I really need a vacation.....

This is so ......nothing.

I took 12 photos yesterday and these 3 were the best, which is not saying much! My birds have apparently already gone on vacation without me.

The weather was like spring and there were almost no birds out there whenever I looked out the window!

The cardinals were enjoying themselves but that was it!
Maybe that hawk is still hanging around that flew through last week.

Maybe I'm in a photo slump. I may just take the rest of the week off, if nothing pops up worth posting.
We head for Tucson this weekend and I know that I'll take lots of photos there :-)
My birds better come and enjoy their food now, because they won't get any next week!

Skeins of geese and an owl in the moonlight....

Almost all of these photos are taken by Mike since I was always on the wrong side of the car for the things we saw. We drove up to Blue Grass late in the afternoon. On the way there we saw huge skeins of geese flying north! I've never seen such long lines and so many of them....one wave after another.
This was one of the closest shots....we pulled off in a parking lot.

Big vees and little vees!

I was amazed at the numbers

We got to Blue Grass just in time .....

....for the moon rising in front of us over the first lakes......

.....and the sun getting low behind us in the west. Not sure what this is, but got a couple shots of it.

It has a beak that extends down, if you pull it up larger......hawk?

Blackbirds were beginning to roost in all the trees....

About that time Mike spotted the owl on his side of the car.

An owl in the moonlight! How cool! The photo makes it look darker than it was. The sun was still up....barely.

This was the best shot he got with its head turned towards us. We have no idea what kind it is, although I have been pouring over the guide books. I wish the photos were better, but I was just thrilled to see one at all. Of course this is nowhere near my house, so I don't get to count it for the February count....shucks!

Trying to focus on both the owl and the moon was tough.

It was getting dark fast, so we headed on around the lakes and back towards the way out.

As we passed the last corn fields, suddenly geese began coming in large numbers to land for the night. I like this first shot because you can see a flock of small birds at the top of the photo heading towards the lakes and the trees to roost and the geese landing in the fields nearby.

The light was getting bad but they appeared to be mostly Canada geese. We saw a few white heads in the mix......maybe the dark Snow Geese.

We were passing the camera back and forth as Mike shot them landing on his side and I tried for shots of them crossing over from my side. Would have been a good time to have both cameras with us!

Geese in the air, geese in the field.
It was an exciting afternoon with all the activity and the owl was a real treat!

Squirrel Sunday....

Why Squirrels don't go get pedicures or have their nails clipped.Diagnosing the problem.....
...No problem!
He hung like this for at least 15 minutes without resting those toes!
(I apologize for the quality of these, but I had to shoot through our curved plexiglass skylights)


Does this look comfortable??????
This is why I figure they deserve all they can get.....they work so hard for it!

Ann at Moseplasse has her cute little squirrel peeping out of the snow today. I like his ear tufts.

It's hard for me to believe....

....but I didn't take a single photo yesterday! Didn't even pick up the camera! After falling on the ice the day before I spent most of the day sitting with an ice pack on my knee to hurry the swelling down. Just didn't do a thing all day. Stupid ice....stupid knee...stupid me for trying to walk on the stupid ice.

A few shots from the day before that I didn't post yet. Red-Bellied Woodpecker peeking at me
Red-Bellied Woodpecker female normal.....

.....and with a dye job :-) The things we do when we are bored. I did a whole series of them to make a collage....except I don't know how to make a collage and don't think I have a program that will make a collage. Oh, well.

Dove sitting

Dove eating

That's it for the left overs.
Here's a little video I took a a Downy trying to sneak some food from the suet block that a Starling was eating from. Hard to see the starling in the lower right corner.

SkyWatch Friday....Hatching a full moon!

It's SkyWatch Friday time! Hatching a full moon!

I couldn't resist trying this.....not perfect but the best I could do straight out of the camera and cropped. If I crop closer it begins to lose too much clarity.
It was a lovely moon coming up long before dark so photos were in abundance.

Tangled in our Maple tree.

Over the dome skylight


Now for nature....

I finally got a photo of a Junco in the tree instead of on the ground!

I wish he would pose more often.

I made a quick stop at the wetlands, but after seeing the frozen boardwalks and falling on my rear in the frozen grass, there was no way I was going for a walk. Maybe this weekend.

I did take a sky shot while I was there, so all was not lost.

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Thanks to Klaus, Ivar, Fishing Guy, Sandy, Louise, Wren.... who help host this site!