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.

Rain Rain

Another storm hit today, i'm surprised that none of the trees hit the ground from the one yesterday. Our screened canopy hit and we didn't bother to put it back up there were more storms forecasted.
The weather was beautiful this morning, so I filled the feeders. The chicadees are emptying their feeder faster with the new family additions. Mr. and Mrs Cardinal were at the feeder many times. We have another cardinal couple who visit the feeder, and Mr. C will stand watch while the Mrs. eats. Once he is sure that the intruders aren't around he will go and eat while still looking around. My grandson was sitting on the slipnslide and he watched him to make sure he wasn't going to move before eating.
Female and Male Red Bellied Woodpecker were at the feeders. Today the female didn't want peanut butter mixture she usually eats, but the male had his fill. I saw their baby only a couple times. I think its a male, he has the red beginning right over the beak.
I haven't seem the Great Crested Flycatcher at his nest, I wonder if he moved his family, they chose a open tree for their nest, maybe the weather these past days have made him move. I saw him around but not on his tree.
I tried to get this pic of a squirrel curled up on a branch trying to stay dry, his tail up over his head, my shot didn't work through the screen.

Rainy days for birdwatching

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN It has been raining everyday, all day, not very good for the bird watching. Right now I'm watching this squirrel eating all the food, I feel that is all I do now is feed the squirrels. They seem to be getting desperate, now they are trying to get to the ones that hang off the house. Its funny to see one sitting on the branch deciding if it should chance jumping to the little feeder. Once this squirrel cleans out the feeder my cardinal shows up, checks out the food supply then flys to a nearby branch and lets me know that its empty. I go out put some food in it and he doesn't come back, then the squirrels eats and the cardinal comes back and we go around and around.
I got this feeder in hopes that the squirrels wouldn't be able to eat from it, well that didn't go as planned, they seem to be able to get the food from it. I've had enough this squirrel has eaten too much I'm going to have to go out there and chase them away. They only go up the tree and wait for me to leave and come back. Even with me sitting there they still attempt to get more.

Great Crested Flycatcher

My mysterious bird is a Great Crested Flycatcher. Through the help of others I actually found a picture of one that looks like the one in my back yard. Most of the ones I was seeing were brown, didn't have the outstanding crest or wrong color crest. Finally I was able to find one that looked just like it.
I'm told I'm lucky that they decided to nest there, I hope to get some pics of the babies before they leave. And maybe next year they will return or their parents will. I just hope that their tree is still there. We lost one and the top part of these old trees in storms already.

Baby screech owl news

UPDATE on baby screech owls, that fell out of their nest. We turned them over to a group that said they would return them after checking them out. Well they aren't going to return them unless we cap of the top of the tree where the nest was. This tree is too unstable to lean anything against, and putting anything on it would also cause problems.
They won't be returning either of them to their nesting tree. I feel now that we should of only given them the one that was not moving very much. He was the reason that we called someone in the first place. Should of put the alert on to the side til they left and placed him by the nesting tree for the parents when they returned that night. Live and learn, but now the baby will have to grow up without its parent.
Not fair.

What is this bird?

I don't know what this bird is. I was told a yellow bellied sapsucker but all I have been able to find is a woodpecker that doesn't look like this bird at all.

It looks like a xlarge titmouse, its head is dark grey, body is grey belly is mostly yellow with some white, and its about the size of the red bellied woodpeckers that we have in our yard.

Picture of baby screech owl

Baby screech owl, it fell out of its nest. The top part of the tree fell during a storm, and when the sun hit the tree it must of disoriented them and they fell.

We turned them over to a place, and regret it now, we should of kept the one that seemed ok and turned the other one over to them. The parents came back looking for them when it started getting dark. They called and now we can't have either of them back unless we cap off the top of the tree, which is impossible. This tree is unstable and leaning something against it would bring it down, it is a regular stopping place for other birds. We are considering building a nesting box for screech owls in hopes that the parents will take it. We were told that its early enough that they might give it another try and want them to come back.

