As the Earth Turns Green, that sounds like it could be the Title to a Soap Opera. 🙂 I love when everything starts to wake up after a long winter nap. The greens are so vibrant, truly named forest green for a reason.
As the Earth Turns Green
Friday Birding My Favorite Thing, every now and than the beautiful Pileated Woodpecker stops by. Never in a great spot for a photo. He likes to be up very high and there are always sticks blocking my view of him. But, you can still see his red feathers on top of his head. Such a gorgeous bird.
The dainty and lovable Chickadees are always out and about
The Nut Hatch Bird, this is my first photo of this tiny bird. They are just as fast as the chickadees. He looks all bright eyed and cheery in this photo below.
I don’t know if he is blinking or giving me the stink eye.
I know this bird is a finch, but I am not quite sure which one. There are so many that have a touch of red, ruby colored feathers. So I will just go with the term Finch for now.
Have a Great Weekend
My First Photo of Milky Way, I have been studying on how to locate the milky way for a photo the last few weeks and how to set my camera to be able to capture it. Well, yesterday morning I finally got a photo. It was pretty cold out, but the night sky was amazing. Is was also the highlight of meteor showers as well. I saw plenty of those as well. I put a video below of the stars passing by from my back yard as well.
Now this video was taken with a Go Pro, which doesn’t take as clear a video as with a camera. So you might have to lower the lights behind you to really see all the shooting stars.
Have a Great Weekend
The Little Red Squirrel, they have been gone for a couple of weeks when the weather was nice. But, we have had some snow the last couple of days, so they are back again. Looking for a little pick me up snack I think. I love the red stripe they have, very showy when the sun is out.
He appears to not be happy that he has a little snow on the roof of his house. Yes, I have seen him go into this bird feeder many times.
Looks like a little bracelet on its hand and if Mr. Ohh is seeing this, I will have to say; ” No, it is not little hand cuffs.” 🙂 I am guessing that is what he might see.
The Little Red Squirrel
The Beaches are Back, well, at least the beaches in the north country. It is still a bit cold but so nice to see the snow and ice gone. We did get some snow a couple times already this week, but it melts by the afternoon. I was watching the water dripping from the corner of a roof into a bucket and decided to film it in slow motion. That short clip is below.
The Beaches are Back
Night Time Photography Begins, I am looking forward to an exciting year of photographing the night skies. I started over the weekend. April begins the warmer evenings and clearer skies to get out enjoy. Also, starting on the 16th of April, the annual Lyrid meteor shower began.
Each year that meteor shower kicks off when the Earth travels through what remains of the tail of the comet called Thatcher. The Thatcher comet only comes around once every 400 years, but it’s left the solar system strewn with debris from its tail. When that debris hits the earth’s atmosphere, we see streaks of light in the sky called shooting stars. April 22nd should be the peak of the meteor shower.
These photos were taken with a Go Pro 7 camera, I set it to night lapse starting about 9 pm and picked up the camera at 2 am. The stars are all moving from left to right in the photo, and you can see lines going the opposite way which are shooting stars. This photo below is a combination of 100 photos stacked on top each other so you can see how the stars move across the sky where I am standing. The bright light is the moon.
This photo below is a combination of 72 photos stacked on top each other from midnight to about 2 am. If you notice there are streaks of purple and pink in the midst of stars. They are different colors when you get a good photo of them.
Night Time Photography Begins
Sing a Song of Sixpence, does anyone remember this rhyme? Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye, four and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing. Now wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before a king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money; the queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey. The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes when along came a blackbird and it nipped off her nose.’
I only remembered the black birds in the pie until I looked it up to find the rest of the rhyme. These were more popular during Henry VIII days it said. But nonetheless, lots of blackbirds were out this weekend along with some very nice sunshine.
And when the sun shines on a Common Grackle, he really shines.
I am thinking this one below is a regular black bird. All the others had the iridescent blue feathers around their necks.
And so many red Winged Black Birds this year. I do love hearing the song they sing.
Last but never least, one Red Squirrel. They have been pretty scarce lately. I am just guessing they are finding food in the forest or they are in their nest starting to raise their babies. 😉
Sing a Song of Sixpence
What a Colorful Day to end the week with. I was driving along and saw one of those signs that says Historic Marker here. I love stopping at those. It was a small park and a lovely walk to the lake area. But this garage, boat house type building is what I noticed when I reached the water. The red tree buds almost matching the roof on the garage and the bird house.
