When I was a beginning birder – and actually way past those first years – I tended to ignore Vireos. These are not obvious birds at all. They are all small, most often not brightly colored, and their songs can be easily overlooked. And in those first years of birding, I was overwhelmed by warblers […]
Spring! Every day it is something new! New plants breaking ground, spring ephemerals coming – and sadly going till next year, glorious spring flowers such as lilacs and irises. Birds leaving and arriving. Our juncos left last week. We have not seen the White-throated Sparrows for two days so maybe they have also left? One […]
If you have been following the livestream on our bird feeders for a few years, you know we have 2 feeders for Nyjer seed. They are the same style, but one is large and the other small. We have American Goldfinches in our yard and at our feeders all year round. We put the large […]
The elderberry is native to most of North America. Our only states where they are not found in the wild are Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. This bush has been hybridized and often when you buy one, it will be a hybrid which is OK, just be sure it is a hybrid […]
Baltimore Orioles! Here are photos Cleon took of the male who has just arrived. The male orioles will be setting up nesting territories in ours and our neighbor’s trees and so for the next few weeks will only be at the birdbath and feeder off and on. The females will arrive in 1-2 weeks. Once […]
My large screen computer, which is the center for both live-stream cameras, is right across the room from my desk. I have the livestream on all day – I switch from camera to camera because I am always interested in who is using what, how everyone is behaving and interacting, and if anything has gone […]
All blueberry plants you buy are hybridized. They will all bloom well, produce good crops of berries, have good fall color, and all have good shapes so require little pruning. Sizes will vary from about 2 ft. tall and wide, to about 7 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Read the plant tags to make […]
Continuing from my last post: Janelle lives here in central Illinois and showed me this video on her phone. I was simply amazed! She lives at the end of a cul-de-sac in a small town. Her house sits on top of a steep hill of grass and prairie plants that she mows. At the bottom […]
last summer I rescued these babies from a bed I was being paid to weed, which once again perplexed me- how could someone consider these beauties weeds? not want green hearts and purple flowers in her bed of catnip and irises under the pink crepe myrtle? I brought them home thrown haphazardly into my 5-gallon […]
Spring is a wonderful time to look for and observe birds. Our migrating ducks, grebes, mergansers, and cormorants have started to arrive on our small lake. They rest here generally about 2-3 days, sometimes a week, and then they are off. Here are a few photos of what we are seeing. And yes, it is […]