Category Archives: wildlife

Say hello to my little friend

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The few times I ventured out today I was scolded by a catbird. Now I know they are usually very friendly birds and I have had a few sing to me as I rested in the chaise lounge, putting on a fine show and making me smile. So I figured there may be a young one around somewhere, but where?

After dinner I promised the kitty I’d take him out and he did ‘his usual’- walking, scratching, eating grass and sniffing. We neared a little spirea bush and I felt eyes on me. Sure enough, there was this little fella watching us while mom kept scolding us nearby. I was completely startled for some reason.

Baby catbird
After tying Cos up, I ran in to get the camera and Sean followed me out. I took about 5 photos, probably dazed the poor little thing! I then got it in my head that he was way too close to the ground in this bush (like a few feet up) and that the neighborhood cat or some other critter would eat him as a snack. So I found a stick, hoping he would perch on it, but he just flapped his wings and hopped across the yard to the forsythia along the road. Cos was watching all this and went as far as he could on his harness, creeping along very low to the ground. Birdie must have found his roost as it was quiet once again.

Earlier, Bri came out and planted my three $2 (or so) rose bushes from the Kmart sale. He thinks they are too close together. By the time he planted, I tapped down the soil, found the rose food and watered them, I was pretty sticky. Bri went in the garden to weed around his ‘$15 peppers’ (that’s what I call them as that’s how much they cost) and he was just drenched to the skin. I think we are finally finished planting things! Now we’ll get a heat wave and dry weather so it will be harder on the new plants.

Sean goes for his first fillings ever tomorrow morning and wants me to come along. I hope my post nasal drip and itchy throat will be better by then. Major annoyance the last few days. My eyes have been red too. I was also a little grossed out by boneless turkey breast I had for dinner, it’s rather sticky, but I followed a recipe on the package and it was good! You dip the turkey in a soy sauce and lemon juice mixture. You are suppose to use scallions for the center of the roll-up, but all I had were chives. Stick them on wooden skewers and broil them for 6 minutes on each side.

I hope for a cooking break tomorrow, but I’m not counting on it.

A small request

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Sometimes you read a passage and it touches you. You need others to read it as it needs their attention. Thus was the case with the bio of little Celeste, one of the featured kids on the Make A Child Smile (this link is always in my sidebar)  website for July. This dear child has a rare degenerative disease. She is in a wheelchair and her mom says she is the sweetest girl, especially to her little sister Amira. Amira climbs up on Celeste’s lap to be close to her. From Celeste’s mom- Despite her many limitations, Celeste lives life to its fullest. She has a wonderful sense of humor and has a smile like sunshine. She loves the simple things like sitting outside on a summer day and feeling the breeze in her hair. She loves to go for walks, listen to the birds outside, swing at the park. Celeste will be 8 on the 19th. If you want, I’m sure a card will be greatly received by her. Here’s an Art card I made for her and included with my own card:

Happy Birthday Celeste!

Her name means heavenly or something to that effect.

Also did one to remind me of the friendly catbirds. The background is paper that looks like it is embedded with grass plus a little yellow tissue paper. The bird picture is from an old magazine.

Catbird

And these are Stargazer lilies that I had planted in a pot last summer and nothing came up. I was surprised to see them appear in the spring and then bloom this week.

Stargazer lilies

I saw two ‘firsts’ of the summer- a Monarch butterfly and a hummingbird! It’s about time for the hummer. I have flowers that they love-salvia, nicotiana and the butterfly bush, which the hummer was checking out. The Monarch was just zipping around looking happy to spread it’s wings. A funny sight to me was seeing a bumblebee taking a nap on the middle part of one of the cosmos. I could really get a good look at his furry body, beady black eyes and cool little antenna.

It’s going to be a hot one again this week. Take it easy.

Out my window

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We had a wild thunderstorm pass through right after I caught this groundhog munching on the fallen apples from our tree out back. I took this through the dining room window with the zoom lens. I won’t eat apples off the ground because of all the critters that roam by. Isn’t he funny?

