Moving in!.....

I'm so excited! Yesterday I discovered a chickadee pair moving into the gourd birdhouse I made! Thank you, Eve, for telling me how to make it! I was hoping for wrens, but a Chickadee is even better. We hung this gourd from the old basketball rim at the end of the drive near the maple tree and a lot of bushes and some pine trees of the neighbor's. I didn't think anyone was showing interest and I was just getting ready to have Mike move it to a different location, when the Chickadee came flying out!Coming out.....
....going in

......a little bit of grass......

....maybe a bit of moss. Should be just right!

I hope it is a successful nest! You can bet that I'll be getting some more gourds and making more of these! I'm sorry that you are going to see a lot of photos of this old rusty basketball rim in the near future.

The downy having a snack.

Mrs. Robin hoping around in the dead leaves and such.

Scaring off an intruder from the feeder. Red-Bellied Woodpeckers are masters at intimidation!

Having won the day.....enjoying a little sunflower seed.

The Goldfinches are beginning to change color.

My violets are beginning to take over the yard.

Mouse....contemplating a daffodil (or waiting for a bird)

Later in the day we went to New Harmony and I will post some photos from there tomorrow, but on the way home we saw a Kingfisher up on the telephone wires! That surprised me for some reason. We turned the car around and went back and it turns out the wires were right across from a little creek.

I got a couple of decent shots of him sitting in the tree by the creek. Wish there were not twigs across him.

I can't get over how massive their beaks look!
For a day that began rainy and gloomy, the day ended up sunny and full of surprises!

Blue Grass misc.....

We took a late day drive out to Blue Grass to see what was around. Caught this Canada landing in a field.
The grasses along the lakes were catching the sunlight.

I saw one Grebe out in the water, but as soon as I took a photo, he dived and resurfaced much further away.

We saw several Killdeer. I figure I ought to see some young ones later in the spring.

This one was heading into the grass just as we were leaving.

A hawk was swooping low over the meadow but moving too fast to keep up with. Mike caught one shot as it moved away from us.

We came to this one field that is full of Pear trees! They seemed very out of place in this stripper pit area and had to have been planted there at some time in the past.

I got out to take some closer shots.

We have these all around the town in bloom right now and they really look beautiful.

Such snowy white bloosoms. Won't be long before the Redbuds will be joining them. I need to get some Magnolia photos before it is too late.

It seemed like every little tree and bush had it's own Red-Wing Blackbird settling down for the night.

They sit on the tall grasses, too :-)

Mike took this shot looking out over one of the lakes with a pear tree in the foreground. There were fishermen at each of the lakes, so we didn't see many waterfowl. A few Coots and that one Grebe, and some Canadas nesting down in the cornfield for the night.

My World Tuesday....

It's My World Tuesday and I thought I would post a photo of our "Peace Tree".This tree stands on a corner lot out in the country not far from where I live. I've driven by many times and never knew the story behind it.
The sigh reads:
"International World War Peace Tree
Nov. 11, 1918"
I did a little research on-line and found the following information in an article from our newspaper. The tree is a Linden tree and was brought here to Evansville, Indiana from Germany in 1912 by Joseph Freudenburg. When WWI....."the war to end all wars"....ended, all the local German families gathered for a celebration at this family's home. They had a ceremony to plant the tree on this corner along with a flagpole in honor of peace. Generations of this family have tended it ever since.
The story can be read in more detail here: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/may/25/family-still-tends-ww-i-peace-tree/

That's my world today! For more My World posts, click on the icon on my sidebar.
Thanks to all who host My World.
(my nature post for the day is below this post)

Roosting as the day moves towards evening....

The day started out with taking a few "spring" shots..... A Robin checking out the mulch I put on the wet spot by the garage. Probably be a good place for worms under there.
The flowering Japanese Quince bush is looking prettier every day.

I don't remember what these little bulbs are....I only have a couple of them.

Late in the afternoon we drove to Henderson to check on the eagle and the heron.
It was around 5PM and the Heron were beginning to return to the nests for the night. We've learned that if we go earlier in the day, they aren't there. I wonder if the ones I see at the wetlands in Evansville, fly here for the night....about 8-9 miles as the heron flies? Hmmmm....

Each one was finding a nest and standing around in it.

This one looks like it is pecking at the other one above it.

Flying in to find an empty nest.

It is often hard to tell, but I THINK the eagle is in the nest.

We heard about an area near Angle Mounds in Newburgh where deer and turkeys had been seen in the evening, but struck out on both accounts. Newburgh is a bit further east up the Ohio River. I need to fnd a simple map marked with the places I go regularly. All of it is along the Ohio River area on one side or the other. We saw more birds in the trees.......here a Kestrel, who did not like us and moved to another tree.

There was one very small wet area here that was officially declared a "wetlands" by a sign, so we stopped and checked it out. There were 2 Mallards swimming and eating and this tree that was quickly filling up with Red-Wing Blackbirds for the night.

Dozens were there by the time we moved on.
After driving to the opposite of the city in hopes of seeing wild turkey, where did we finally see one?.......

......on the roadside about 2 miles from our house! We slowed d0wn to take a photo and then tried to move the car up slowly along side to encourage him to get away from the busy road, where by this time he was standing right on the edge.

However, he had his own plans and flew across the road and landed in a tree! I guess he was ready to roost for the night also.

And the Winners are in the Squirrel Sunday Caption Contest.........

This was tough! I liked all of them and would be happy to have thought of all of them myself!
I finally narrowed it down to 3 winners.......I won't rank them.....a 3 way tie!

Here they are in the order they came in:

Joan said:
"So THAT'S where she hides the food!"

Richies said:
"That cloud looks kind of like an acorn."

Shelley said:
"Oh, God, please let it rain acorns!"

All three made me smile and seemed exactly what Star would be likely to say looking at the sky.

So, if these 3 will send me their "snail mail" addresses in an email at mvfreeman@juno.com I will send you a prize.....it may take a week or more before you get it. I'm glad only one of you is overseas!

I thank all of you and Star thanks all of you! I may have to do this again some time!