a bird and obviously I missed it.  I have always liked squirrels. We had four or five of them at the old place until the city decided to take down three of our trees. I like their acrobatic acts and it is sort of like having a tamed animal in the yard.  Someone did ruin it for me the other day suggesting that they are from the rodent family. I don’t like rodents of any kind. The neighbor girl would take her pet white rat when she went trick or treating.  Back to this squirrel, I keep taking photos because he keeps trying to fall.

My wife saw him this morning fall from a good position on the feeder to one of hanging by his back feet on the bottom ledge.  He did make a recovery though and ended up getting a mouth full of seed and just sit on the roof safely.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

New Identification For Me........


I have never seen this bird before yesterday.  It showed up on the deck railing and sat there for me to photograph without a problem.  If I am not too confused, it is a gray headed dark eyed junco.  The only ones I have seen in the back yard was the dark headed one. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

 Because of its size it makes me think that I may be very wrong on the identity. The black hooded ones look like this. I opened up images of junco and I did see the guy above.  I did learn that the juncos can migrate as far north as the arctic zone in the summer.

I will leave it to my viewers to tell me otherwise on the identity.  I even thought it could be a female version of one that I don’t know. It is a nice looking bird.  I did also find out the juices are cousins of the sparrows.

As I did more research it is a junco.  The yellowish legs with black feet is consistent. One photo posting showed the juncos with so many variations.  It just seems strange that we only have see the dark headed one here for all these years. 







Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Comet Goldfish......


I lost another fish today.  So I will have to clean out the entire tank.  Transferring them to a small tank  won’t be so difficult but cleaning the dirty tank is not so fun.  I  bought a couple of fourteen cent fish so they can grow up to take the place  of the larger one that I just lost.  This guy is still very much alive.  I do think that they die of old age but I have no real facts on that.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Monday’s Feeders.....


I was so disappointed that I didn’t get any goldfinches right away when I put out the seed sock.  The house finches yesterday gave me a show as the pair started eating off of the sock.  If I go back into my archive I can see that the goldfinches do eventually come to feed here. I remember  them  last year bringing all of those that they had hatched. They all came to eat. When they all start to come I am ready to put up a second sock. Our new place has given me a better opportunity to enjoy this kind of bird as our windows are so close to them.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

The Mood of the Day.....




As the day rolls on, it will start to melt and we can pretend that it never snowed. The weather patterns just keep jerking us around.

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Saturday Sky.......


The weather patterns keep moving with new things in store for us.  Tomorrow there will be snow.

Friday, March 9, 2018

Winter Sky.....


It is still winter with all these dull clouds. The hole in the clouds show that the sun is there but we are not going to see it for a while.  The National Weather people say it will be cloudy with flurries all day. It will warm up to 39 degrees F. by six o’clock this evening.  I really am getting anxious to see some leaves on those trees.

Yesterday’s photo of the robin at the birdbath is the same one that lives in our front yard.  I believe he is waiting for his mate to show up as he sits at the edge of the flower garden wall near the old nest. He is picking things out of the grass to eat. He has a gentle call that he puts out as if he is calling some bird to let them know he is here with last years nest.  The other call is the warning call that he gives as he flies away to a neighbor’s tree.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Another Robin Sighting......


I looked out and saw a robin trying to get water off the edge of the ice. I took three shots and this is the only one that actually had proper focus. It is my second successful shot of the robins that I have seen so far.  While out front with Barney yesterday, one robin sat at the edge of the flower bed.  He seemed to be waiting for something.  There is  nest up above him in the tree and I would hope he is not waiting for a female to come along to check out the nest. It was so cold that I needed warm-up pants over my jeans to stay warm.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

The Peace at Rest.......


The statuary is probably cast of plaster.  It has such a subtle expression as the mold as it had very low detail in its design. I think I have posted this one a lot of times in the past 8 years.  It sits at the foot of the fireplace on the ceramic tile, resting and gazing off into space.

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Winter Still........


The gentle snow of the day will accumulate a few inches of snow.  The birds were already upset that it had started to snow and were rushing to get to the feeders. At the time that I took this shot of the junco, the snow was in large globs.  It has quit doing that and now is just heavy normal-sized flakes. I keep calling it a quiet snow.  That is in comparison of yesterdays weather where the wind was blowing the snow sideways.

Monday, March 5, 2018

Red Twigs......


Red twig dogwood shrubs are yet to put out any new sprouts. I really like the natural red of the stems. The next time I prune back, I think I will take them to the ground or at least leave only three inches.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Robins in Spring....


Most of those who are not from my country, this really is a thrush but we call it a robin for some reason. This one was sitting in the same tree that most of the birds land in before they head to my feeders.  I saw three at one time a few days ago out front and today I can see a pair are adding to their last years nest.

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Evolving Building......


Times change and building that still stand can be recycled to have many functions.  IN 1925 it was a fire station in Woodward, Iowa.  I remember it as a fire station with a single bay for a fire truck. A transom window combo stretched the who width of the from of  the building. Twenty years or so ago the garbage doors disappeared and a man turned it into a burger and fries place. Then it became Lou’s Diner and Lou reworked it into a common downtown cafe. They had huge tenderloin sandwiches and pancakes that would be as large as the plate. Lou’s husband died and the business was sold to someone who just couldn’t get it to work as a cafe.  I see now that the upstairs windows are replaced and two apartments are being built. Back in history there was a large opera house that sat in the park area now with the mural.  Lou was a  friend of ours. Her daughters created another Lou’s Diner  in another larger town and it is down very well.

Friday, March 2, 2018

Early Morning....


We will not have leaves for another month or so. The winter storms have trimmed the tree of its broken branches. The people who own the tree will be picking up branches and twigs before they mow their yard this spring. This is the tree that had a hanging broken branch on it for most of the last year.  It has been dropped from all of the snow, ice and wind through the winter.


Thursday, March 1, 2018

Snow Geese Surprise.......



Focus would not have ever happened as I was two farm fields away from this huge flock of migrating snow geese. I was traveling to the old place to get the mail and check on the house when I could not believe what I was seeing.  I had heard that snows were migrating through central Iowa. I saw a large flock of them flying over our house earlier in the week.


When a large truck would drive by sections of the thousands of birds would rise up and then resettle again. I have never seen the snows and blues migrate through central Iowa over the 42 years that I have lived here.


This area was a fourth of the whole distance that they were spread across that farm valley.  I knew that I was just too far away from them to get a good shot but I did get some impressions of what I saw. At one time I was standing on the back bumper of the truck, parked along the four lane highway, shooting as traffic passed.  I have more photos than I can share.  I went home by the Lake Saylorville and saw trumpeter swans, eagles and some small black ducks.

Big and Small...

 The miniature daffodils are so petite compared to the normal sized daffodil. I don't think I have ever brought the small ones inside be...