Baby screech owls parents return

The parents of the baby screech owls returned. It looked like one of the had food in its mouth. They sat on the tree and called and called. They were still looking when I came in. I hope that they return every night. We are waiting for the call tomorrow about the babies, she is very sure the one is fine, its alert and standing. But the one that landed first and was laying there on its back she is concerned about, she said that if it makes it through the night than there is hope. I hope that she can bring them back shortly so the parents can take care of them. Even if she only brings back the stronger one I think the parents would be happy, I just hope that they continue to return.

Baby screech owls

We found out that our babies are screech owls, we made a call and they say its against the law for us to raise them ourselves. So they will take them check them out and when they are stronge enough return them to our yard to see if the mother will return to finish caring for them. they said they would build a nest for them in the same tree so if the mother returns she will find them, guess they will have to fend for themselves if she doesn't.
That is really cool that they return them to the spot where they were born.
I'll be posting some pics as I get them from my daughter.

WE FOUND 2 BABY OWLS

Last night durning the storm two big chunks of our woodpecker tree fell again. I was outside feeding the birds and heard a thump, if the dog hadn't looked over there I wouldn't of checked it out. There laying on the ground was a baby owl, we had just gotten it picked up and in a box when another one fell. We put them in the shade of the house and she looked up who to try and get ahold of. She found on this site its best to leave them where they fell so the mother can return to retrieve them. It said they should return in an hour or two, but I wonder where she went when the tree fell. Did she go to find another place, or just leave them. The nest was opened and exposed to the elements. I don't think an owl, a night creature will be returning during the day. So I'm sitting here making sure something doesn't get them while we wait on the mothers return. Awhile ago another part of the same tree fell and we found an egg, now we wonder if perhaps it was one of the owl eggs.
Of course we got pics my daughter is inside downloading them, she will be sending them to me. Most of their coats are the white fuzz, with some grey and black feathers coming in. If she doesn't return we will have to decide quickly what to do, lots of research, call someone about them, should we keep them and try to raise them til they are old enough to survive.

WE GOT BABIES

Today was the first time that we saw the baby red bellied woodpecker, it was funny to watch the parent try to feed him. He has a little red over the top of the beak, so it must be a male. Dad was trying to get him to come down to the peanutbutter feeder but guess he was too afraid to attempt. When dad tried to feed him he knocked dad off the wood, the same when mom tried to feed him, he was actually pecking at her.
The end of last week the chickadees brought out their babies. It was a wonder they didn't get dizzy running back and forth from the feeders to the babies. This morning the parent would go to the feeder and then to a different branch to feed them, they all sat on a different branch waiting to be fed.
We thought we had a nest of brown thrashers but today I got a closer look and it was another bird, and it was attacking everything that was gettting close to the nest. They built their nest in the top of the tree that the woodpeckers love to visit. So this bird is a busy bird. The baby redbellied woodpecker was on the tree with the parent and it chased the father away and then went after the baby. It scared it to the ground, it just sat there for about 5 minutes. The bird went after the squirrel that was getting too close. I will have to look up what this bird is to add it to the back yard animals.

The Owl returns

We were out enjoying the cool evening, talking, kids playing ball. We saw a bird flying back and forth between two clusters of trees. Our backyard spot light was on, we thought it was a bat collecting the bugs that were flying in the light. But this bird had white so it couldn't of been a bat. The kids went in to get some italian ice and while they were gone, the owl landed five feet from us. But only for a couple seconds, even if we had our cameras we couldn't of reacted fast enough to snap a pic. It continued flying back and forth and landed again on the ground this time about twenty feet away from us.
It was the same small one that we had seen several times in our backyard, but what it is I'm not sure will have to find out what owls are that small. It couldn't of been more than six inches.

Yes We Have Downey Woodpeckers

Sitting here at my computer I got to see that we do have downey woodpeckers. There were 2 woodpeckers, I looked through my camera, with the tele lens, the one doesn't seem to have red on the back of the neck, the one that landed on the branch right outside of my window was indeed a downey. I will have to look this up, I wonder if the female downey has the red also. If she doesn't than I have two different woodpeckers. Both have the same markings, same size but one doesn't have the red.

I'm still having trouble with these pesky squirrels, they are digging up my gardens. Every morning I find big holes in the container with the tomatoe plants, and the cucumber plants to. They are digging in my caladium, pulling out my morning glories, not eating them just pulling them out and leaving them lying there.

