Autumn Chickadees

Autumn Chickadees

A gray autumn day brightened for a few house hours allowing me to work on the porch (under a blanket) for a bit. Somehow laboring away on my computer while outdoors makes it feel less like work. Camera at the ready I enjoyed the Chickadees zooming in and out. Happy...
Last Days of Summer

Last Days of Summer

This last weekend of summer, I spent two glorious afternoons on the porch. The days are starting frosty, warming up to tolerable by mid-day. Sadly, I took down and packed away the porch screens until next Spring. As much as I loved being able to live on the porch this...
A Captive Target

A Captive Target

Since returning in mid-August from the college drop-off in Ohio, it seems like Autumn has made an early appearance. Today, when it felt warmer outdoors than in, I moved my “office” back to the porch. Gidget was first to alert me that we had an unexpected...
Late Summer Hummers

Late Summer Hummers

I haven’t taken many bird photos this summer; the porch screens interfere with the opportunities. Yet today’s show outside had me washing the sole kitchen window in which I’d left the screen out. A couple of late summer ruby-throated hummingbirds...
A Black Bear Visit

A Black Bear Visit

Sitting here last night snoozing through yet another tv show, I woke to a clanking sound outside. My bird feeder pole is about 10-12 feet from the window, tucked between the house and the woods for optimal photograph opportunities. Lately, a giant raccoon has been...
Pond Invasion

Pond Invasion

This weekend I was following the dragonflies around the yard and landed at the duck pond. A passel of Common Whitetail Dragonflies provided lots of entertainment.   And then I noticed all the floaters in the pond and looked a little closer. Tadpoles. What have to be...
Fleeting Lilac

Fleeting Lilac

My favorite thing about my disorganized, overgrown, under-tended flower garden is the Korean lilac mom gave me years ago. Planted from cuttings, they’ve grown into lush 4′ bushes circling my birdfeeder. It blooms for all but a week in June. For one...
Hummer in the Snow

Hummer in the Snow

May 9 and the weather forecast called for snow. A polar vortex they say. I can’t imagine what my first hummingbird of the season thought of this turn of events. In this one it looks like he’s thinking WTF! My sentiments exactly.
Northern Flicker Courtship

Northern Flicker Courtship

It was so beautiful yesterday that I spent my morning working on the porch. I made it through a Zoom meeting and another couple of hours of work before the sun slipped behind the clouds, chilling things down. It was absolutely lovely. No bugs. The wind chimes were...
Saturday Morning Visitors

Saturday Morning Visitors

Saturday morning visitors enjoying a peaceful nibble by the pond – until Gidget saw them and scared them off. I wonder if they could be the same mama and teen pair from last fall?
Robins

Robins

This morning, I spent a good fifteen minutes sitting on the floor by the French door watching a flock of Robins in the yard. I don’t recall ever seeing more than one or two visiting. This one was quite concerned about threats in the sky. They sure work hard for...
Pull up a chair…

Pull up a chair…

Pull up a chair and enjoy this morning’s entertainment. Paul gave me a bird feeder for Valentine’s Day. While the birds have been slow to enjoy it, not so for the squirrels! There were quite a few visitors today. This big grey. And his girl. This...
Sunday Morning Visitors

Sunday Morning Visitors

While making breakfast this morning, I spotted this deer grazing in the yard between the house and the pond. I quietly, stealthily, went for my camera and was able to snap a few pictures through the French doors before Gidget discovered we had company. I love the...
A Summer of Selfies

A Summer of Selfies

T-1 day. Our last day of the summer before taking Hannah back to college. We spent a few hours in our happy place on this most glorious of summer days. After walking the beach, we parked ourselves of the sand and could have stayed all day if we’d but had the...
Monarch Babies

Monarch Babies

Last month, Hannah and I began collecting Monarch caterpillars. We set them up in a screened in box on the porch and cared for them with Milkweed scavenged from throughout town. The caterpillars still in our garden ate every leaf of all of my Milkweed – all...
Milkweed, Monarchs, and Missteps

Milkweed, Monarchs, and Missteps

Monarchs Butterflies are so fanciful dancing about the Milkweed as if they haven’t a care in the world. They seem to flit about with no rhyme or reason and are difficult to photograph (in focus) during flight. For the past two summers, Hannah and I adopted a few...
The Doodle Dilemma

The Doodle Dilemma

Doodle, our littlest Blue Swedish duck has been broody for about three weeks now. We’ve watched her move her nest from one corner of the coop to another corner with the help of our “ducky cam.” We started noticing eggs that may have been pushed out...
Porch Company

Porch Company

Our new bunny visitor is this young cottontail rabbit (I think). She’s much smaller than the rabbit we typically see hanging around. This little visitor and took up residence on the porch for the afternoon.
Ducky Cam

Ducky Cam

For the second year in a row, we have a broody chicken. And no rooster. Hannah took pity on chicky mama and tucked a few duck eggs under her with hopes that she can finally hatch a baby. What we’ll do if this works, I don’t know. Do the ducks stay with the chickens?...