Merry Christmas To All.

Birding after a Blizzard

We have had snow the last week.  Most recently the last couple of days have been yucky with rain, heavy wet slush and heavy wet snow.  We finally have clear skies this morning and shovel the driveway for the last time (for awhile anyway).  After we finished the driveway this morning, I decided to go fill the bird feeders since I've let them sit empty for way too long.

I got my buckets of seed, and walked out through the snow (and frozen slush) and find that a couple of the feeders are pretty iced up, and I just took those down to bring into the garage to thaw a bit.  The one feederis a wooden platform type .. so I was able to knock off enough snow and ice to make it still usable, and filled it up with Sunflower seed.  I was hoping the birds would find it.  I hadn't seen many birds in the yard for a month or more (empty feeders .. :(   )

They did! :)  Here are a few pictures from today.

First I saw the Black Capped Chickadee.  Even caught one in flight.  They are fast birds, and hard to get a good photo of because they dart here and there very quickly!

To see the pictures bigger - just click on one.

Then I saw some Mourning Doves....

More Chickadee :)

Then I discovered the Juncos had found the seed as well!

 More Chickadee action.

I think the following few pictures are of a American Goldfinch.

Another shot of a Junco.

Here is a Mourning Dove and what I think is probably a female finch..House Finch maybe?

This one I had to look up, but I think it's an American Tree Sparrow. :)  The bi-colored bill I think is the clincher for this ID. (you can see it bigger if you click on the picture)

I can't remember if this following picture is the American Tree Sparrow or if this is a different bird. 
Most likely it's a American Tree Sparrow .. but if you think differently, let me know by commenting!!

Another photo of Chickadees on the feeder.

A closeup :)

Last - a chickadee in the bush/tree.

Hope you enjoy :)

Snowy Owl in Sheboygan

So, a few weeks back, at the beginning of the month .. December 2nd to be precise... the family drove up to Sheboygan.  I had been hearing on the web that there was a Snowy Owl frequenting the Marina there, and I have never seen a snowy owl in person before (in the wild, I may have seen one at the zoo) .. Anyway .. I didn't hold much hope, because I don't seem to have much luck seeing these birds that others say are "right there".  I love watching birds, and I would love to be able to see and identify many more, but the timing just isn't right most of the time.  Anyway, to make a long story short, I saw it! :)

DH was kind enough to stop the van and we saw this Snowy Owl just north of the marina on some rocks.  The lake was very low from what I've seen before ...  There were also Mallards just south of this, but I didn't get pictures of them.

Sorry for the not so good quality.  It was getting dark and my little "coolpix" camera doesn't do well in low light.

November Happenings

November had several events in it. Not to mention Thanskgiving! 

First of all, we went on a geocaching walk with some friends.

Seth had fun finding the caches.

Joel really enjoyed walking our friends' dog, Cinnamon.

I think even Rob enjoyed it.  Although he got cold.

I know I enjoy geocaching.  If you are ever interested in learning more .. there is a great website here.  I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can find more caches :)

I made this frame.  I'm not overly thrilled with it, but it's the first time I've done decoupage or painting in a very long time.  So, overall, not a terrible effort.  I need to get a 4x6 print of the boys made so that I can put it in this frame.

Since I had paints out, and had purchased some canvases as well, Joel wanted to make a couple paintings himself.  He gave this one to Gma Stohr.

I finished knitting two pairs of fingerless mitts.  I was going to make just one pair for myself, but the k2tog going in two opposite directions looked .. well, not matching, so I made the exact same pattern twice so that I could have pairs of matching mitts.  I gave one pair away in a gift exchange we did at church.  I can tell you a bit more about that in a later post.

Then of course we come to Thanksgiving.  I'll post just a couple of my favorite pics. 

I think this is a really good one of my sister :)

I love the look of surprise on mom's face. :)

After spending Thanksgiving at my sister's, we drove to Altoona and met up with a good friend.  I finished these two items to give toher as a pre-Christmas gift.

We drove on home after meeting for lunch with Mich. :) 

Right after this, that Sunday, I walked in a Christmas Parade for our church.  Well, that must have been what a virus was waiting for, because I got a really bad bad cold that night and through the next week.  DH was so nice to me, after he realized I was indeed feeling miserable, he brought me a dozen roses :)  They were very pretty.  Just wish they would have lasted longer!

One of the buds had fallen off when I opened the cellaphane, so there were 11 in the vase, and I put the one in the bottom of a water bottle.  It latest longer then the bouquet!

That's the end of November.  Look at me.  Almost caught up!

October Photos

I can't believe I'm so behind in posting to my blog! .. My, time does get away from me!

I've been busy volunteering at Memories Dinner Theater, but I still should have posted something!  I'll try to get caught up!

In October - Joel finally shot through the tomato he's been aiming at ! He's been practicing quite a bit! He was so proud!

The green heart tomato turned red :)

 I also finished a few pouches that I had been working on.  Crochet and Knit.

Dh and I went to the Anita Renfroe / Mark Shultz Concert in Sheboygan with friends.  That was a lot of fun.  I love concerts.

Sorry to say, I think that wraps up October!  There wasn't a whole lot of interesting stuff in October .. but it was a good month. :)