Cars and Coots....

Sunday afternoon we went two different places. First we went to an Old Tyme Auto Club car show at the mall..... I was more interested in the bits and pieces then the actual cars. Mike will probably post more of the cars in his blog soon. There is another collage of some red wheels in my This, That and the Other Thing blog.
I did like this old Packard that was owned by General Pershing during the war years.

All about the Packard.

Then we drove to Blue Grass Wildlife area to see if there were any interesting birds there.

It had gotten very cold as the sun was getting lower and the lakes were all choppy and not very inviting looking. This particular lake look nice in the light.....

....and there were a whole flock of Coots getting ready to spend the night sheltered away from the wind. I felt bad for disturbing them, so I stayed in the car and didn't take any close-up shots. There were about 30 of them!

One hawk soaring high as we headed home.

And lots of blackbirds getting ready to settle in this field! There were 1000's of them all in this one corner.

That's it! Not a lot, but at least something. Back home the birds have been scarce and uninteresting again. Maybe tomorrow will be better. It is suppose to warm up as the week progresses.

February bird list

My final February bird list from my yard:


28. Pileated Woodpecker
27. Mallards
26. UFH (unidentified flying hawk!)
25. White-Breasted Nuthatch
24. Song Sparrow
23. Pine Siskin
22. Purple Finch
21. American Robin
20. Eastern Towhee
19. Black-Capped Chickadee
18. American Tree Sparrow
17. Red-Wing Blackbird
16. Hairy Woodpecker
15. Red-Bellied Wookpecker
14. Cowbird
13. Starling
12. House Sparrow
11. House Finch
10. Blue Jay
9. Mockingbird
8. Mourning Dove
7. Titmouse
6. White Throated Sparrow
5. Goldfinch
4. Carolina Wren
3. Junco
2. Downy
1. Cardinal

Ohio Nature Blog....a new nature lover is born!

Tom and Megan had their baby! If you've never been to Tom's Ohio Nature Blog, it's super and go congratulate them!

Henderson Slough revisted....

We figured it was time to check up on the geese and ducks at the Henderson Slough. We've been told they are heading more towards Hovey Lake on our side of the river and that more were on their way up from down south. We'll have to make a trip to Hovey this next week.As we turned onto the road headed to the slough I spotted a hawk on a pole. Just as we turned the corner....with traffic on our tail.....he dived to the ground to pounce on something. By the time we turned around and went back and slowed down....he flew back up on a pole. Not sure if he has the catch with him or not.
There was some recent rain, so enough water in the fields to make the ducks and geese happy. Any field with a puddle had a group of something in it. Here it was Mallards.

Some geese coming down into the cornfield.

This field was White-Fronted Geese and Canadas mixed.

The big flooded field where I had seen swans before now had ducks and we believe those are gulls on the far side.

The duck mixture were Mallards, Shovelers, and Pintails. Maybe a couple other things I wasn't sure about. I thought I saw Ring Necked in one photo and maybe Wigeons.
I'm so short I have trouble shooting over the grass at the edge of the field which is elevated from the road.

Mixture of ducks

Shovelers hanging out by themselves.

What are these 2 behind the Shoveler?? I see a white "spot" on the side, but can't find anything that seems to fit that? They look larger than the Shoveler. Maybe they are just Mallards.

I climbed one of the viewing platforms in this area and watched the geese landing.

Coming in!

Ready to touch down.

A large field was full of them with more coming in.

This water area was in front of the field I just showed. The view from the stand was pretty good!

I wasn't the only one watching them!

At another roadside puddle, Mike spotted these on his side of the car, so I handed over the camera :-) Snipes? Not a bird I know, but that seems to be what photos they look most like.

A pretty bird!

The two of them were happily feeding until I tried to get out of the car to get closer. Sigh...I should know better, but I get so anxious to see better! Must get binoculars for car. I always forget them.

That was our day in Henderson! I'll always be grateful to the friend of Mike's who told us about this place and intend to visit every year at migration time.

Squirrel Sunday.....

(I took these before I went on vacation, but haven't had the opportunity to post them) A sunny day at the feeder out back. Just perching and eating.....life it good!

A disgruntled Cardinal wanting to know when it is his turn!

These 2 were busy eating towards each other (cardinal is still disgruntled)..... .....finally they were so close their noses almost touched. Sort of like watching Lady and the Tramp without the spaghetti! However, when they realized they were that close, the one on the right jumped off the rail to the bench below. Guess they weren't feeling "lovey dovey" :-)

I like the waving tail in the sunlight!

I guess this is "The End"

Hmmmm....I get upset when someone takes a photo like this of me. I'm sorry Star (but I'm still going to post it)!