Hungry groundhog

Apparently it rained right over our house and not a mile down the road where Sean was at the video store. He said about two drops came down! As long as I don’t have to drag around the watering can tonight!

And here is one of the friendly catbirds that kept me company and poo all over my outdoor chairs! I just found an illustration of one in my ATC stuff, so I think a card in honor of them is appropriate.

Catbird
And finally, just my one pal and I are doing an ATC exchange on tribe.net this month as our other two pals are busy. I thought of the theme this month-‘Patriotic’ or red, white and blue. This is what I made for her…
Gret’s card

Close encounters

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Tonight around 7 pm, I stepped out the back door to check plants and there about 40 off feet in front of me was a deer, probably eating the little sour green apples on the ground. I’ll say ‘she’. She turned around and went down the hill a bit. I started talking to her like I do Cosmo, in a high sweet voice. She moved her ears like she was tuning in. She walked on a little and stopped and listened as I walked down to the patio. She flipped her white tail and casually walked on like she was tame. They usually run away fast as lightning. Of course I was thinking about my ‘dear’ grandmom today as she passed on 7 yrs ago.

We watched the special on William and Harry the Princes tonight. Everyone my age watched them grow up like our own children. They are pretty nice young men. They were interviewed by Matt Lauer. There will be a charity concert in their mum’s honor on July 1st which would have been Diana’s 46th birthday.

Spider saga

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Yesterday I noticed a very large (about the circumference of a quarter), bumpy looking spider swimming around in the pond. At first I thought it was a water spider, but after glancing on a web, it sure looks like a wolf spider. The ‘bumps’ were her offspring clinging to or running around her back. You should see this photo full size-eeks! (I have to do a major crop for most of my photos for the blog).  Bri asked if I had rescued her and I said no. Not a big spider fan. Today, well there she was sorta clinging to part of a leaf I had tossed in to give her some help yesterday. I got my old metal strainer and swooped her and the kiddos up. She was a bit dazed and confused. I did rescue a few kids still in the pond with a blade of grass. Here is my brave rescue attempt and some garden captures.
Ms. Wolfie spider

Basil

Basil

First sweet peas
Sweet Pea

Lilies of the field
Lilies
Still feeling a little malaise. My tummy, my lower back, my temp tooth and now the top of my right foot. The tummy-Equalactin and Activia yogurt. The back-Icy hot rub. The tooth-getting the permanent crown tomorrow. The foot-not sure. I read it could be a fracture-but it doesn’t hurt that bad. Also read you can get it from stepping in a hole which I remember doing! We use to have a small lilac on the side of the house. It died and was pulled out and a crater was left behind. First Sean tripped in it and then I did. I did put some dirt in most of it over the weekend.
Please send good vibes for my trip next week-geez.
Off in a few to get my hair fixed-that should boost my spirits.

So close

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We had a little friend poking around the brush out back today. We used the new camera and quickly switched to the zoom. I like the continuous shot mode. This is the best of the bunch. She was about 20 feet away. This was taken through the family room window.

A deer visit

Photo Hunt-WILD

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I am lucky to have a nice sized yard (1.4 acres) and we see lots of wildlife. My favorite wild things are the mostly Leopard frogs who sometimes live in my 50 gallon pond. I took this a few years ago. This little guy is next to an old piece of tv glass-my husband’s uncle use to work at Corning glass.

PSHunt
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Froggie pal

Amazing Bird Photographer

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I was reading The Kennett Paper (local weekly) that had a story on Kim Steininger, a local award winning bird photographer taking the big prize from the National Wildlife Federation in 2005. You have to see her amazing owl shot- it’s swoping toward her! Kim does volunteer work at the Tri-State Bird Rescue as seen below helping out a Red-throated loon. Click photo to see the loon.
Kim rescuing a loon