Blue Grass birds.......

The day we went to Blue Grass we saw a wide variety of birds.

This was a new one for me......an adult breeding Spotted Sandpiper, according to Sibley!

It was darting in and out among the cattails along one of the lakes.

Several types of wildflowers were blooming.

The tree top sitting birds were in abundance in the meadows......a Dickcissel......

.....a Meadowlark......

......everywhere the Meadowlark went this Red-winged Blackbird followed it.

I took this distant shot to show what a lovely day it was.  That's another Red-wing Blackbird sitting on top of the little fir tree.

A female Red-wing Blackbird flew out of the brush and landed in the parking lot where we were sitting in the car.  I had been taking some flower photos and I wonder if I got close to her nest and she was trying to distract me from that area.

Daisies

Grackle

Great Blue Heron hiding in the cattails.  There were two fishermen on the opposite bank a little further down.  I was surprised that the heron didn't mind.

.......a strike!  Must have been good fishing for everyone.

Thistle

Not open thistle

Goldfinch

Brown Thrasher.

A good day for the birds!  We saw a few others as well.  

Killdeer bath time....

We went to Blue Grass FWA last week and one of my favorite things was watching this Killdeer take advantage of the puddles to have a nice bath.  I'm glad to know all our rain is good for something.

Reflecting

OK.....get ready for the plunge

Wiggle all over

Rest a minute

Wiggle some more......

....head dunk!

Ah....that felt good

"What a great day for bathing!"

"I'm so pretty....oh, so pretty....and clean"

Steam Cliff Farm Winery......

We visited several of the southern Indiana wineries while on our trip.  Apparently the southern Indiana area is very similar to the Rhine Valley in Europe and we have lots of German heritage in the southern Indiana area.  This winery....Steam Cliff Farm Winery....also had a tea room, farm market, plants for sale and gardens.  A beautiful place!  Unfortunately we arrived at the same time as a big bus load of tourists and could not get in the tea room for lunch :-(  Maybe another time.

Some of the roses around the tasting room.

I enjoyed sitting on this rustic porch.

Notice the quilt square on the side of the building.  I was looking at it when I became aware of a lot of noise and activity at that gourd you see hanging there.......

Papa House Sparrow has arrived with food for the babies! 

The minute he would land, two very hungry little beaks would stick out of the hole awaiting whatever he had!

This one was very impatient!

You can just see the other one behind it.  I only saw two.

"Feed me!  Feed me!  Feed me!"

Poor Papa....he looked worn out.  I never saw a female anywhere around.

The barn had two quilt squares, but there were so many cars I couldn't get a good photo.

This was a nice suprise!  A Quilt Designed Garden.  I wandered through and will admit that I could only recognize where two of the quilt gardens were.  Mike spotted the Grandmother's Fan and I think the Log Cabin is around the statue below.  You would have to be overhead to really tell what was what, but it was a very peaceful place.

Some mossy rocks in the water feature.

A statue in the center.

Vine covered arches.

Plants for sale!  Another reason for the crowd....it was opening day for selling the plants or something like that.

A bunny

A miniature house in one garden.

This area is where the Grandmother's Fan garden is, but you can only tell by the shape of the beds.

Lovely garden ornaments everywhere.

Beyond the Herb garden.....goats!

Belinda knew just how to make this goat really happy :-)

"What about me?"

A beautiful place to visit and relax and taste some wines.  Maybe next time we can try to food in the tea room.

Blogger problem?

Is anyone but me having trouble leaving comments on the blogs that have the embedded comment form at the end?  I have tried on two today.....Grammie G and Roy's (just so you know that I am trying!)  It tells me to sign in.....then still calls me "anonymous" on the comment.....and won't leave the comment.  It just keeps taking me back to sign in.  I don't understand it, but I may not be commenting on that type of blog for awhile.

Meyer Cabin and barn at Muscatatuck......

Located on the Muscatatuck property is an old log cabin and barn that have been kept up nicely.  There are displays inside the cabin behind plexiglass, but hard to take photos.  I took a lot of photos wandering around the outside area.  This is just a bunch of them.  I have little to say about them.  The family that lived and farmed here was named Meyer and it hasn't been that long since the property was turned into part of the wildlife refuge.  I've misplaced one of my brochures with the info about the cabin.

The view of the cabin walking back from the barn.......home at the end of a long days labor.