NOT A DOWNEY WOODPECKER

It seems that I misread an info page on woodpeckers, the one that has been in our backyard is the red bellied woodpecker, I was looking up another woodpecker and found a page showing the different woodpeckers separately. So we have had pileated and red bellied in our backyard.
The one I was looking up was smaller and only black and white, it could of been a downey or a hairy, won't know til I can get a closer look. We had spotted a small bird with red on the back of its head, but not the right coloring for the red bellied, looking at this new page it could of been the downey or a yound pileated. Got to get some binogalurs, to get a better look at these birds.

Today was the first in a long time that I saw a hummingbird at the feeder, glad to see they still stop by once in awhile, but with out the glasses I won't be able to see what one it was.

Gopher Tortoise

I haven't been able to catch the tortoise again, I checked this morning and it was already gone at 7:30 am, I just can't seem to catch him/her returning to the hole. I'm careful not to step on the sand in front of the hole, I read that its usually where they lay their eggs. Its great to have something that is endangered living in your backyard.

Downey Woodpecker and Peanut Butter

CORRECTION ITS A RED BELLIED WOODPECKER NOT A Downey woodpecker found the peanut butter mixture and both enjoy it, they have spent most the day at it, each flying back and forth from the feeder to their nest. FOUND ANOTHER INFO PAGE THAT CORRECTED THAT.
I saw chickadees and the titmouses at it too. Even the Cardinal pair stopped for a taste. Of course the squirrels have had a crack at it a time or two. all they can do is lick it. With the downey woodpeckers feeding on the peanut butter mixture it leaves more for the other birds, once they get on the feeder they stay there, or scare off the others when they land.
The confrontations today were the usual, male cardinal chasing another, bluejays were getting into it, even the doves were at it.
This little green hummingbird was flitting about this afternoon, it started at the birdfeeder, then to the two red feeders along the house which are both red and then it left, never checked out the hummingbird feeder

Gopher Turtle?

We were out in our yard checking on the growth of the sunflower plants and we heard a noise. I looked and it was this big turtle coming across the field. By the time I had gotten back with the camera it had disappeared into a hole. A neighbor told us it was a gopher turtle. Guess I will have to look that up and maybe get a pic of him.

Downey woodpecker and peanut butter?

I didn't have to go in today so I got to watch my birds. I put a new feeder out for the downey woodpeckers, but they don't seem to want anything to do with it. I read that they like peanut butter, so I mixed it with seeds and hung it. They seem to prefer the oil sunflower seeds in the other feeder. They would fly under it to get to the other feeder. I tried changing the feeders thinking that the downey would go to the new one, but he landed on the hook looked down and knew that it wasn't the feeder he was interested in, oh well I tried. Now the Bluejays are hitting the feeder, and when the downey would be there they would go to the ground cause the pecker was throwing out seeds. I'm watching the two morning doves hunting around for food. The chickadee and titmouse are hitting the feeder in front of my window pretty steadily.
Haven't seen the hummingbirds lately though. And the Cardinal were eating at the feeder earlier

Birds feeling neglected

I'm afraid that my backyard friends must think that I've abandoned them. There has been a change in my schedule and as a result my friends don't seem to be around as often. They could be I'm not here during most of the day. I fill their feeders before leaving, unfortunately that is the active time of the morning for the pesky squirrels in my backyard. So they probably don't have food available when they come calling mid morning.
My little squirrel chaser is not going out in the mornings as usual, she is going to be a mother and seems to have become lazy in the mornings. When I let the pup out she races around the house to the squirrel tree looking for the buggers.

The Owl was here again

I took the pup out early this morning, it was still dark, so for my safety I had to put on the back light, and because she doesn't like the dark. I also took a flash light so I didn't get any surprises from the neighborhood dogs. The light is pointed towards the back of the property, after I hooked up the dog I saw a branch move so I wanted to see what it was. Then something flew over to where the feeders were. I followed and shined the flash light in the trees til I saw it sitting there. It's so little couldn't of been more than 6 inches if it was that. It was so cute, so I guess our chance sighting before isn't going to be our last. I thought the flashes from the camera before might of scared it away, and I don't want to take that chance, it'll have to be one of our habitants that will not be photographed again.
I wish the other picture came out better. I wonder what owl it is

The hummingbirds found us

We finally hung the hummingbird feeder up this afternoon, about 3 and its almost 7:30 and I just saw one at the feeder. I was thinking that it would take a lot longer before they found it.
Now I wonder what the squirrels are going to do in the morning when they see something hanging there. I certainly hope they don't knock it down and break it, its going to be another week before I get to the store to replace it.

