Puppy in the Clouds
–Sue
Archive of posts filed under the Photo Posts category.
Telephoto Tuesday
Here is Dancing With The Stars, my style. I usually catch the dancing segment on Monday nights. One thing I like about DWTS is you don’t have to be glued to the TV set; just pay enough attention to catch the star dances.
I watch by my kitchen window, and I started watching at 7:15 (missing the first 15 minutes). Then things got shakin’.
7:20 Dancing the Argentine Tango was a Cardinal and a Cow bird:
The costuming was magnificent:
They finally agreed to stay on opposite sides of the dance floor:
7:43 Dancing the Viennese Waltz was a beautiful Monarch butterfly:
7:45 The action was hot and heavy from this point on. Dancing the Salsa (hey, they’re both red) was a male House Finch:
7:46 Dancing the Quick Step to The Flight of the Bumblebee was, well, a Bumblebee:
7:49 Dancing the Paso Doble was a wasp:
At this point, the TV show was officially over, but one more dancer showed up a little late.
8:09 Dancing the Cha-Cha is a Downey Woodpecker:
More DWTS tonight. Hope the lighting is good again in my crab apple tree!
–Sue
Telephoto Tuesday
(or…any excuse to post bird pictures!) Our skittish cardinal has been a regular at the feeder. He just doesn’t hang around very long:
Jim made this board with partially drilled out areas to load with Bark Butter (a product that’s part peanut butter / part suet). The squirrel LOVED it! Since the association “took care of” the squirrel (he was naughty — chewed his way into the neighbor’s eaves), this downy woodpecker actually has a chance of getting some. I like this picture that shows that great foot-hold.
And a cute little goldfinch. They have become much more plentiful at the feeders.
Yes, spring has finally arrived in Minnesota. Our crab blossoms have started to open. The tree should be gorgeous in another couple of days.
That’s it for today. Hope you have a great Tuesday, and some springtime sneaks into your life today.
–Sue
p.s. Book Club today. I finished The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and should have a new selection posted in the upper right-hand corner soon in case you’d like to read along!
Telephoto Tuesday
It’s always fun to see a bird I don’t recognize. We’ve been enjoying the company of white-throated sparrows the last few days. Apparently they are migrating to their summer homes further north.
White-Throated Sparrow
I love these birds because they clean up a lot of the seed spilled to the ground by the bigger birds. Everybody loves somebody that cleans up after themselves — and even better, when they clean up after other people!
We’re also seeing some Goldfinches drop by, but the bigger birds (blackbirds and cowbirds) are kind of intimidating.
Goldfinch
The House Finches are so pretty..
House Finch
And we also had a female Cardinal come dine.
Cardinal, Female
–Sue
Telephoto Tuesday
Some pix of visitors to the tree out my kitchen window.
Doesn’t this red-winged blackbird make you think of Heckle & Jeckle? Or maybe he reminds me of the Windex commercials.
We’re seeing way too many blackbirds and brown-headed cowbirds at the feeder this spring. I think it’s my new feeder. I may have to switch out to a finch feeder when then weather warms up a bit. Hopefully sometime soon…
This guy makes me think of the State Fair…House Finch on a Stick:
A pretty little chickadee:
Another Red-Winged Blackbird. They puff out their wings when they sing. It really makes them look bigger than they are with those big red shoulder pads!
And a female Red-Winged Blackbird. The blackbirds are really obnoxious diners, scattering seeds all over the ground as they dig for their favorite seeds.
And we see the occasional Cardinal. They don’t spend much time at the feeder. They just grab a bite and run. Just like teenagers.
– Sue
Cooper’s Hawk
We saw this Cooper’s Hawk in the wooded area behind us. This handsome fellow is definitely on the small side for a hawk or falcon, and his back feathers are a blue gray. It’s his tail feathers though that give away his identity — long tail with broad stripes and a rounded tail end with a slight touch of white.
–Sue
Mockingbird
Very fitting that this is the Texas State Bird. We saw a lot of them during our time in Port Aransas.
Mockingbird
Today I’m off to Northfield, Minnesota, for a quilt show. It’s always fun to see what other quilters are working on, and a great chance to be inspired.
–Sue
Crested Caracara
Last month, while on a walk at Charlie’s Pasture in Port Aransas, Texas, I spotted a bird in the sky that wasn’t familiar. (Happens all the time — most of the birds I see are a mystery to me. It’s fun to try and get pictures though and try to identify the bird later.) It proceeded to land on the ground and looked like it was hunting.
Crested Caracara
I knew we hadn’t seen this bird before. My bird book says the Crested Caracara is often seen on the ground in the company of vultures, and feeds chiefly on carrion. Fairly common in Texas. Wish I could have gotten a better picture, but he was a l-o-n-g ways away! It’s fun to see something new though.
–Sue
Springtime in Texas
A picture from a visit to the Leonabell Turnbull Birding Center in Port A. This tree was just budding out:
Tree leafing out
A juvenile White Ibis at Paradise Pond. He will “fish around” with his whole beak in the water looking for a tasty morsel:
White Ibis, Juvenile
Charlie’s Pasture is a newer nature preserve site in Port Aransas. It’s on the other side of the island and run parallel to the shipping channel. It too is only about five minutes (or less) from here. We took a l-o-n-g walk there yesterday from the city swimming pool to almost the end of the walkway and back, which easily took us at least a couple of hours. It was a beautiful spring day in Texas.
My first bug pictures of 2011! A damselfly on the sidewalk:
Damselfly
A bee (or a fly that imitates bees) on a teeny, tiny flower (the bee was maybe 1/3″ inch long). Gotta love the zoom!
And a photo of four of the thousands of pelicans we’ve seen streaming north in long strings along the coast:
More later…
Sue
Texas Sights
A glimpse of a dolphin…I tried to get its face, but I couldn’t quite anticipate the timing just right. He was appearing right alongside of us at Robert’s Park in Port Aransas, Tx:
Dolphin
A seagull found a tasty treat at the beach:
Seagull
And at Paradise Pond, a Black-Crowned Night Heron (juvenile):
Black-Crowned Night Heron
Also at Paradise Pond, a Great Blue Heron takes a break from tending his/her nest high in the trees to take a stretch:
Great Blue Heron
This time of year, there are long, long strings of pelicans flying north in formation:
Pelicans
That’s it for now…
–Sue
