Our Weekend

We actually had some January weather this weekend, 

with colder temperatures, winds, and 

some rain today. 

These three little scamps, and one year old Carson, came 

for lunch yesterday.  That's Grandma's Valentine's tree 

behind them. 

This prim tree was in the master bedroom all through the Christmas season... 

it is "dressed" with burlap type ribbons, and and weeds I picked out 

at the old place.  It actually made me feel good all through the season, so 

I brought it out into the living room and hung red hearts on it for Valentines. 

Here's Carson with Papa Oder, as he is called. 

Jace, Paiton and Jax liked their Valentine's themed lunch... 

I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the shape of hearts... 

we had strawberry yogurt, some yogurt-covered pretzels (shaped like 

hearts), and lots of fruit.  

Instead of sugary punch, we had chocolate milk to drink. 

I packed their lunches in little lunch boxes. 

Look what I saw when we got to the old place!  The Spehars have gotten 

four new little calves.  They are still up in the lot near the house, on the opposite ridge from us. 

That black blob in the middle is one of the 3 year old steers, I think his buddy must have gone to 

freezer camp, after all. 

This is not a happy Lilly.  She was guarding something in the compost heap to her left. 

I tried to see what it was, but I erred on the side of caution, as I did not want Jester to run up and get attacked. 

There are at least 3 cats drinking on the porch at the old house 

There is an all-black kitty... belongs to Kathy and is usually out at night...

and an orange and white and black and white (lower picture) that we believe 

belong to Kathy and Troy's daughter's family.  

Today while I stopped by there after church, I noticed that the Northern Flicker is 

still coming, along with a flock of sparrows.  I am going to take the suet hanger 

back out there for the flicker, as no one is eating it here.  I'll get set up better here 

this spring. 

My heart clutched when I saw the sparrows on the ground under the old flat feeder in our yard.  How I enjoyed feeding all the wild birds there. 

This afternoon, I attended a program presented by Operation Wildlife at Wyandotte County Lake. 

I did not know I could have taken the big camera, and gotten great shots of these birds, so we will just see a few that I took with my phone and the little camera. 

This is a peregrine falcon, with a Harris hawk behind him.  The Harris is not 

native to this area.  

The peregrine almost looks like a doll, doesn't it, but I can assure you they were all 

very real. 

I was not able to get a picture of the tiny screech owls, 

There's a really bad picture of the Cooper's Hawk, but 

you can see how small they actually are. 

That's a young eagle behind it, in the back of the room. 

There was a beautiful red-tailed hawk on the right, and the eagle again, in the back. 

There was also a Swainson's hawk, which I had not seen close up before, and 

it is also from further south of here. 

So interesting to see them all. 

Operation Wildlife, or OWL... is a nationally-known 

rehabilitative facility here in Leavenworth County.  Some of you 

long-time readers will remember that we caught a red-shouldered hawk that 

fought with one of our roosters and lost his flight feathers... and we took 

that beautiful young bird to OWL to be rehabilitated. 

OWL presented in two places at the lake, inside the huge assembly hall here, 

and across the lake, where there is a library used by school groups.  I was only 

able to make one of the presentations, as my heart clutches driving around the lake. 

HOWEVER... my dear spouse has promised to drive me to the dam next Sunday, because one of the OWL speakers told us she saw 18 eagles there yesterday morning. 

 This is a model of a male eagle's foot and talons. 

Whoa. 

A young boy in front of me held out the golden eagle egg replica being passed around... 

and also a bald eagle egg replica. 

Owl scat.  These birds regurgitate the fur, feathers, and small bones, and this was a sample. 

This was the only halfway decent picture I got with the old camera.  I'll know better next year. 

There was a gentleman there with professional equipment, and his camera and HUGE lens set up on a tripod... he must have taken a hundred fifty or more pictures... next year, that will be me. 

So... all in all, a good weekend!