Spring keeps getting better

Love birds are flying everywhere. They are fighting over the boxes, but I am sure soon they will have all that straightened out between them.My small purple wisteria. And my white wisteria on the arbor in the backyard. Someday it will be as large as the one we had in Halls, but it still has a way to go.

Eagle at Tierra Verde, Florida

I took these photographs February 2011. I posted photographs taken February 2009 at the same location, click here to see the earlier post. The photographs then were of what I thought was a 3rd year eagle. So is this the 5th year, or has the 3rd year eagle gone and this is one of the original parent eagles?

Sorry, the photographs aren't closer, there is a pond between the nest and me. With signs that people are not allowed any closer, due to the eagle nest.

I retire the end of the month. I will see if I am able to get back to blogging, or if retirement will still have me too busy to sit in front of a computer.

Babies in the trees

Not sure what the baby birds are. We have a row of 14 Leyland Cypress that we planted in October of 2004 when we purchased the property.

This year they have been full of nest. A few weeks ago Jimmy took Mason to see the baby birds. So a week ago when they were at the house Mason wanted to go see the baby birds. Papa (Jimmy) had to explain the baby birds were already gone.

But then Saturday afternoon we found yet another nest with more babies. They will probably be gone before Mason comes back this coming weekend.

Eastern Bluebird in my yard

Even though I don't get much computer time, I do still take the camera outside.

And I do still have birds in the yard, although these photographs were taken a couple of months ago (May, 2010). They are also greatly cropped.

Eastern Bluebirds are the first birds I ever really noticed.
They were my earliest bird watching.

Someday I will actually retire and watch the birds more often, probably while I sit on the back porch and knit.

Jimmy must be planning on me doing that some in Rockwood, he just finished a deck there. Think that is a hint for me to retire and be there with him full time?

Florida Hawk at resort

Supper time at the condo, but I think I got too close before he captured his supper.

We went to the park to see the Hawk and Osprey.

Didn't see either one, when we got back to our time share this Hawk was there.

I think it is a Florida Red Shoulder (which apparently look different than other Red Shoulder Hawks), but it could be the Broad Shoulder. A lady there told me it was a "Golden". Think she was thinking of eagles, which I do know it isn't an eagle.

This last photo was the second before it took flight.
Don't really care which type Hawk, he was just pretty to look at.

Oh, and if anybody is interested in the upper left corner is my Etsy site, you can see what I have been spending my time doing. As I list new purses they change there and you can keep an eye on my lastest listings. Right now I am knitting on a Red, White and Blue purse. Hopefully it will be listed in the next week.

Heron at Lake Seminole Park

I am not exactly sure which bird this is.
I did eliminate the Bittern, because he is not brown.

From a distance I told Jimmy it was a Green Heron.

But when I saw that LONG neck I decided it was not,
but the body is so small compared to the neck.
Sorry that the photos are not better.
The light was bad, and there was a chain link
fence between us, although the bird is not captive.

I have now decided again that it is a juvenile Green Heron.

My reference book is the Sibley Guide to Birds, page 64,
best I can tell Ninth Printing (pages could vary).

But what happens to that neck as it matures?

What does everybody out there think it is?

Snowy Egret -- St Pete Beach

All of these photographs of the Snowy Egret were taken
at sunset along St Pete Beach, Florida.
This Egret has one injured leg, but he did fine with it.
We saw him several different days along the edge of the water.

More Hummingbirds from visit with Alice

More Ruby Throated Hummingbirds from my visit with Alice in Deer Lodge, Tennessee. Alice has counted 10 at one time at the feeder. And I believe it. They were buzzing all around us, sometimes chases straight through the porch. Glad I didn't decide to stand up right at that moment.
She just has one feeder too. So it doesn't take more to get more Hummingbirds. If she has more than one they just go to the 2nd one when the first one is empty, they prefer this feeder. So she just uses the one feeder, and fills it every morning. She uses 5 lbs of sugar every week. Wonder if she put them on a diet when the bags changed to 4 lbs.

She said last year her count was way down, but back up this year. I have never seen a small number at her house, I think she has more than 10, that is just the number she has been able to count as they hover around this one feeder.

And we all prefer the ones without the feeders in the photograph, but they are harder to photograph that way too.

Then one out of my archives, from my feeders in 2007. This one was taken with my Fuji point and shoot, but it is still one of my all time favorites.

Hope you have enjoyed the Hummingbirds, it will probably be my only post this year of the Hummingbirds since I don't have feeders up. If you didn't see it, please look at the post below, it explains why I don't have feeders.

Hummingbird Clearwing

This female Ruby Throated Hummingbird also appears to have clear wings, but this is the bird, not a moth. I took this at my friend Alice's house in Deer Lodge, Tennessee. I went to spend the day with her Tuesday because I had not seen her in 5 years. Her husband asked me how many Hummingbirds I killed....he said I had been shooting them all day. I hate to admit it, but I did take a lot of photographs, and this is the only one this good straight out of the camera, no cropping to this photograph.

I started going to Alice's house 25 years ago, so I am not sure when, but I photographed my first hummingbirds sitting in almost the same exact spot as I was when I took this one. First Hummingbird I ever saw was right there too.