Cardinal's posing....

These two Cardinals were posing so nicely, I thought it looked like a courtship. "Oooo......there's a handsome dude!"
"I hope she notices me"

"I'll try the sweet and shy look"

"Maybe my 'ah shucks, I'm just a country boy" look will get her!"

"He's looking right at me! Stay calm!"

"Hello, my name is Big Red"

"Glad to meet you, Big Red....."

"Want to buy me lunch?"

A few morning visitors.....

A couple mornings ago, I had a lot of birds out at the feeder and got a few shots. Titmouse!
"She bought more peanuts! Yeah!"

"Save some for me!"

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Wren

Wren again

Mockingbird among the maple tree flowers! I took this as much for the flowers as the bird. Spring must be coming....the trees think it is.

"Did you say spring?"

male House Finch

This morning I spooked THREE hawks from my trees when I went outside to feed the stray cat. Of course, I didn't happen to have my camera in my hand!!! One was screaming its head off....very vocal, so I figure it was a Red-shouldered hawk.

Northern Flicker.....

I don't very often see this woodpecker at my house, so I was thrilled when Mike spotted it out poking holes in the dam looking for ants? Sibley says that is their favorite food. A handsome male.....as shown by the black malars.
Both male and female have the little red crescent on the nape of the neck.

In most of these photos you can see the dirty end of its bill showing how far it was stabbing it in the ground.

I hope it sticks around....we usually have plenty of ants.

Now how do I control the ants that want to come in the house without poisoning the woodpeckers or other birds? We always have ants when spring arrives.

Not much happening....

I'm still around....just not much happening for photos. Haven't had as many birds at the feeders, and the weather has been gloomy the last few days. But I took a few today just to let you know I was still here! Big Red.....one of my male Cardinals.

A House Finch male.

A Grackle.

I don't get them often, but one has shown up and likes this big suet feeder. A very large bird....about 12" and with a long keel shaped tail.

A better look at his tail.

Always have plenty of Downy's around.

Goldfinch....still in winter colors.

A feeder full of birds.

Illinois this and that......

I didn't really take any photos over the weekend, so these are left from our drive over in Illinois. Not as neat as the big barn quilt squares, but someone cleverly painted a clothesline of quilts on their little barn :-)
Grayville, IL had a very colorful water tower!

It looks more like a hot air balloon....maybe that was the idea.

I liked this house on the main street, too. I've always thought I would like to live in a big old fashioned house like this....except for the heating bills....and the cleaning....

Another beauty.

I'm assuming the roof is very old!

Behind it was another building that had an interesting top. This building has had siding put on and the very back side is red fake looking brick-like material. A long building ran along the side towards the street and almost looked like an old motel or something. Made me real curious about what all this house and other buildings might have been in the past.

A close up of the top.

Not sure which lake this was, but on a gray day they all looked about the same....cold!

There were two martin houses that were badly in need of painting.

When we stopped to photograph the barn and horses.....

......we realized there was a buggy inside....Amish?

Vulture.....but I thought it looked like the trees were reaching out to grab it.

I did count my birds on Saturday at home for the GBBC and was happy that most of the regulars showed up. I wish they would do the count a little earlier and I would have had a lot more birds.

Morning, noon, and night.....

When I stepped out on the deck yesterday morning to fill the feeders I was greeted..... ....by this Carolina Wren. There were actually two of them, but I didn't get a photo of them together.

I would like to say that it is "singing".....but it was making the noise that I best describe as a loud "squawk". I may be hard of hearing, but I doubt that I will ever miss hearing a Wren....they are so loud!

Later in the morning Mike spotted a group of 5 Canada Geese and a group of 5 Mallards on our pond.

We usually have at least one pair of each attempt a nest somewhere along the edge of the pond, or on the neighbor's pond, or along the ditch. Sometimes they are successful and we see babies, sometimes not.

The early morning light made for some interesting photos....not so good of the duck, but I love the water effects! Mike took most of these.

Another water "art" squiggle photo. I think it is "duck calligraphy" and we just don't know what it says :-)

I like the light ripples here, too.

Mike also has discovered where the mystery cat that we call "Shadow" hangs out. He has seen Shadow disappear into that pipe in the earth twice. Mike says it would be pretty warm in there over the winter. It runs under the road on the other side of our pond. We still don't know who owns Shadow, if anyone does. There are new people living in that house and Shadow has been around for 5 years or more.

A mid-day shot. We drove through Mouteau Park to see if we could hear any Meadowlarks yet. I know they will start singing soon in this lovely weather. We didn't find any yesterday, but there were Robins everywhere.

Just to show that hawks don't always cooperate for me :-) I had just clicked the button when it decided to vacate the branch. A Red-shouldered Hawk.

And what a gorgeous and perfect full moon last night! I'm always amazed that our cameras now are good enough to show the craters along the edges.

This photo is with the extender lens on the camera. I can see a bit more detail on the surface of the moon, but not really that much more than with my regular camera lens. I found a picture below that identifies what I was seeing. The Mare Crisium (Sea of Crisis) is at the top of my moon and the two "spidery" looking craters at the lower part are Copernicus and Tycho.

I found this picture on Wikipedia to identify what is in my photo. However, this is turned about 90 degrees from my photo.

I wish that I knew a way to photograph stars. This is Orion's Belt. LOL! I was surprised that I even got that much and played around with the color a bit to make it show better.