W O W been a long time

It's been awhile since I was last on here, so I have a lot to catch up on. Our backyard has gone through some changes, and I will be trying to update our happenings. I was away for about 6 months, and life has been hectic since I returned, but now things have settled down and I can get back to working on the backyard.

Bird watching in NJ

I didn't get to take many pics at family reunion, my camera couldn't get a clear shot at the distances. I did manage to get pics of squirrels hanging on the supporting posts, from the deck above. I will have to retrieve them once we get through the family pics. My mom keeps track of the birds that visit, and with all the people that were hanging around for the 4 days it was down, she must be glad to be able to see all her feathered friends now that we are all gone. I was teasing her that all her squirrels were fat, she puts out food 2 or 3 times a day. Peanuts,bread and seed, also she puts fruit and peanut butter mix out there in the morning. Her plan didn't work, they would put peanuts the furtherest from the feeders, then the bread and finally the seed closest. But the squirrels started on the seed then worked their way to the peanuts.
I haven't seen much action here in my back yard, my birds are probably not aware that I'm back, my feeders didn't get filled once they were empty, which was probably two days after I left.

Pesky squirrels again

I thought if I put the last feeder on the house that the squirrels wouldn't be able to get to it. Dang if they didn't, guess I should of hung it where there wasn't anything for them to jump from. The kids have their outside toys sitting too close, the bugger was sitting in the feeder this morning when I woke up. The chicadees and titmice have taken it over, they never seem to be filled, the cardinals hardly get a chance. I saw the male eating at the peanutbutter feeder, something new.
My hideaway garden is coming along, planted two young elephant ears,asparagus fern, a four o'clock. I moved the other feeder out there too and put stuff in there to entertain the pesky squirrels. They ate the flowers off my morning glories.
My other garden finally has flowers, half of what we planted didn't come up, but the butterflies have found them.

My watching spot

I enjoy sitting here in the shade, watching the bird activities, its like they don't see me sitting here. I watched the pileated woodpecker one tree, the downey was eating at the suet feeder and the redbellied woodpecker just flew onto another tree.
Today we trimmed up some of the branches that were against the house, the squirrels would try to get to the feeders from there. And the birds were all chattering, they usually sit on the branches waiting for a turn at the feeder. Now they can't get as close. With these hot days it seems that the squirrels are not in the yard during the day as much, good for the birds they get to eat.
Our kittens are so funny, they like to sleep in my shoes, I will have to get the pics from my daughter.

Great Crested Flycatcher, Cardinal, Downey Woodpecker

We moved our screened canopy to amongst the trees, its now the best place to watch the happenings in the backyard. I was sitting there just enjoying the beautiful weather that we are having, now that the rain has stopped.
I was watching the female Cardinal eating at the feeder, a downey woodpecker landed on a nearby tree. Something caught my eye, it was a brown thrasher having a time with a vine, something flew by and landed on a tree by the house. It was a Grest Crested Flycatcher, then he flew to the ground and was joined by another. They were hopping all over the place, one kept going into our fire pit. One landed on a branch next to where I was sitting. While this was all going on the doves were just walking around enjoying the seed that my granddaughter had put down for them. I was getting ready to go inside when the flycatcher was back at the firepit again. I heard a redbellied woodpecker fly over. The brown thrasher was joined by another and had moved behind where I was sitting pecking through the leaves, they are interesting to watch.
Trying to train my squirrels that when they hear coughing that they better run. It works sometimes, they just need a little more training. When I'm out there I cough while heading for them.

Great Crested Flycatcher, Screech Owls

The Screech owls that lost their babies are still hanging around my yard. We were sitting there enjoying the night air and saw them land on their favorite tree. I'm glad they didn't relocate.
I've seen the Great Crested Flycatcher still hanging around in my yard, I was trying to catch the brown thrasher when I saw him sitting there with one of the little ones.
I just can't seem to catch the brown trasher, wren, doves or a good one of the blue jays that are all hanging in my back yard. They are all so flighty or just too far for my little camera to get a good clear shot.
Guess I'll just have to break out the good camera and hope that they sit still long enough for me to focus on them. HAHA, well at least with that camera I don't have to get too close to them, then I'll have to patiently, yeah right, wait to get them developed and hope that I got a good shot.

Pileated woodpecker invasion

This morning my backyard was noisy, there were pileated woodpeckers everywhere. I followed a group to the back of our yard and got some pics of them. They are so hard to catch, they move alot. I think one group was a family of three, when they moved to a tree and a fourth one tried to join them he was chased off.