As you know, we live in central Illinois and August is NEVER a month to sit around a fire pit in the late afternoon. But this August has been so ‘un-normal’. We have had low humidity, days in the high 70’s, and nights in the high 50’s. We are beginning to wonder if we have […]
After circling the birdbaths a time or two, and then sitting on its haunches and just looking up at them, this is what happened. Success! He is drinking from the birdbath as I am drinking water at my desk. And I raised my glass – toasting his cleverness,
Our good friends, Jim and Judy Oettel, live about 30 miles north of us. Both are very good birders, and it is always a joy to either go with them, or to hear about what they have seen and heard. They live in an older, well established, tree-filled neighborhood. The back of their house looks […]
That is a whole lot of crows! At least for us. The most we have ever had is 5 and the usual number is 3. And to have them in our backyard at this time of year is rare. These are American Crows and live in the vast woodland across the lake from us. We […]
We have Belted Kingfishers around the shore of our lake all year. These are good-sized birds whose call is a loud, prolonged rattle*, but it has been months since we last heard or saw one. We finally spotted one a week ago and the first time we saw it, it was right off our patio […]
Cleon and I have been travelling. Long days of driving. We never fly because we like to drive through different areas – and we are not birds, right? But seriously…. towns, cities, farms, lakes, woods – we love to see how people live and work in different areas all over our country and Canada. When […]
When blackbirds start to form flocks, fall is on the way! Which seems a bit premature as it is only the end of July. Brown-headed Cowbirds start to form flocks early. At first, it will just be several to maybe half a dozen – both males and females. As the weeks go by and we […]
The groundhog was back under the feeders this morning – eating companionably with a fox squirrel. We are still unsure where his hole is. At first we thought it might be under our deck, but we are happy to say it is not. When he ran from the feeder area this morning, it was toward […]
We have a ground hog! We saw it a few days ago, but could not identify it. It was hard to get a good look at it as it was at the shore of our lake and some distance from where we were standing. A friend of ours thought it was a mink. I thought […]
We have Redheaded Woodpeckers living in the woodlands across the lake from us, but they are not often here in our yard. We saw a pair yesterday in our trees that are at the edge of the lake and this morning they were both on the peanut feeder. Not sharing – they kept displacing each […]