Well, I am, for one. I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, and it’s mid-morning on a beautiful day here in Michigan. Lots of garden stuff to do. Places to be. People to see.
Early morning light through spring skunk cabbage.
But I’d rather be here with you.
Remember when I was out at the heron rookery in Kensington Park on Easter Sunday morning? You didn’t think I’d just leave the park after seeing the herons, did you?
Did you???
A busy neighborhood.
Well of course not.
When I could finally pry myself away from those big nests I went for a walk through the woods. And as soon as I was off the boardwalk I heard this cardinal just singing his heart out and enjoying the morning light at the very top of a tree.
Will sing for food.
Of course when he spotted me, perhaps the first automated bird feeder to arrive that morning, he shot right down to a branch directly in front of me.
Right at eye level.
You DID bring breakfast, didn’t you?
Now cardinals don’t generally come down to my hand to eat, though one did many years ago. But I think this one might have if I hadn’t accidently dropped some seed on the ground.
He was very interested in that.
What? You dropped my breakfast?
So was Mrs. Red Winged Blackbird.
I see an opportunity here.
And so was this squirrel.
I can be faster than all of you!
And this chipmunk.
But my cheeks can hold more seed than any of yours!
In the end I dropped some more for all of them and went on my way.
I remember that some of you have requested more bird pictures. Well of course I have some. Coming right up.
Those of you that remember Katie know that every spring mom took her somewhere to do a yellow flower photo-shoot. It started out as a joke, since mom’s yellow flowers aren’t all that exotic.
But it turned into a fun outing for them and mom got some really sweet photos of Katie smiling at her parks.
Well now, mom doesn’t want to give that up so guess what mom and I did last week?
I suppose that wasn’t very hard to guess, was it!
Yep, mom rushed me over to Katie’s park when the sun came out one day. She had seen lots of yellow flowers in people’s yards and she figured as long as the park staff hadn’t mowed we’d be good.
And we were!
There were sooooo many pretty yellow flowers that I could hardly decide where to sit. In fact I didn’t want to sit at all.
I mean, if you’ve got the space and time, why not run through the yellow flowers with the wind in your furs? Right? So I did.
Several times.
Mom says I’m a very good model. I say as long as she has treats I’ll be a good model.
Cause if there’s one thing that Katie taught me it’s that you only have to sit for one photograph as a time and the flow of treats should be constant. And when the treats are done, so am I.
Thanks Katie-girl. You’re the best big sister ever!
Now I have to go comfort mom because she says that after looking at these pictures she realizes that I’m growing up too fast. She says she wants to slow it all down, but I gotta tell her, there’s no slowing me down!
I was looking at my most recent posts and realize that almost all of them revolve around birds. Even Penny has noticed my obsession.
Kensington Metro Park rookery, as viewed from the boardwalk.
But I can’t help it. They’re so beautiful, and interesting, and entertaining. I could watch them all day.
Reflecting on her anticipated brood.
Wait!
Sometimes I do watch them all day! Like Easter Sunday when I went out to Kensington on my own. I figured it wouldn’t be busy because everybody else would be getting ready for church or family dinners or both.
There’s more than just the rookery to look at, lady!
I was wrong. There were plenty of people, mostly photographers, out there. But we all work around each other and it’s fine.
Outta my way, I’ve got places to go!
I started out walking on the boardwalk near the heron rookery, an island with huge trees filled with heron nests. Every year the heron couples choose a nest and then have a set of little herons there.
It’s fascinating to watch.
Ready for takeoff!
Easter Sunday there was much heron coming and going as the couples updated their fixer-uppers in order to make them meet current esthetics. They definitely favor wood floors over carpet.
This couple appears to be going with a new build v.s. a fixer upper.
I spent a long time out there on the boardwalk watching all the work being done, and then I wandered back into the woods to see what else might be around.
This guy was snapping sticks off the tree, tossing them aside and snapping another until he found the one he wanted, then he flew back to the rookery with his prize.
Last week a friend and I decided we needed an adventure, but neither of us had time for a long, fully planned and packed adventure.
From across the river on a grey day.
But I have been feeling a keen need to find something amazing to photograph, something outside my own home and local parks. My friend had explored a colorful place, several weeks ago, just an hour north of us.
I asked her to take me there.
From the road along side the silos.
I mean — Saginaw Michigan just screams adventure. Right?
Saginaw is not far from the Chippewa Nature Center where I’ve brought you along to find stunning color in the fall.
Can’t go wrong with birds.
Saginaw isn’t even far from Midland Michigan and it’s Dow Gardens complete with a walk in the tree canopy. You’ve been with me there too, at least a couple times.
The colors, all vibrant and saturated just go together.
I liked the industrial grey edges surrounding the art, and the nondescript truck parked below.
And let me tell you, this place satisfied all my photography cravings in one big ole splat of gorgeous color.
A person sat playing music and reading.
Though I don’t know that it’s a location I’d want to explore alone, and certainly not at night, it was fun to spend a bit of time there with someone else who appreciated the art. It’s huge and it’s bright and it will definitely make you smile.
Paint spills artfully.
No matter the angle you view it from, whether you sit in your car and admire it from across the river or get all up close and personal, it’s well worth the visit.