Along with, my first sighting of a wood duck. Mr. and Mrs. Wood Duck. So very colorful. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
It did decide to snow just a bit today. Just enough to make everything look pretty for a few hours.
What a Colorful Day
A New Train to My Collection, I do love trains. There is just something about them, the power and the sound amazes me. The amount of weight they can pull and just the size of these giant locomotives, I am in awe of the construction of them. And they are really pretty when they are all cleaned up. So I have added this nice orange colored one to my collection.
The Red ones are always pretty when they pass by in the winter.
Now, I took this one a while ago. It look kind of plain in this photo. It was a very gray day and snowing heavily. But, I like to create art work via the computer. I can not paint or draw but an app called Photoshop allows me to let my imagination run wild and create what my mind imagines.
So, I took the photo above and put a new sky on it below. The sky part of the photo is a photo I took also at my sister’s farm. On a cold winters day, it is fun to create artwork of your own.
A New Train to My Collection
Art in the Park at Sunrise, A lot of parks are featuring artwork at times, such as statues made by local artist. I do like this one, it seems to be reaching to the heavens. I can not create a piece of art such as a statue, I do not posses that talent. But I do enjoying creating art with photography. So many different styles of art all created with imagination and the beauty that we see in our minds eye.
Art in the Park at Sunrise
The First Flower Buds on a Tree, it has been a rainy couple of days, so taking photos seemed out of reach. But, when the rain stopped for a moment, I could see the first signs of flowering buds on a tree across the driveway so I got my camera and took a few shots. So nice to see and all of a sudden one day I will look out the window and there will be leaves on all the trees. I love that when it happens.
I have no idea what kind of tree this is. There are only a handful of them with these buds on them. I will wait and see what comes next, unless anyone knows what they are. 🙂
The First Flower Buds on a Tree
Forest Green in Early Spring, there is always some form of green coloring in the forest all year long. But this time of year, in the spring, the pine needles are more vibrant as the forest wakes up to sprout new life. Green and Blue I must say are my favorite colors.
Forest Green in Early Spring
The Merganser Ducks, there are 4 types of Merganser Ducks and Merganser means fish eating ducks. This first one is called the Common Merganser. The females all look like they have mohawks when their head feathers are up. These photos did not turn out as clear as I had hoped for. But I wanted to show them anyway. I will be going back to the lake to get better photos next week.
The rest of these are named Hooded Merganser’s. The female is in the front with her fancy feather doo. Her hubby in the back looks a bit perturbed. Like he is saying, ” Now where are we going?” She just keeps on going. 🙂
Have a Great Weekend
They’re Our Biggest Waterfowl – Trumpeter Swans demand superlatives: they’re our biggest native waterfowl, stretching to 6 feet in length and weighing more than 25 pounds – almost twice as massive as a Tundra Swan.
Despite their size, this once-endangered, now recovering species is as elegant as any swan, with a graceful neck and snowy-white plumage. They breed on wetlands in remote Alaska, Canada, and the northwestern U.S., and winter on ice-free coastal and inland waters.
They almost appear to be smiling with that little touch of orange in the corner of their bill.
There is a swan behind this branch, my camera changed its focus on the mossy covered branch instead. But I find moss to be so artistic in its own way.
I See Skies of Blue and Clouds of White, The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights. And I think to myself, What a wonderful World. For those of you who might remember this song by Louis Armstrong, I put the song at the bottom of the post.
I thought of this song when I woke up to a sky of blue after a nights rain. I have never seen so much blue upon blue with just a touch of white. A work of Art like no other, painted by the Hands of Time.
I See Skies of Blue
The Beauty of Spring, I just love when the migrating birds start coming back. It was gorgeous weather all weekend and I did not take one photo or open my computer at all. Sometimes you just have to take a moment and enjoy the spring weather when it arrives.
Even though the grass is still brown, I know any day now the wild flowers will start to come up and I can see the buds on the trees now also. So today I went to the lake to see if the swans were still there and they were. There was still a little ice on the water but it will all be gone soon.
This beautiful duck is back as well. It is called the Hooded Merganser Duck, there are 4 types of Merganser’s. I saw this one and the Common Merganser. I will have more photos coming this week. These are so cool looking I think with their crown of feathers. This is a male and the females are just as pretty. The females look like they have mohawks.
