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.