Squirrel Sunday....

It's Squirrel Sunday time....bet you thought I was never going to say that again!

Since my fat little squirrels are showing up to eat food, they can start earning their keep by providing me with cute photos. ("OK.....You....Star?.....time to stop eating and get some exercise!")

"How's this?"
("That's pretty good! I'm surprised you can bend that far.")

"You ain't seen nothing yet.....Look....two paws!"
("Show-off")

"Getting back up is the hard part."

"Bonsai!"

(Someone got caught raiding the bird feeder and bailed out in a hurry.)

Cardinal.......

Friday morning the temperatures were very cool and the birds were out in full force looking for food. It was a great day for photos at the feeders :-)With the year moving into dreary winter, it is easy to see why the cheerful red Cardinal was chosen as the state bird of 7 states: Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia.
While the female isn't as handsome red as the male, she is beautiful in her own way with her red beak and red tinges to her feathers.

I call these next three photos "Mother and Daughter". The one on top of the fountain is a full adult female. The one on the rim is a youngster whose beak isn't red yet.

All of my birds have been so thirsty this year! I think our lack of rain has affected where they can find good water, so they have been at my fountain constantly each day.

I was surprised that I still have one young enough that its beak isn't red yet. Must be the youngest one out there.

"What kind of bird are you?"

I think the male cardinal was puzzled by his "rival" at the suet.

The Cardinals don't often visit the suet feeder. They prefer cracking seeds with those heavy beaks and feed mostly on the ground or suitable feeders. They love the sunflower seeds.

"Hmmmm....I think this guy needs a pretty crest like mine."

This is more typical Cardinal feeding behavior....digging in the leaves for whatever it can find.

They mostly hang out with the House Sparrows, but my Goldfinches have been flying with them, too. They will share at a feeder....unlike some of the greedy birds.

Anywhere they can sit and eat makes them happy. They are very nervous birds and the slightest movement sends them flying away. They often move if they see my focusing light.

Taking a high position with a House Sparrow friend. Probably on guard for the hawk. They are very good at sending out warnings for people, cats, hawks, etc.

SkyWatch Friday.....

It's SkyWatch Friday time!

We had some interesting skies this week on Wednesday.Clouds over the fields.
Heading across Kentucky
Near the Ohio River in Illinois

Illinois highway with clouds.
Those are my skies for this week.

For more skies from all over the world, click on the SkyWatch icon on my sidebar.

Thanks team for all of your work on the SkyWatch site.

Henderson, Ky to Shawneetown, IL......

We decided to go for a drive yesterday. We drove over to Henderson to check on the fields that they are beginning to flood with water for the migrating water fowl that come through this area. One field that it looks like they will be flooding should provide me with some good photos later when the birds arrive....I hope. All we saw yesterday were a few Killdeer......
....and a line of "something" in the distance. Ducks? Maybe I won't have good photos after all unless I buy a scope of some sort.

This Kestrel was getting very irritated with us after we made him move about 3 times. Hey....he could have stayed in one spot and let me take a few photos and we would have all been happy!

This field is usually underwater....not this year. Maybe in another month or so, if we get more rain. I could see some Horned Larks out there, but had trouble getting focused on them. They blend in too well with the dirt.

We decided to head back home by way of Shawneetown, IL because the northbound bridge across the Ohio River at Henderson is having some sort of construction and the traffic was lined up for miles...non-moving...when we passed by heading into Henderson. So we got to view a bit of farm country as we headed southwest to Illinois.

Some horses in a field we passed.

The bridge at Shawneetown......heading upwards!

I was trying to shoot a barge on the river below as we went across the bridge. That dark area at the top of the photo isn't sky...it's a bridge railing.

There are actually 2 Shawneetown's.....Old Shawneetown on the river and New Shawneetown a few miles inland on higher ground. After Old Shawneetown was caught in the big 1937 Ohio River flood, the government encouraged them to move the town. A few stubborn people stayed and now the population of Old Shawneetown is only 278. There is a lovely river view still from the top of the levee.

I liked this cool piece of driftwood!

A tug under the bridge. You can see water level markings on the bridge....very low at this time.

The view up river.

This is an interesting monument to the "Spirit of Shawneetown".

At one time Shawneetown was the US government administration center for the Northwest Territories and was an important town. According to Wickipedia, Shawneetown and Washington DC have the distinction of being the only towns chartered by the US government. I'm not sure I know exactly what that means, but even linking the two seems strange when you see "sleepy" little Shawneetown! There were two really old banks there. One was the first bank in Illinois. This is the Bank of Illinois built in 1839-1841.

I liked the old rail fence along the building.
Somewhere in my reading I saw that the 1937 flood came up to the second story windows of the bank! That is a lot of water....no wonder the town moved to high ground. Evansville was under water in the 1937 flood, too. Anyone alive from back then remembers it well.

The sky in the windows of the bank building.

Shawneetown is also where young sweethearts would run away to get married in the tri-state area, because there was no waiting period. I do some work putting information in a genealogy web site and see many couples that started their marriage over in Shawneetown.

It was an interesting drive across parts of Kentucky and Illinois. We crossed the Wabash River at Mount Vernon, IN which is on the west side of Evansville. So we crossed two large rivers on our round about trip.

Two blessings for the day....

God is good.... Rain!........
.....and squirrels!

I've sure missed these guys, but now that winter is getting near, they are returning and building homes in the oak trees in the back yard.

Hunting for seeds and acorns.

Some wet leaves in the cherry tree.

The cardinals and house sparrows foraging on the driveway.

The rain isn't enough to even soak into the ground good yet....but its a start! I'm hoping for more before the day is out and then hope to begin getting some regularly every week. It's been dry way too long this year.

Home birds....

A few visitors dropped by while I was watching this week. It's so good to see my Downy's out there, but with that hawk hanging around, everyone is nervous.
He was really digging into this hunk of suet cake to get just the right seed.

That's the one!

The Carolina Wren is back and is another drinker that prefers the little cups hanging on the tree. It's a nuisance to keep them filled, but the little birds really like them.

Enjoying the sunshine....a Goldfinch.

Mouteau Park....

I went by Mouteau Park hoping to find some birds and saw more than I expected....mostly birds I see every day at home, but at least I saw birds! My best find was a Yellow-Rumped Warbler. I don't see too many of those or any other warbler.
It had apparently claimed this one tree as "his tree" and stayed in it the whole time I was there.

A bit shady so the shots are dark.

Flew down to a sunnier location once.

A Northern Flicker was searching the ground in the shade, also. There were also a lot of Robins and a few Cardinals in the same trees.

The Flicker on the tree....now if only that little shoot wasn't in the way!

One of the Robins sitting on the post.

On the way into the park, I could see a Kestrel on one of the pipes (this ground is an old landfill and these pipes have something to do with the gases trapped there, I think). I often see the Kestrel there using these pipes as a place to survey the area looking for something to eat. He was way out there, as you can see.