Sunday, January 26, 2014

Bird Blogging


Hey, how do you work this thing?
The Flower Lady added some cracked corn to our little bird feeder, and this is what we got-- a flicker decided to drop in and have at it.
Maybe it's the snowy backdrop, or maybe the lack of leafy cover, but the birds' plumage often seems more intense in winter. It's not bad doing bird-watching from the comfort of a cozy kitchen, either. I was inspired to look through the photo archives, and found our feathered friends figure quite prominently therein.
Our usual patrons at the feeder are the snowbirds. They start to appear here in the fall. Down by the creek:




Purple martins at Longwood.

And the Flower Lady snapped these in Cape May:


This is a relatively rare species in NJ. I've forgotten what it is, but an excited, knowledgeable-looking nature lover intimated we were privileged to see it, so we had to get a picture. 
I feel more confident in identifying this one as an Eastern Red-headed Woodpecker. Or is it a downy woodpecker? I forget.

Red wings and red buds.





Red in tooth and claw.

And another entry in the Large Winged Creature Category:

Enjoy the winged world around you!

















Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Winter Wonderland

The creek hasn't frozen over completely in about ten years, but it's getting pretty close now. The weatherman snarkily remarked that we should get up to 32 degrees, "for an hour or so," on Saturday; otherwise, it's the deep freeze. So we'll get some extra Triple Soul Cows in before the Olympics start.

I wasted my snow day looking for a lost credit card. I'm pretty sure it's in the house, but I just cancelled it just to be sure. The Flower Lady said it will turn up as soon as I did that, so any minute now....I did find my Blockbuster card, though.

Perhaps you can tell I'm not in a great mood. Let's end on a cheery note: a different shade of white, from a springtime visit to Longwood some time ago.