Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: birds


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Catching up

I have a new laptop. Can you tell? I can, there’s a different feel, things are in different places, and I have to figure everything out.

What’s going on down there?

For example, I can’t find the cursor to put it where I want it to do any editing. Getting the images in is hard too. I can cut and paste previously typed stuff, but I can’t delete anything. So odds are you’re going to see the same sentence repeated because as I was inserting photos they were going in the wrong locations and I was trying to move text around them.

I’ll just ignore all that going on over there.

AND I have this backlog of photos to show you! Of course they’re mostly birds, shot in my own backyard because sometimes I look out there and I can’t not take their pictures. They are soooo cute. And beautiful too.

Hey lady! This is supposed to have water in it!

I have so many images of the same birds eating out of the same feeders. But each time I’m hopeful of getting that shot. You know the one. The one that makes you gasp or smile or both.

Hurry up and eat before some big bird comes along.

Sometimes I think I’m the only one feeding the birds in my neighborhood. They sit out there in the trees and shrubs and seem to wait. I’m hardly ever back in the house when they’re chowing down on the newly filled feeders. It’s cold right now and I’m filling six feeders 2x a day.

Does that make them spoiled?

Coming in for a landing.

So now I have all these images that I’m just now getting processed and you just need to see them. I have virtually nothing interesting to say to accompany the pictures.

No bird in this image…just beautiful frosty ice.

The birds have been so hungry they are getting used to me standing in the window with that big black lens pointed at them. I think they’ve decided the risk of me is worth it. Or maybe they recognize me from all my trips outside to fill their feeders.

Just leave all the peanuts in the shell to me and I’ll leave you guys alone.

I guess I could tell you that all of these were taken from across a room and through a window. Thank goodness we paid some nice gentlemen to wash the windows this fall.

There are five of us cardinal couples at the feeders daily.

Whenever I’ve tried to do the windows I end up with a streaky mess. The guys that come here twice a year do a beautiful job and I don’t think they’re very expensive given all the windows we have. We try to get them scheduled in the fall before the weather would make window cleaning really miserable.

We were pretty late this year but we made it. In addition winter started a little early. Does that mean it will end early this spring?

How many of us do you see?

Probably not. The winter this year seems more like winters I remember as a kid. Cold and snowy. We’ve had snow on the ground most of the time since Thanksgiving.

Eating upside down is good for your digestion. Really.

Anyway I think I’ve rambled enough to show you some of the images I got last month. I have a whole other set of images from the ice storm. That was pretty amazing.

Hi, I’m a titmouse and I fly really fast. And I eat a lot. Cause I’m such a crazy little bird.

I’d like to get all these photos from 2025 processed and filed away. Cause there are even more on my camera waiting to be downloaded from 2026!

Stay tuned.

Make room for incoming!

I’m just going to publish this and see what it looks like. I can’t get to the preview either, and I can’t delete some stuff, though I was able to delete a few sentences and then I lost that ability again. It’s going to make me crazy if this is the way things work!

But I’m glad to just get some photos out there. I’ll try to see if I can edit it tomorrow. Maybe the laptop (or WordPress) just needs a good night of sleep.

UPDATE: Apparently WordPress just needed a nap. The editing today went just fine. I’m not going to reread this post, I’m sure it reads somewhat clunky as I was working so hard last night just to insert an image or a paragraph. But I feel better that I can at least delete repetition. Hope you enjoy the birds!


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What’s new in the new year?

I have a bunch more bird pictures to edit. There are probably some good ones in there but I’m just not motivated. And if I don’t hurry up and get them done I’m pretty sure I’ll never do it. That would be bad because I have this rule that I can’t go out on a photo hunt if I haven’t even processed the ones I’ve already taken.

Silly rule.

From the ice storm we had last week.

Meanwhile, Penny and I have started back to school. It’s been almost a month since we’ve been in a class. I was concerned that she’d forgotten everything I’ve learned (she says she hasn’t learned anything other than how to manipulate me) and that I would have a wild child on my hands.

Turns out she was very happy to go do some Rally with me last Saturday morning at a scheduled fun match.

At the Saturday fun match.

She got to see other dogs and do some fun stuff (her favorite thing is to fly over the jumps) and get treats and she especially likes it when people come by and tell her she’s beautiful.

I guess mom and dad don’t do that enough.

Lots of shelties were there Saturday.