Free plants

I already told you about this link,http://freeplants.com/ check it out. I signed up for the newletter and get interesting tidbits to help in the garden. His latest was about this additive that will improve many aspects of your garden and not be harmful to humans or animals. Once we really get settled in to this place I will plan on growing and selling plants. But thats down the road, in the mean time I'm working on getting the front and backyard in order, the shape its in now won't exactly encourage anyone to buy from me. Here I am trying to sell plants and my front yard isn't even the slightest bit attractive, not even to me. But heck I just moved in here and there is lots to get done before doing the front yard. We've been working on the backyard because that is where the kids spend most of their day. This place is on a downslope and everytime it rains it uncovers something else, the last rain we found a knife in the tree cluster next to their playground. Not good.
Really you should check out the link, he has all kinds of interesting things on his site, free stuff too, now who doesn't like free, especially when it comes to setting up your garden.

Woodpecker nest hit the ground

We had a couple days of wind, some of the gusts were so bad that it blew over our screened in canopy. It got worse that night, when going out the feed the birds I found a huge hunk of the woodpecker tree laying on the ground. Yesterday we were cleaning up the area around the woodpecker tree and found a nest and one broken egg. We looked around for another egg but had no luck, the nest was hanging on one of the branches but it was empty. We figure something got the others or it only had one.
I can hear the pileated woodpecker out there now, its knock is much louder than the downy woodpeckers.
Didn't get to make the pinecone birdfeeders, we went out to the woods and checked under all the pine trees and there were none. I should of gone to the park and gotten some but I wanted the kids to be apart of it. So will have to leave that for another day.

These pesky squirrels won't give up

I moved the hanging bird feeder, put it on a shepard hook, darn if they didn't get to it this morning. So I went out there and put some oil on the hook, I'll tell you that if I had some black grease I would of put it on there. It was funny watching the squirrel this afternoon, he acted like he wanted to jump from one of the branches he sat there looking at the feeder for the longest time, finally he went to the ground. But he was looking all over the place, he knew the kitten was lurking around somewhere and with every couple steps he would sit up and look around. Finally made it to the shepard hook, but didn't get up very far he kept sliding down. So its a temporary solution.

Ceyenne pepper didn't work

Well the ceyenne pepper didn't discourage the squirrels from hitting the feeders. So I give up, I'm turning the one feeder into a planter, there is no place to move it to that isn't in full sun or in the other family space. It would be a target for balls and bicycles, or the daily activities of the grandkids.
I'm going to try and put a better obstical on the hanging feeder, the one there isn't really working once the wind moves it.
When the grandkids get home from their weekend at grandmothers we will make some pincone feeders, I'll be hanging them along the house the squirrels can't get to them there. They have won one battle but I'm not done.

Pinecone birdfeeder

I thought this was cute, will be looking for others to add, and try. But I will have to get my own pinecone, the kids won't let me use theres, and it has glitter on it from when they used it as Christmas deco

Is Red Pepper the answer

I was watching the squirrels this afernoon, I've seen them climb up to the tree and get close to the feeder but don't climb onto the feeder. I don't know if its because I fixed the frisbee that is on top of the feeder or if they can smell the red pepper. The Cardinals are eating at the feeder but the afternoon squirrels aren't, some what a success. But the real test will come when one of them moves the frisbee aside to get to the feeder. There are usually 7 or more out there early in the morning, so I'll have to wait til then to see. Meanwhile the cardinals are having a feast.
We also put out the bread ends that nobody eats in this house, but the dog loves them so today I put red pepper on them to, maybe she will get the idea when she eats it. The squirrel that is out there is so funny, he runs up and down past the feeder, he'll stop and hang there looking at the feeder, but just won't that the chance of going down it, maybe when another moves the frisbee aside he will.

