The Sandhill Crane - Part Two

My fascination with the beautiful sandhill crane continues today.  Yesterday I drove back to where I saw the birds on Saturday and they were still there.  When I went around the block to pick up Charlie so he could see them, they must have flown off, because when we got back to the development, they were gone.  I do know that it is time for them to migrate to Florida - typical Michigan snowbird.

I went online to see what I could learn about them and found out that they are believed to be the oldest living species of bird, having existed for 9 million years in their present form.  They can stand up to five feet tall and have a wingspan of six to seven feet.  There is a sanctuary for them here in Michigan with around 9,000 of them in summer.

Here are some of the photos I took yesterday with my camera:

 Sandhill cranes are very wary of humans so I tried to stay in my car.

"You go your way and we'll go ours"

A Nest of Robins in Her Hair

It's spring and a young bird's fancy turns to nest making and babies.  We have plenty of birds around here.  And lots of nests.  Last year I put up my first wren house and had a wonderful little family move in.  This year I bought a second house and a young male wren is already making his nest.

Here he is going inside with some twigs on the left and here he is sitting on top at the right.  I must say I have so much admiration for animal photographers.  I remember being at the National Zoo and seeing photographers camped out around the panda exhibit waiting to get 'The' shot.  Waiting for these birds to go in and out when they are so darn quick was quite the challenge, so this is the best I could do.

I especially like how he has hung a wreath of twigs at the front door.  Or maybe, it was at the direction of Mrs. Wren sitting in the tree overseeing construction.  Check her out in the upper left corner.

And wrens aren't the only residents.  Early last month I saw robins building a nest in the River's Birch.

Try as I may, I was never able to get a picture of them sitting in the nest.  Imagine my surprise when I looked out this morning and saw what appears to be a young robin sitting back there in the spruce tree.

Is it really possible we have robins already hatched and flying around in early May?  Another robin family has decided to make their nest on a fence pole in the side yard.  I usually discourage this as the squirrels and raccoons love nothing better than to destroy the eggs, but this must have been pre-fab construction cause it went up seemingly overnight.

This was another test of my photo ability trying to hide behind a table and using a telephoto lens.  You are able to see the new Hardiplank siding on the house which I must say looks really good.  I just hope these robins survive.  They are sheltered from the elements, but not the critters.

I love having the birds in the yard.  They are much preferable to the four-legged critters.  I am hoping the hawks decide to spend more time here hunting as this one did a few years ago.

Wordless Wednesday - Breakfast for Two

Shot through the glass with telephoto lens at sunrise.  I did not even know there were two birds there until I loaded in on the computer.

A Bird Tale

Two little birds sitting in the bath.  All is peaceful.

Awhile later two birds are joined by another expressing his wrath.

One bird squawks and one flies home

Two little birds still hashing it out.

One bird backs away and says 'I'm out'

To the victor go the spoils.

A Summer Giveaway

First, I am not giving anything away, but I am providing you a link to a blogger I follow.  To be honest, I do not at all remember how I came upon this blog, or if they found me first.

Anyway, I have enjoyed the absolutely beautiful images on the site.  This month there is a giveaway of a journal.  I no longer keep a journal.  I did years ago when I went through my divorce and found it very cathartic.  Then, I burned all of them.  My doubts and fears were written down, dealt with and destroyed by fire.  Now, I just have a blog.

If you are interested in the giveaway or just want to see the blog, then go to '2 Bags Full...'.  You will not be disappointed.

As for me today is the last day of June and the year is half-over.  I spread the last bag of mulch yesterday and all my garden projects are done for this season - which originally was not supposed to have any projects.  Oh, well.  Now I will just sit back and watch the flowers bloom, the rain, the birds, and then wait for fall when I get to clean up everything that bloomed this summer.

The robins are all running around the yard and having a great time in the bird bath.  Here is a youngster that was running in the backyard.  Hard to get a good shot as these babies are pretty quick on their feet.

I had to zoom in on this area below to get the picture of the bird near the middle of the photo.

Of Big Birds, Little Birds, and Horny Toads Going 'Batty'

Y'all know how I am always going on about four-legged critters invading my yard.  Well, they are not the only things I have to deal with.

For several years I have had to deal with bats that like to hang out, literally, at night on my front porch.  In a way I don't mind because they eat the bugs.  OTOH, they leave bat guano all over the corner of the porch.  Plus, I'm always afraid I will open the door at night and one might fly into the house.  To solve the problem, I have been 'leaving the light on'.  Detroit Edison can thank me later.

Daylight hours are no better on the porch.  I was getting ready to open the door on Sunday when I saw this tiny little house wren flying into the glass door.  It eventually flew off but I got this pic of the parent bird watching the young learn to fly.  I guess they have a nest nearby.