The Beauty of Spring
Over 1000 Species of Trees in the US and over 60,065 species of trees in the world, according to a comprehensive study of the world’s plants. All these photos below I found in one small forest around me. My favorite is this first photo, the Aspen tree. The white bark with the black markings are so beautiful. This specific tree in the photo is right by me, I stop and put my hand on the bark every time I walk by it.
This next photo is Birch Tree, the bark peels off like paper. I could not identify the rest of the trees by the bark. I think I would need to buy a book to make it easier.
Over 1000 Species of Trees
Where is the Purple Finch, Happy Easter Weekend, in line with Easter Egg Hunting, try and spot the purple finch song bird in this first photo. Almost like looking for an egg. 🙂 The last photo will show you a close up of the little bird, it is camouflaged pretty good.
Have a Wonderful Weekend
Where is the Purple Finch
Time to Shed Winter Coats, lots of shedding going on this time of year. All sorts of deer hair around the bird feeders as they are trying to reach the itchy spot with their hooves. Or rubbing up against trees. This one here is enjoying a warm day, scratching behind her ear.
Then she heard something behind her and looked up to see if anything was there.
It was just me, she is looking at me like she is saying, ” What”
Time to Shed Winter Coats
Well the Moss is Green, I do love looking at moss on trees. When you get really close, it is like looking at a miniature forest. We had some snow a couple of days ago so there is still a little snow ice on the moss. The grass is not turning green yet and no buds on the trees. But the moss is always pretty to look at.
Spring Birds are Here and the deer have lost their winter coats already. The Common Grackles are here wondering around on the ground foraging for food. They are lanky blackbirds with long legs, a long tail, and a long and heavy bill. Adult males appear dark overall, but have an iridescent bluish head and bronzy body in good light.
The bird in the for ground is the Red Winged Black Bird, one of my favorites for its song. I love hearing them in the spring. You can see the difference in size of these two birds.
Here is one of the younger doe’s coming out of the woods. This is a good time of year for them. Green grass is uncovered by the melting snow and the bugs are not bothering them yet.
The Ice is Breaking Up at the lake. The lake looks so blue when the skies are clear. I went to this wonderful little park to see how the ice is doing and it is nice to see clear water again. It was kind of cold on this day so I did not get around the whole park.
It is good to see all the spring birds coming back, it is even nice to see the gulls again.
This is an entrance to a Cable bridge at this park. I love the towering beams holding the cables up at each end.
It is a small suspension bridge held by lots of heavy duty cables. But they suggest only 2 people at a time. It really gets to moving as you walk across it. I will have to go back there again for better photos. It was pretty cold and still slippery with ice everywhere.
The Rushing of Waters to Waters and·he-shall-become, separating between waters to·waters. Here you have a physical reality and a spiritual reality. Waters is an idiomatic expression for the spiritual nature. I have been reading another bloggers post for over a year now. You may know him, The Rural Iowegian. He has been on a journey, a struggle of trying to over come cancer, he has shared his journey through blogging.
But his battle with cancer has come to a cross roads. His journey makes one think, it could happen to anyone of us. Life can change so fast and leave one with so many questions. It got me to thinking about life and death.
By the time we are 5 we become isolate to one thought, those of our fathers who have gone before us. We become seen in life to the ones standing in front of us, to be judged in their fires. To help us to cleanse the flectional thoughts we have picked up in life from those around us. We isolate some thoughts and pick up flectional thoughts swirling just outside the corners of our eyes, like the water swirling in circles at the bottom of the water falls.
Those thoughts bend in the wind into any shape that is pleasing to the eye. We allow ourselves to become malleable to the thoughts of others standings and too often bow to them for the bulk of our lives.
These thoughts in turn can lead to fear, fear of the unknown. Fear of sticking with your own beliefs, because of the pressures of those around us to to conform to their ideas. All these different thoughts can pull you into so many different directions that one can lose sight of the narrow gate that leads to the light at the end of the tunnel.
When I am standing by a waterfall, I can only hear the rushing of the water heading to its final destination. It pushes all the other noise away, so I can see the destination, the beautiful ocean of water where time stands still for but a moment and everything makes sense for awhile. My place of tranquility, where I can draw on the peace and quiet solitude within the Freedom of my Heart. Where the thought of Death does not bind me to the ways of the world.
Thank you Mark, for sharing your journey.
It is Strutting Season This has been such a treat to see these wild turkeys up close. Some of these photos were taken through a window. Maybe they will get to the point they won’t run off so quick if they see me out and about trying to get a picture of these beautiful birds, as they get used to me be around.
