Saturday and Sunday Pictures

This little female dickcissel was chipping her heart out as I drove to the old place Saturday. 

She doesn't have a beard, it's a piece of the plant behind her! 

I'm starting to see the red-tails again.  This one almost looks suspended in the air in front of the tree. 

I missed the great shot a few minutes before, a red tail swooped down on something, talons extended, about ten feet from the car just as I turned a corner.  I was so dumbfounded I couldn't stop and grab the camera in time! 

Then I saw this one going across a pasture to the tree, and stopped and caught it.  This is 

much-cropped, of course. 

I am having so much fun feeding the birds on the back yard deck rail.  

Today, I saw a dove eating there that had a hurt leg... she hops on the good leg... 

I don't know how long she will be able to last. 

I did not know until last week that there are six kinds of bumblebees around here. 

I love to watch them. 

They love the catmint that has invaded the old gardens. 

This ... thing... is blooming under the feeding station at the old house. 

Look at the thorns! 

Here they are growing under the flat feeder. 

The suet feeders are empty out there, and I think I may take them 

down.  Then again, I saw a woodpecker fly to them yesterday, so 

they may stay up for a while. 

This is a very small daylilly, and it's coming here.  I'm going to get 

it ready to move tomorrow or Tuesday. 

You see the catmint to the left of it?  Invasive! 

Here's a better look at the Virginia Creeper growing up the old walnut tree. 

The red hens are really starting to look good! 

Our green apple tree out there does not look good at all.  We planted these five years ago, but 

we did not really LEARN about them.  We have never sprayed them, as should be obvious. 

This is the worst it has ever looked, it has something. 

Something bad. 

The red apple does not look like this. 

I have shown you this little girl several times before.   She stays in a specific area that
I pass through every day.  She is not afraid, and it scares me. 

As Keith says, she must have been orphaned and not taught by her mother to be afraid. 

She stood there calmly while I dickered around with the camera. 

She's the little doe with the ticks by her eye that I showed you a few weeks ago. 

On my way OVER to the old house, I saw eight or nine vultures in the sky, circling above this freshly-mown field. 

When we came back there were eight there. 

The ninth flew in, and took off again. 

I love these big birds. 

This girl is the first turkey I've seen in the open in a month! 

She was getting a drink from the standing water there in the yard. 

Tomorrow I'll show you the standing water in OUR yard, and tell you what we 

are going to do about it!