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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
April is a great time to put up feeders for hummingbirds, orioles and bluebirds. These birds are primarily insect eaters in spring and summer, but all love fruit any time of the year – or as in the case of hummingbirds, sugary water. First, the orioles. If you live surrounded by big trees, many of […]
April is almost here – and in my opinion, this is one of the best times to look for and observe birds. They are migrating, setting up their nesting territories, mating, and even beginning to start nests. And all of this is done right out in the open where we can watch. Even birds who […]
Most of us know that the American Chestnut was once a common tree throughout the Appalachian Mountains, but because of a blight, the tree is now almost extinct. What I did not know was how much work is being carried out to restore this tree and that there are two sides to this. One side […]