Sunday, January 25, 2015

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! 


8 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a fun and interesting time!

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  2. Hi Mary Ann,,
    I cannot believe you get everything done is a day!!! What a party at your house!! It looked like lots of fun! Those sandwiches and chocolate milk sound so good! What a cute family you have... We loved all the photos!!
    Going to visit that owl place would have been so interesting!
    love
    tweedles

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  3. It looks like you had a successful Valentine party. What a joy children are ! We are snowy and cold here and getting colder they say. The only outdoor time I'll be getting will be shoveling snow.

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  4. Very cool. I miss being close to cows. I grew up on a farm and often miss the sights.

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  5. what a fun valentine's party! those birds are so cool. we have peregrine falcons living on our skyscrapers here and when they are out you don't see another bird in the sky!

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  6. Mary Ann,

    I love celebrating holidays with the little ones. Making a lunch for each of them to remember.

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  7. This may show up twice. I already left a comment, but I don't think it showed up. After reading your comment on my blog, I couldn't wait to get over here to see your V'tine party for the grands. What adorable grandchildren you have! The lunch sounds like so much fun (P'nut butter and jelly tastes even better on heart-shaped bread). It looks like they enjoyed it, and I know they will carry this memory forever.
    I had no ideas their eggs were so big! Interesting tour.

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  8. Keith looks happy holding the Grand.

    Glad you got to spend time with them.

    WOW, what a cool program you got to attend.

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