She did four runs on Saturday, 2 of them off leash. We’re still working on specific stuff, especially the no treats in the ring thing, but we both had fun. It felt good to get out together.

Monday night we started back at our regular Rally class. Two runs, both off leash, and she was a very good girl. She mostly focused on me instead of what was going on in the ring next to us, or within our own class members at the gate or coming or going out the back door.

And there was that jump she REALLY wanted to take, and we had to heel right past it. SO HARD!! But she did it both times. I was proud of her.

Impatiently waiting her turn.

Today she did the cutest thing. I realized during school that I hadn’t worked with her in our basement at all during the weeks long holiday and that we could have been even better in class if I had spent that time with her. So this afternoon while I was out in the kitchen and noticed her treats, I asked her if she wanted to work.

Yesterday we trained at Home Depot.

She immediately grinned and ran to the top of the basement stairs, looking over her shoulder at me. We haven’t worked down there in over a month but she knew exactly what she wanted to do. So down the stairs we bounced and we worked on heeling and figure 8s and waiting and sitting and staying and coming and some other stuff. She’s very focused until she figures out mom doesn’t carry any treats.

Her favorite place to be.

The hardest thing for her was when we were heeling back toward the jackpot treats sitting up on a cabinet. I hadn’t intended to jackpot her then, we just happened to be going that way, and she broke heel to run to the jackpot and I said “no, come here” and she reluctantly did. And then we turned around and heeled away from the jackpot! OH NO!!!! But she stuck with me and at the other end of the room I released her and we both went back to get her jackpot.

Yesterday’s walk at Katie’s park – with SUN!

That was really hard for her. I told her she was a good girl. I should probably tell her she’s beautiful while I’m at it too.


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Junco smiles

There are some little birds around here that only visit me in the winter. They spend their summers further north and when I see them hanging out here for the first time each fall I usually feel a slight twinge of sadness.

On cold days they puff up even more.

Their arrival at my feeders are one of the first signs that fall is slipping into winter.

Showing off his puffiness.

For whatever reason this year there seem to be a lot more than usual, and I’ve been enjoying them hopping around looking adorable.

Hopping down to the ground, their preferred feeding space.

They are such poofy, round little birds. The males are dark grey and the females are a bit more grey brown. But honestly it’s pretty hard for me to tell them apart. I think all these images are males. And you can tell they are juncos by the pinkish beaks they all sport.

Matching his (or her) winter background.

This year instead of resenting their arrival I’ve been enjoying their antics. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them too, even if only in this post.

A little snow early in the season doesn’t bother them at all.

Merry Christmas everyone. May you all have a peaceful holiday.


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Happy Thanksgiving

This morning as I’ve been fixing the big dinner I’ve been watching my birds out the window and my Penny-girl napping inside and feeling grateful that I’m in my warm house looking out at a windy cold yard. It’s 32F here (0 C) and it feels, because of the wind, like 19F (-7.22C).

Nom, nom, nom.

I know the birds watch me as I fill the feeders every morning. Every day, before I’m back in the house they’re usually fluttering around picking at their favorite spot. This morning I somehow missed the goldfinch feeder and as I was walking to the shower later I noticed a big bunch of them all huddled around the very bottom of their feeder.

That’s all the seed there was left, just a bit at the very bottom.

I thought about going out and filling it after my shower. But they were hungry now. So I ran out without a coat and hurridely filled their feeder with thistle. Then I went inside to watch. No finches. I waited some more. One finch dropped down onto the beech tree, contemplated the feeder swaying in the wind.

“Come on little guy,” I murmered, “it’s right there for you, all fresh and nice.” He waivered and clung to his branch. “Come on sweetie, I whispered.” He tentatively flew to the top of the hook and looked around. Then he hopped down to the feeder and began to greedly eat. Suddenly finches came from all over, and swarmed the feeder.

I smiled.

Happy Thanksgiving little ones. Happy Thanksgiving.

And happy Thanksgiving to all of you. We hope you have a wonderful, warm and belly-filling day. Penny added that last bit about the belly. She has her priorities.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! from you gal Penny.


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You know you’re from Michigan if…

This weekend, I guess that means yesterday, I was busy taking pictures of my backyard birds as they bounced around in the beech tree near our feeders.

This is a very polular location. You have to wait in line to get the best stuff.

I loved the colors, the tree still hanging onto her leaves even though we are well into November now.

Sometimes the little bird feeder is especially busy and the wait is long.

It wasn’t warm outside, not like it had been through most of October, but it was still a nice, if slightly dreary, day.

