Spring birds in the yard....

I've been enjoying the mild weather and sitting in the yard a lot so here are a few spring visiting birds at my feeders.

The most noticeable spring time visitor is always the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.  They come through for about a month and them move on northward. 

 The male is so strikingly beautiful.

The female is less colorful but still a beautiful bird.

Another summer visitor is the Indigo Bunting.  There are times when my driveway is filled with red birds, blue birds and yellow birds....making a really colorful array!

This one was a wonderful surprise because I have not seen one in my yard before!  I believe this is the Great Crested Flycatcher and God sent him on my birthday, so I thought that was a pretty nice present!

 The Chipping Sparrow is one of my favorites.  Very small and quiet.  It just hops around in the drive looking for food.

 I've had a lovely male Towhee showing up occasionally.

 The Goldfinch male is in his summer bright yellow.

We had a swarm of bees pass through the neighborhood!  Mike was out walking and spotted them just as they landed on this tree.  So he came home for the camera and went back for photos.  They stayed for a couple of days and them moved on.

 We have had two pair of Wood Ducks on the lake this year.  I can't seem to get good photos of them.

One of my year round favorites....the Downy woodpeckers

 A White-throated Sparrow.  

 The female Red-Wing Blackbird is a daily visitor.

A pair of the male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.

And back at the wetlands checking on my Eastern Phoebe, I watched it finding bugs to take to its nest, which seems to be under the old iron bridge where I stand to watch turtles.  I need to go back this week and see if there are any little birds flying around yet.  I hope I get to see them.

Eastern Phoebe or Eastern Wood-Peewee???.....

It was great weather for a walk at the wetlands!  The best part of the day for me was this pretty little bird.  I'm never good at identifying these cute little bug eating birds.  I spent about a half hour watching this one flit around from post to bush to tree.  It was a very good photo subject :-)  I really lean toward Phoebe for the ID, but I don't remember noticing the tail wagging it is suppose to do.  Maybe it is something totally different?

 I don't usually find a bird so willing to pose from every angle.

 A fortunate shot as it took off.

And what would a walk at the wetlands be without a few turtle shots of the hundreds of turtles that live there.

 They were filling every log they could find that was above the water level.

Can you count them, Rose? :-)

And this spider eating a damselfly was interesting?

Just found out that this is a Six-Spotted Fishing Spider.  Makes sense since it was fishing in the creek.

Maybe with the weather getting nice, I will get out more and get some photos taken.  We are in the process of trying to sell our house and downsize, but so far no takers.  It is a frustrating process and a slow one.  Getting out was a nice change of scenery.

Kentucky.....home of Corvettes, historical sites, quilt barns, woodchucks, and butterflies...

We just spent a few days in Kentucky and enjoyed  a nice variety of things.  The scenery in southern Kentucky is beautiful and if you like winding roads they have plenty of them!  Too bad we were not in a sports car!  We stopped off in Bowling Green for Mike to visit the National Corvette Museum and also another History Museum, and to drink some White Squirrel microbrewed beer.  Then headed further south while following a quilt barn trail for me to enjoy, and ended up in Barren River State Park to relax for a couple of days.

Didn't see a lot of birds, but saw lots of butterflies.  Several times we found a bunch that were gathered in wet areas with minerals or other attractions such as food or bird poop.

 Saw quite a few of these Admirals during the time we were there.

 I didn't look this up but think it is the Hackberry Emperor opened up.  I don't usually get to see that view!

 This was a whole bunch enjoying the puddles along the side of a road near a ford over the water.

A Tiger Swallowtail 

Didn't look these up yet...Checkerspots maybe?....and a little Hairstreak at the lower left. 

 Someone tossed a melon rind in the yard outside our window at the Inn in the park and it was attracting all sorts of butterflies.

A Comma or Question Mark on the left, a Hackberry and a Harvester spider?

 

the Hackberrty and the Question Mark 

3 Silver Spotted Skippers with an Admiral

 The melon also attracted this fat Woodchuck each afternoon we were there and he did not like the butterfly that kept landing on his nose :-)  Hackberry butterflies are very friendly.

 He did like the melon, however.

 I brought him a biscuit from breakfast one morning and a few chunks of melon.  

 Gray Squirrel hiding nuts.

 There were several Starlings that seemed to have white heads?

Vulture in the tree.

Have to include at least one shot of the beautiful scenery. 

 I liked the reflections

Interesting round hole area in the rocks 

 Some fishermen enjoying the day

 Fort William , which is surrounded on all sides by a large cemetery.

 Mike and the cannon

One of the strangest grave monuments I have ever seen....this lady in a chair sitting way up high on a tall monument! 

At the old Mulkey Meetinghouse site we saw the grave of Hannah Boone. 

There were many Revolutionary war monuments in this little cemetery.  I always enjoy wandering around cemeteries for some reason.

 I guess I should include at least one Corvette from the museum!  I liked this one.

 Mike really likes the yellow.

The most interesting exhibit was about the sinkhole that opened up under the floor of the museum in 2014 and 8 Corvettes were sucked in.  They had neat videos and information about how they got them back out.  4 were not restorable....like this one :-( 

They just happen to have an exhibit on Indy cars while we were there, so that was a bonus!  This one is the same age as Mike and I :-)