Try Try Try again

Well the chili powder didn't work, so next is something hot, the birds didn't mind the powder but this morning I found the squirrels like it too. I didn't want to do hot but it might have better results. We'll see. It seems that the squirrels are early morning visitors here, so I will fill the feeders later than usual at least they will get less and the birds more. I'm having trouble getting the shepard hooks into the ground, I don't want to cement them in as I want to move it if it doesn't work out where it is. I will try the feeders on them once I can get them in the ground, there are alot of roots

Another attempt to keep pesky squirrels away

Well the first attempt at keeping those pesky squirrels out of my feeders didn't work. I thought that the one feeder was out of their reach, but I was wrong, they started jumping up to the feeder and cleaning it out. They managed to get around the disk that I put up on the feeder in the tree so I'm trying something else.
I've been reading about the critters and several suggestions mentioned to put chili powder, cayenne... etc. on the seeds. The birds don't seem to mind it. Well I have seen several birds eating from my experimental batch so now I have to see what the squirrels think about it.
Right now my guard cat is on duty, but it seems that they are no where to be seen, my yard must be their early morning feeding ground. Our kitten loves to climb trees and she has moved from the ground under the feeder to one of the trees.
I was given some shepards hooks, so I will be putting a feeder on one and hummingbird feeder on the other, just have to figure out where to put it.
Yesterday we were working on the butterfly garden, we might have to rethink not sure its getting enough light because of all the trees. Its either full sun or very light sunlight.

Yup it was temporary solution

Well my solution lasted a little bit, the darn things found a way to get around the frisbee. Guess I'll have to get a bigger one they just seemed to move it around until they could get past it. I might just have to take it down, but than the birds that have counted on it might not stop by anymore. They aren't too crazy about the other one, it sits too close to the ground, where the kitten hangs out.

My squirrel problem

Well I found a temporary fix to the squirrels eating all the bird food from the most popular feeder. I took a frisbee and cut a hole in the middle and put on top. So far I haven't seen any of them get past it, but its only been a couple of days. Now they are attacking the other one, jumping from the tree to it, they can't get to the seeds from climbing up the pole. So I will have to move it some where. Finding a spot that isn't close to any trees is going to be fun other than in the middle of the yard, and that is where it would be in the way of our outside time. I will have to try out some places.

Blue Jays building

This past couple days I've been watching a pair of BlueJays building their nest. I discovered where they were doing this when we were putting our storage shed together, its a tree close to it. They seem to be working together, I've seen one sitting on the branch outside my window looking around, they fly off when the other one would catch up. I found out where they are getting their nest building materials, I surprised them when I went to my rose garden. I was going to clean up some of the grass clumps that I left, they were grabbing some stuff from there.
So I will leave it there until tomorrow.

Pileated woodpecker

The pileated woodpecker visits us regularly, sometimes in pairs or more. The first time we saw them we chased them throughout our property and the woods. Now they come to us. We will be working on attracting them on a more frequent basis. I just hope that the squirrels don't get to the their treats first, like before.

Time to rethink it

Going to have to rethink the position of the bird feeder close to the ground, the squirrels are jumping onto it and having a feast. I've neglected my birds for the past couple days, we have been putting together a storage shed on the other side of the yard, from dusk to dawn. I'll catch up by the weekend, I have some pics I want to get on here.

Additions to the bird area

We added another bird feeder and bird bath to the trees in the middle of the left side of the yard. And there is our kitten sitting there looking for the birds. She will lay down waiting for one to come along. We plan on adding some plants around the trees, perhaps some morning glories, not quiet sure yet.

The Owl

My daughter tried to enlarge the picture of the owl but it only became blurry, you can still see it but have to really look hard. I have a feeling this will never happen again, one of those once in a life time things. Oh well.

This owl landed on a tree not that far from us, I know its dark I can barely see it. I'm going to have to see if I can enlarge and lighten it a bit. We think the little white spot is the flash hitting his eyes.

This afternoon looking out my window, which faces the back yard, I saw the funniest thing. We have a kitten, she likes to hang around the trees where the birdfeeder hangs. Well we put some dried fruit and nuts out there, in hopes to distract the squirrels, the crows found it. There are three big crows, they are bigger than our kitten, she is looking at these birds and didn't move, the birds were watching her. The one crow was sidestepping over to the fruit one step at a time, keeping an eye on the kitten. It took her long enough to decide whether she should chance chasing one of them, but she did and they flew to the tree and it sounded like they were laughing at her.

