birds | Change Is Hard

What to say, what to say. There’s nothing happening around here, yet I feel a need to share photos with you. Photos of regular life in summer here in Michigan.

Little League at Katie’s park under a summer sky.

The grass is growing, the birds are sucking down food from the feeders, trees are fully leafed out and the afternoon skies are often filled with clouds.

It’s been pretty amazing.

Though we’ve seen lots of storm clouds we’re really short on rain. The yard is already turning brown. Watering the gardens will soon be a daily if not twice a day ritual. We’re not even to July yet.

No rain in these clouds.

It’s finally warm enough at night to camp and Katie and I have been on one adventure, but plan on scheduling a few more before the leaves start to turn. It’s still an adventure if it’s scheduled – right?

Hey mama! No rainfly!

For now we’re enjoying the air conditioning and watching the oriole feeder right up next to the window. Lots of things besides orioles visit.

Got any more oranges lady?

They all apparently watch for me to fill the feeder and then rush in to get their share. Or more than their share, depending on their size and boldness.

There you go Mr. Woodpecker!

The flowers have been beautiful so far this season. But now we’re moving into the dry heat of summer so we’ll see. A lot will depend on our watering habits.

Lantana smiles every day.

Really, so little to say, so much to show you. Guess I need to take you on a more formal walk sometime. Lots of beautiful places to go; what would be your choice? A lake? A woodsy park? The back yard? A bike path?

Wonder where that path goes?

All good choices, but each will require me to leave my comfy chair. And I can’t do any of them until I get some weeding done.

Still weeding is better than working a job…so I can’t complain.

Katie can, and does, but it’s all in fun.

Hey mama!

June 15, 2017
by dawnkinster 13 Comments

Visitors

What are you doing out there lady?

We’ve been enjoying the orioles again this spring, as well as lots of other pretty birds.

Tonight I took a chair out into the yard, trying to get a shot of the orioles glowing in the evening sun. Boy they are suspicious birds.

Do I have jelly on my beak?

Though I was sitting far away from the feeder, and using my long lens, they were still skittish. Especially when this face appeared in the window only inches away from their feeder.

Hey mama! What are you ….ooops…sorry mama!

Even with the distraction the male and female oriole each showed up for a few fleeting moments.

You can’t see me if I hide behind this pole. Can you?

The goldfinches, on the other hand, are much less finicky about paparazzo like me.

On the lookout. The food lady needs to fill the thistle feeder.

Earlier today we had a visitor who had a hankering for jelly. He’s been here before, and has, in fact, enthusiastically chewed the feeder trying to get the last drop.

Hey lady! It’s not my fault if you don’t have a squirrel baffle on this feeder pole!

And yesterday Mr. Grosbeak dropped by. He’s not shy at all, and told me right away that I had inadvertently allowed the safflower seed level to drop to an unacceptable level.

This is unacceptable lady! You are a slacker!

I fixed that immediately. Sorry sir.

So hard to keep peace among the youngsters.

June 14, 2017
by dawnkinster 10 Comments

Wordless Wednesday

Dad and young?

June 2, 2017
by dawnkinster 15 Comments

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Anything that flies

We have Great Blue Herons fly over the house regularly. One of my favorite birds.

May 14, 2017
by dawnkinster 20 Comments

Mom and her birds

On this Mother’s Day I’m reminded how much my mom loved birds. She kept a life list of birds she’d seen, and they figured prominently in her descriptions of travel around the world.

A busy morning at the feeders.

In the last week, here in Michigan, the summer birds are arriving. I have photos of some of them, taken in bad light, through a dirty window.

Still, I know if she had been here she’d have been just as thrilled as I am to see them return.

Mr. Oriole is a very nervous eater, twisting his head this way and that to see what we’re doing inside.

Whatcha looking at lady?

But he’s also a pig and can’t resist stopping for another bit to eat. Frequently.

Yum!

Mrs. Oriole is a frequent visitor too, a bit less nervous, but just as hungry.

Good morning lady!

Yesterday I saw the season’s first male rose breasted grosbeak. This morning he hung out at the feeder for a long time, not afraid at all even when my camera lens hit the dirty window separating us.

Don’t bother me, I’m eating!

And last night, with camera focused on the feeder, we had another visitor to our yard.

Backyard streaker!

Mom would have gotten a kick out of that too.

So…though I don’t have a recent picture of her, I still think of mom every day, especially as I share with her the wonders of my backyard.

Just like she shared with me her love of everything wild and beautiful.

Happy Mother’s Day mom. We miss you.

Another mom hanging out in my backyard.

May 6, 2017
by dawnkinster 9 Comments

WordPress Photo Challenge: Danger

As Katie the dog and I entered the park I noticed a pair of Canadian geese resting in the spring green grass. They noticed us too, and immediately stood up, sensing danger.

Mom and Dad watching over their five little ones.

The five little babies swam oblivious but mom and dad were on guard.

You can see other interpretations of danger here, here and here.

What’s dangerous in your world? Share!

April 8, 2017
by dawnkinster 5 Comments

WordPress Photo Challenge: Security

A woodpecker felt his family would be safer if they had a back door. So he remodeled a bluebird house in our yard.

Additional egress required a little ingenuity.

But then he never moved in. Guess he still had security issues.

March 23, 2017
by dawnkinster 20 Comments

Busy Princess reports in

Hi all. Princess Katie here. I’ve been way too busy to blog, but mama says I need to keep up with my responsibilities so I’ll give you the short version of what I’ve been up to lately.

As you all know I visited Reilly last month…and then I went over to my lake house for a few weeks, and then my daddy came down to join mama and me and we visited my Aunt and Uncle for a few days.

Me and my guy Reilly!

So…then instead of going home we went back to Florida and I got to spend five more days with my intended Reilly and his brother Denny and their mom! Wow!

Five whole days of running on the beach…

I love running on my beach!

…and walking through the jungle!

It’s a jungle in here!

Mama and daddy and Reilly’s mom went off and looked at forts and zoos and lighthouses and such too…but that’s not important. What is best about this time is I got to spend it with my guy.

One morning we all got up early and went out to the beach to watch the sun rise. I got to run around and mama took pictures of stupid birds. There were some flying really low to the water with their beaks open. Mama thought they were really neat.

Skimmer birds.

And some just stood around a lot. I thought those were much more interesting.

Nobody was out there that early so I got to run a whole lot. I loved running free on the beach!

There was a cool breeze, perfect for a sheltie-princess!

And then another day we went out in the evening when it got cool and played on the beach some more. We watched some big ships go out to sea. I barked at them, as is my right as a Princess.

Watching the ships go out to sea.

Mostly though the three of us hung around waiting for our folks to stop taking pictures of the ships from the seawall.

Whatcha doing up there people?

I don’t know why they were interested in the ships more than us. We three were adorable.

Mama and I ran on the beach again too, until she tried to trick me by running close to where the tide was going out and the sand was really wet. I don’t like getting my feet wet mama! I went and walked with my daddy after that.

Sadly we had to leave, so we drove across a beautiful bridge and headed north.

Mama’s artsy-fartsy bridge image.

But, lucky me, we got to stop along the way and spend a few hours with a friend of mama and daddy’s. She has two beagles! Wow! More doggie friends for me to hang out with!