I was shooting the goldfinch, but look who dropped in below. (White-striped sparrow)

I spent some of the day on Saturday painting Christmas cards to be sent to folks in nursing homes. Nothing too complicated, just simple cards painted in the hope they made someone smile.

The ten.

The goal was to get 10 painted over the weekend and mailed on Monday. Christmas comes so early when you have to get your stuff off to folks who have to do their thing to get the cards to seniors in a timely manner.

Folded, I’ll write a little note inside each of them and then send them off to the card coordinator on Monday.

I haven’t felt very Christmas-y this fall. I procrastinated on painting the cards until it was almost too late. I thought maybe I’d skip the whole Christmas card thing this time.

People ignore us little brown birds all the time too.

I haven’t put the lights up outside either. I usually put lights on one tree, the smallest of the spruce trees we planted so many years ago, at the corner of our lot.

This chunky little woodpecker had a hard time fitting through the feeder cage.

I use the smallest tree so that I can get lights clear up to the top if I stand on a ladder and use a long pole. It’s a lot of work and I don’t know if I’m up to it anymore.

But eventually he got his lunch. Might want to consider a smaller portion than usual though.

Still, the neighbors tell me how much they enjoy that tree when it’s lit on our dark winter nights. I enjoy it too. Somehow it makes the winter go by a little faster, or at least be a little brighter. So maybe I’ll get the lights up the next nice day we have around here.

Probably not today though. This morning I woke to our first snow of the season. Penny is not at all sure she was good with this new development.

Hey lady! I’d like a berry special please. Pronto!

But I am happy to see the trees and shrubs begin to be covered by this new white blanket. Pen and I might even go out and play in it when I finish this post.

The cardinal was unflappable by the robin’s flight.

Some of the birds are not as happy as I am to see the change in weather. But the snow makes me think that maybe I can put the lights up. Maybe I can paint a few cards for the season. Maybe I can get into the Christmas mood.

A festive red and green image in my own back yard.

Maybe I can.

You know you’re in Michigan when one day you’re working in the garden and the next you’re laughing over bird antics in the snow.

You can do it lady, I have faith in you.

Happy holidays, everybody. They are upon us.


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OH NO!

I’ve been junco’d! I say that every year.

When I see the first junco my heart drops but it also fills. Which seems a thought at odds with itself, doesn’t it?

Dark eyed juncos are only here for the winter months. And they are the first harbingers of winter, so my heart drops. But they are also adorable little round birds, and they will hop around under the feeders all winter, delighting us with their antics. So my heart fills that they’ve chosen my yard again.

No matter that the red winged blackbirds, the sign of spring and summer, are still here eating me out of house and black oiler seed before their trips south. No matter that we had temps approaching 75 degrees F yesterday (23.33 C) and will most likely again today.

Winter is on the way. Proof, a junco arrived today. Time to get out the winter coats, find the snow shovel, and check the antifreeze in the cars.

Welcome Mr. (or Ms.) Junco. I’m glad to see you again, but did you have to arrive so early?

PS: The pictures aren’t in focus. I was a long way away, and this little one popped up on the driveway, almost blending in with the asphalt. Still, I can’t fool myself into thinking it’s a sparrow. Can you?


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Baltimore orioles for a little bit longer

Every summer we are lucky enough to have orioles visit our feeder. They never stay long enough, many adults leave sometime in mid to late August which seems too early.

This lady serves gormet grape jelly!

The juveniles stick around a couple more weeks, eating the jelly as fast as they can.

What do you mean I have to feed myself?

Even though the youngsters are pretty, I always miss the adults.

You’d think the lady would put a roof over our lunch!

But last year and this year, after quite a long break without seeing any adults, I’ve had adult males and on occassion an adult female stop by the feeder in late August!

You shut up! No YOU shut up!

I’m always excited when, long after I think they’re gone, they show up for a few more days.

I need to grab a snack before those two come back!

I guess they’re fueling up for their trip south to Florida, or Central America. That seems like such a long flight I can’t imagine.

I thought I’d check out the finch food. Not as good as jelly.

And it seems even harder to imagine the youngsters being successful at the trip on their own. I wonder if families reunite once everybody is down there or if once they leave they’re leaving their family forever.

You’re not my mom!

I know they’re gearing up to leave me. But I bought a big jar of jelly this week, hoping they’re around long enough to finish it all.

Thanks lady, see you next year!