Backyard Drama

I found out that there is indeed more than one pair of cardinals visiting my feeders. I was following the sound of a woodpecker in the woods next to my yard, and came upon a group of them having a disagreement.
This morning I was sitting out there a male cardinal was at the feeder, female was on the branch above him waiting, and a morning dove was on the ground. Our kitten chased the dove, the male took off and had a disagreement with another male they flew off, the female went to follow and ran into another female. Meanwhile on the limb where the dove landed was another one and they got into it, a third dove flew in and watched. They all took off. I came in to get on the computer and saw a pileated woodpecker on our wood pile, he was a big one. Once again our kitten chased him away. She is out there stalking the doves, she is determined and is now laying where they most often land.

Cardinal fly by

I was sitting outback watching the birds, either there is more than one cardinal pair or these two eat alot. Maybe they are taking it back to their nest. The male makes the most trips to the feeder, with his mate watching. She will sit on a branch and watch what is going on before going to the feeder. But when she gets there she stays for a bit. This afternoon I was watching her at the feeder and turned my head to see this red thing coming right at me, and then go up when it got 3 feet from me. If he hadn't went up he would of hit me in the head, that was how low he was.
Last night something neat happened but will have to wait til I can get my hands on the pic, I sure hope that we got a shot of him. It was getting dark, and all you could see was his outline. But there was no mistake what it was..

Todays happenings

Today I saw a pair of morning doves, scared them off when I went out to chase the darn squirrel from the feeder. Of course the cickadees and titmouses, mr. and mrs cardinal, the RED BELLIED woodpecker, which lives in one of our dead, but still standing trees. He and his mate live in the darn thing, I think they must have babies in the hole, I see the female at the opening and pokin her head in. The bluejays of course, the crows circling around in the sky. The pileated woodpecker only stopped on one of the other woodpecker trees for a moment then left.
We have a hummingbird feeder, just haven't figured out where we are going to put it, would have to be the backyard, not many windows offer a view from of the front of this place.
OH THESE SQUIRRELS MAKE ME SO MAD... GOTTA FIND SOME WAY TO LESSEN THEIR ATTENTIONS ON MY FEEDERS. GRRRRRRR
Gotta run out there and chase them off.

Free plants and much more....

I found a free book on all kind of gardening info, it has free potting bench plans, plans for a mini hoop house, and potting soil mixture, and Free Report: 21 Plants that are Easy to Grow and Sell Like Crazy. Check it out there is also all kinds of info on this page.

http://freeplants.com/

Now that the right time of year is here I can start using some of those free items.

Not sure if you can see the male cardinal at the birdfeeder, the female is sitting on a branch, couldn't catch her. Never falls when I have my camera the birds all seem to fly the coop.

Going from the middle of the yard to the left
Below in the clearing of trees I was thinking of a bird bath and some wild flowers, still up in the air about this


Just above the cinder block is a green bird feeder, very popular with the squirrels and the cardinals. We have a pair that visit there often when the squirrels aren't there.


Below is the other half of the middle cluster of trees in our yard, in amongst these trees was the other place that we were considering for the birdbath.


Below is the kids play area, and as far as the back yard goes, we aren't going to be putting anything in this area because of the kids, all that noise.




Our front yard is another blank slate, but we will be working on that too, we have gotten some roses for it, but not sure were to put them, I had a spot picked out but as I was poking around in the dirt discovered that there was a big tree stump. So have to refigure on that one.

My journey to a wildlife habitat

I am in the process of landscaping my backyard. My goal is to provide a place for the local wildlife to rest, eat and water. Right now it is a blank slate, with lots of trees and sunshine. So far all we have done is place a couple feeders around and the birds have come quickly. I thought it would be a hoot to keep track of our progress and the critters that have visited it.
I love going out in the morning and listening to all the different birds chirping, and I want to bring them in closer so I can see who is making that noise. Butterflys flit there way through our yard I want them to stop, so I can get some pictures of them.