Turkeys almost always spit and drum when they strut but also do it when not strutting. Unlike a gobble that can carry up to a mile, the ruffling feathers and spit and drum sounds can be difficult for humans to hear beyond a hundred yards, even in the best conditions.
It is quite comical to watch these males strutting around, they are always right next to each other trying to out do the other as they puff up all their feathers. Along with trying to grab the attention of the girls, who on this day were not paying any attention to these two at all.
It is Strutting Season
Does Anyone Know What This Is, well I did not know until the other day. I have seen wild turkeys from a distance. But never this close. The male turkeys, called Tom’s, are so much more colorful than I knew, especially during this time of year and if the sun is out.
These feathers sticking out from the males are called beards. Males typically have a “beard”, a tuft of coarse hair (modified feathers) growing from the center of the breast. Beards average 230 mm (9.1 in) in length. The longer the beard the older the turkey.
The body feathers are generally blackish and dark, sometimes grey brown overall with a coppery sheen that becomes more complex in adult males. The male is substantially larger than the female, and his feathers have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze, and gold iridescence.
Adult males, called toms or gobblers, have a large, featherless, reddish head, red throat, and red wattles on the throat and neck. The head has fleshy growths called caruncles. Juvenile males are called jakes; the difference between an adult male and a juvenile is that the jake has a very short beard and his tail fan has longer feathers in the middle.
Their heads are very colorful, from pinks and blues. Now, their face is a little odd, but their beautiful feathers really make them shine. Tomorrow I will show a couple photos of the Tom’s strutting their stuff. I never know when they will show up and they spook real easy. I hope to get some video of them one of these times.
Does Anyone Know What This Is
Fun Surprise in the Yard, the wild turkeys have found my bird feeder and come by to clean up all the left overs on the ground. But as you can see, there is a white turkey in the bunch. I have never seen a wild whitish turkey. It says about 1 out of 100 might end up white.
The photos are a little blurry because I had to take the photo through the window. The minute I open the door they all take off running and surprisingly, they can run really fast.
Fun Surprise in the Yard
The Time Between Sunrise & Sunset, the snow is almost gone and the smell of fresh spring air is on the horizon. Golden hues of a spring sunrise is warming the earth from its winters nap. How precious our time is between the two.
Time is the most precious resource because you can’t get it back. People often think of money as their most valuable resource. Money is something created by man to trade for things.
Time seemed to last forever when I was younger. But today, time has slowed down for me. Without the Father, time was fleeting and not spent wisely for me. With the Father, time is a gift. Each moment from Sunrise to Sunset, are precious moments in time that can not be taken back. A very wise man said the other day, by the name of Mark, the Father never said we had to walk this path alone. He will teach us the value of time.
The Smallest of Those, creation. The smallest birds in my back yard, yet they survived the winter and the cold temps. Amazing how they are able to do this without a winters coat or boots on their little feet. Survival instinct, migration, what can we see and learn from the smallest around us?
There are a few theories about how birds find their way between their seasonal homes, and there are still some mysteries surrounding how exactly their honing systems work.
For many birds, however, migration is an instinct, a journey their bodies are prepared to take when the time comes. No fear, it is written. They always find their way back home. Amazing indeed.
The least of you will become a thousand, and the smallest a mighty nation. At the right time, I, the LORD, will make it happen.”
Have a Wonderful Weekend
The Smallest of Those
What Might This Be, I have always been one to stop and look at everything since I was a child. Photography has made it even more fun to look at all the little things that we tend to walk right by without a second glance. How close can I get? What does this look like really close? That is what I am thinking.
Now granted, there always seems to be something that makes me stop and take a second glance. On this particular day, as you might guess, the sparkles of light reflecting off the frost caught my eye right away. I love it when this happens. It can take me along time to take a walk outdoors, because He shows me daily that life is to be enjoyed, to slow down and see, really see everything around us.
Even; Shingles on a Roof
But it is the Light that always stops me and enables me to take a deep breath and just smile.
What Might This Be
A Cheerful Tiny Bird called the Chickadee, Now I have taken 100’s of photos of this bird and many others. I never get tired of photographing the same species, but I do try to change the backgrounds and make each photograph a little different. The bird is the subject of the photo, but the challenge comes by finding new locations and different ways to photograph each bird.
Which takes a lot of patience to study and watch each species and try to figure out how they live so that I can showcase how they eat, nest and fly. Of course flying is the difficult one to capture, especially with this fast little bird.
