Spring is coming at Blue Grass....

Drove out to Blue Grass yesterday....We were surprised to see that they had done a controlled burn of the entire area set aside for water fowl nesting. Wow...black as far as the eye could see! I guess they know what they are doing. Should make trips there interesting this year as it grows back.
The first bird we saw was this sparrow in a tree. I thought it was a Song Sparrow when I took the photos, but after looking on the computer and at another sparrow we saw, I don't know what it is for sure.

Cropped.....it has the dark chest spot, but doesn't seem like enough stripes.....Savannah maybe?

The other sparrow I took photos of.....same kind? I'm really not very good on sparrows except ones that come to my feeders that I can see close.

Mike spotted this little spider on the car while I was taking photos of Killdeer. We wondered if it was the kind that made strands of web all over the fields we passed.

Killdeer in the parking lot. I'm always afraid we will drive over a nest after the time we almost parked on top of one.

I do love their stripes and their noisy call.

A Robin surveying the scene.

Look at all those nice buds surrounding the Red-Wing Blackbird. We saw them perched everywhere on the tall grasses and the trees giving their buzzing call.

Another high in a tree.

Flying high

The reflections on the lakes were great of the grasses, so of course I took way too many photos. They just looked so pretty in the afternoon sun.

The sun and the water were just right for the reflections.

Blackbird on the grass wanted to reflect, too.......

.....here he is!

As the sun went down the swarms of blackbirds passed overhead in waves.

Spring is coming!

Looking at birds, looking at trees....

Our trip to Wesselman Woods last week, also involved watching birds in their nice viewing area. We didn't see any birds this day that we don't see at home, but it is a very pleasant place to stand or sit and watch for an hour before hiking the trails.
All the birds have bands. Wesselman has a banding program once a year.
Many of the birds liked this feeder.

The Red-bellied waiting his turn.

A Grackle by the water feature.
There are also as many squirrels as I have at home!

One of the injured owls that they are caring for at the nature center.

This beautiful Barn Owl has been there since 2003. It has a very badly dislocated wing that the vet can't fix.

A squirrel in a more natural setting along the trail we walked. Although it didn't seem to mind our presence as it sat grooming itself.

There were several sap buckets hanging on trees because they were getting ready for a syrup making demonstration the next day as well as serving pancakes to earn money for the nature center.

I have a fascination with holes in trees. I always wonder if something lives in the hole and hope that I will see eyes peering out at me.....never happens :-)

Here are a bunch of the tree holes I saw that day.

Big.....

......small......

......the woodpeckers are busy.....

"doughnut hole".

Tree bumps

bumpy bark

Fungi

Nothing terribly exciting, but a nice day of walking and enjoying the nicer weather and seeing what was there.

Squirrel Sunday....

I took these photos of a squirrel eating buds off a tree Friday, so I could show "the Star" how a squirrel is supposed to feed itself in the wild.

Are you watching, Star???

Not every squirrel gets sunflower seeds fed to it every day.

Star?

(Why do I figure this message is falling on deaf ears?)

T is for Turtle.....

We went to Wesselman Woods to watch birds and walk some trails yesterday and I learned something new about turtles! We spotted this turtle at the edge of the pond and I had no idea why its plates looked like this.

So I emailed Tom, at the Ohio Nature Blog who always knows everything about turtles.

Tom's answer: "Many water turtles shed a very thin outer coating of their shells each year. It helps them get rid of parasites and any algae build up on them. It's like a snake shedding its skin.The little pieces slough off- they are made of keratin, the same thing that our fingernails are made of."

Maybe the rest of you already knew that, but I didn't! Thanks, Tom!

I think he looks very blissful basking in the sun. Must be as tired of winter as the rest of us.

Another angle to show how these stick up on each side.

This Red-eared Slider was on a log and we scared him, but he decided to get right back out again as seen below. It was fun to watch him.

Several turtles were swimming around and the water was so clear that I could get good shots. The turtles I see at the wetlands are never this accommodating.

That was our turtle adventures. More from Wesselman Woods on Monday.

SkyWatch Friday....

It's SkyWatch Friday....time to view skies all over the world!

On Wednesday, my sky was very overcast, but it was a great day for checking on the migrating geese and ducks at the Henderson Slough area in Kentucky.An old barn that is falling down.

This one looks in much better shape

Some of the geese and ducks flying overhead.

When we got back home the sky was improving and by Thursday we had sunshine for a change!

Before heading across this bridge to Evansville, we checked the eagle nest area and sure enough, one of the eagles was high in the tree on watch!

We learned later in the day that the female is sitting on eggs already, but the nest looked empty when we took photos. She must have been hunkered down low if she was there. We'll be watching the nest from now on at least once a week.
That's my sky for this week! Click on the SkyWatch icon on the sidebar for more skies around the world.

Thanks SkyWatch team for your faithful hard work to maintain this site!