Yesterday it was pouring rain in the afternoon.  Well I guess that is not news since it seems to do that a lot here lately.  I was pointing out this little toad that was jumping around in the driveway for my grandson.  Still not sure if he noticed, but while I was doing so my son arrived to pick him up.  I told him to make sure the toad didn't get into the garage.  That is a problem I have dealt with in the past and do not wish to revisit.

He shooed him out of the way and when my son was ready to depart the toad was sitting under the overhang on the porch and out of the downpour.  Don't know what species he is but they are all over my yard and I am no fan of them.  Even if they do eat bugs.  Nothing like thinking you are chucking a rock out of the flower bed only to discover that it is a toad.  Yuck.

This afternoon though I had a real treat.  I have lived here for 43 years.  While I never saw deer back then, I did see grouse and wild turkeys.  It has been a while since any turkeys came strolling through the neighborhood, but today it happened.  I was outside doing some yard work while Charlie was napping and spotted this wild turkey crossing the road.  To get to the other side, obviously.  I ran into the house to grab the camera.

She is one big bird for sure.  She kept walking through the neighbor's yard and on to the next block.  I had other business to attend to.  Someone woke from his short nap and was ready to play outside.  Now this is someone I don't mind invading the yard.

A Wednesday Garden Walk

While I cut my lawn this morning and I am sitting here hoping for some rain, I decided to grab the camera and record what is happening in the yard.

First, the flowers I planted:

 

Bleeding Hearts

 

 

Forget-me-nots

 

Next, the invasive flowers I didn't plant and can't seem to eradicate:

 

 

Violets

 

 

Siberian Squill

 

My Korean spice viburnum, not just another pretty face, but smells good too.

 

 

Next, a robin nesting in the River birch tree.

 

 

And just plain birch bark:

 

What a Ride

I had no idea the A to Z Challenge would be such a challenge.  For my neck. 

I have disc compression in my neck, so I try not to spend too much time at the computer.  Usually, I can sit here and whip off a few hundred words and post.  With the challenge, I have spent more time googling information, scanning in pictures or finding them online, and concentrating on being interesting. 

Some days my shoulder, where I tend to feel the pain, is not happy.  But I am.  I am having so much fun doing this.  I am revisiting places I haven't thought about in years.

This morning I received a copy of my very old travel slides converted to DVD.  They are not great, but considering they were taken mostly with a cheap camera in the 60's, have faded, and seem to be off-kilter, they work just fine when it comes to 'remembering when'.

It warmed up here overnight, but it is very windy and rain is on the way.  So, no yard work yet.  But I am having fun watching the birds, ducks and rabbits running around the yard.

A few days ago there was a robin orgy in the side garden.  I don't remember ever seeing this many birds before.  I am sure we will have lots of nests.  Speaking of which, I shooed a pair of Mallard ducks out of the front shrubbery.  They have tried to make nests in there before and it is not a good place.  It is right in the area where I know the raccoons wander through at night.

This morning the bunnies were running around in the front when I went to get my newspaper out of the box.  There were all sorts of folks buying pansies yesterday at the local garden center.  I think of them as rabbit food and have decided to forgo them this year.

And the Cooper's Hawks have been flying high.  I hope they are hungry because I can see all sorts of small rodent damage in my backyard.  The hawks are a welcome sight around here.  I am posting a picture from last year when they were lunching in my backyard.

Have a great Sunday.  I'll see you tomorrow with the letter 'G'.

Hawk-eyed

We are having some very hot-weather here in West Bloomfield.  It was already in the 80's before 8:00 am this morning.  I was on my way out to my deck to raise the umbrella to shade the door wall from the morning sun and imagine my surprise when I saw this:

It is not that I am not used to seeing the hawks swooping around the neighborhood, but I have never seen them perched so close to the house.  This beautiful Cooper's Hawk was sitting on the top of the trellis, not 15 feet from the door.

I grabbed the camera and started shooting.  Then I decided to go outside and see how close I could get.  I wandered around from one side to the other and he never took his eyes off of me.  Approaching him from the treed side  behind him I got within about six feet:

He was magnificent.  Not wanting to push my luck, he swooped down at my neighbor recently, I decided to come in and make some coffee.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something swoop by the kitchen window.  I looked into the back yard and caught this image:

Unfortunately, I missed a shot of them 'kissing' hello.  Do birds do that?  Perhaps they were just 'sharing a bite'.

I've seen fewer small rodents this summer.  Red squirrels and chipmunks seem to be few and far between.  Maybe they have succumbed to thirst, but I am sure that some of them have become 'lunch'.  Now, if I could only train these birds to attack deer, I'd be all set.