All angles.
And on the way home we stopped for a barn.
I liked the red car trying to camouflage itself in front of the barn.
Most years the orioles arrive at my feeder around May 5. Hummingbirds too. But a friend of mine, living about an hour west of me, had an oriole on her feeder Easter Sunday!
So I put my feeder up a few days ago and Friday evening, during an hours long torrential downpour, my first oriole visited! I wasn’t sure I saw him, –it was getting dark and the rain was coming down in sheets.
I didn’t get a photo.
But the next morning, after I went out and emptied the water from his feeder and filled it up with grape jelly, he showed up!
He was still skittish and I got no images, but I stayed very still, holding Penny tight, and watched him eat his fill.
And late in the afternoon, as I stood across the room, I saw him again. My camera was within reach and I got these images, focus soft, but capturing the joy I felt to see him here.
And guess what? Later in the evening I realized there are TWO of them here! They chased each other around the beach tree which acts as the landing area for all birds visiting our feeders.
I can’t wait to set the camera on it’s tripod and use a remote shutter release. We’ll see what we shall see.
And today the hummingbird feeder goes up. If the orioles are here, the hummingbirds are too.
We’ve had such crazy weather, things began to pop up in my garden earlier than normal. The red winged blackbirds were here early, too, and had to endure a few snowstorms after their arrival.
Everything seems early.
And now, a college friend, who lives about the same latitude as me and about an hour west of here, has had her first baltimore oriole visit! The males always come north first, scouting I suppose, and there he was, sitting on her feeder Easter Sunday!
I usually put up my oriole and hummingbird feeders the first week in May. But today, on the 22nd of April I went down to the basement, grabbed my oriole feeder, and filled it with grape jelly. I stood in the door to my deck, surveying my birdfeeder domain, and wondered how to rearrange things so that the oriole feeder would be prominent.
Last year’s oriole, announcing that the grape jelly was running low.
Eventually I decided to move the suet to another hook on the other side of the house and put the oriole feeder front and center, out in the sunshine where it would attract attention. I worried somewhat that the suet, being moved, wouldn’t be found by the birds who have grown dependent on it. But I figured it was almost past suet time and they should be out looking for bugs or something.
Then I sat down to write this post intending to document when I put the oriole feeder out. As I sat I glanced out a window and saw a female downy woodpecker contentedly chowing down on the suet in it’s new location.
Last year’s downy woodpecker and female hummingbird sharing a lunch date.
I guess I don’t need to worry about my birds. If there’s food, they will find it. But when they’ve finished this batch of suet I’m taking that feeder down for the summer and putting the hummingbird feeder up. If the orioles are on their way the hummingbirds won’t be far behind.
A 2022 image. I’m waiting for him to show up this spring too. I put his favorite food in the flat feeder this morning. Just in case.
I’m really enjoying the goldfinches this spring. Some years we don’t see many, but this years there’s an abundance of them.
Wait! That’s a hairy woodpecker!
I’ve watched as the males turn from an army green, similar to the color the females stay year round, into their exuberant and brilliant summer gold.
And that’s a blue Jay!
They sit in the beech tree not far from the finch feeder and sing for their supper. If there are a lot of them in the tree I know that the feeder is probably nearing empty.
Where’s our lunch, lady?
They don’t tolerate it getting too low.
Well I guess there’s time for a little kissy face while we’re waiting.
They’re used to me being out there and don’t leave their tree, if the feeder is empty, even if Penny and I are on the deck.
That’s enough! She’s watching us!
They are picky and only really like the finch food I buy from a specialty bird store in the town just north of us. The employees there know me.
This feeder is definitely empty!
The finches are so much fun to watch, though they are eating me out of house and finch food!
This place has the best food around!
Soon they’ll be busy raising their families and we won’t see so much of them. But they’ve sure brightened my spring!
I’ll sing you a song, lady, to say thanks for my supper!
Here in Michigan spring can be a long time coming. Oh, I definitely have specific things that herald winter’s exit, like the sound of red winged blackbirds and singing frogs hanging at the pond across the street.
Announcing his arrival in the neighborhood.
And there are the marsh marigolds brightening up banks of our local streams.
These are from last year, but I bet if I go look they’re up this year too!
Still, we know that the snow could return any day, and likely will. We dream of warmth and trilliums, still a few weeks away.
One of my favorite signs of spring, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Goldfinches turning yellow are a definite sign we’re finally on our way out of the gray, cold weather.
In the winter both the male and female goldfinches are an olive green. But once the weather warms up the males start to sport bright yellow feathers. I began to notice the color change last week, even as the icy rain continues.
Miserable, he’s waiting for me to fill his feeder.
Today I glanced up and my finch feeder was full of birds, all cold and hungry. You can see the patchy yellow on the male birds.
Shot from the other side of the living room, through the window.
I could feel sad about all the grey skies and cold rain. But it’s impossible to feel down when my finches are turning gold!
Stop typing and come fill the feeders, lady!
Spring is here, I’m positive. And I dare mother nature to even think about snowing on us now!
What you talkin about, lady? Of COURSE it’s gonna snow again!
Change Is Hard 