Bought a Bird Feeder

If you think I love my cats, you'd be right.  But Wayne loves them more.

He went out and bought a bird feeder so that they would be entertained when they can't get outside for their walks.

Male house finch?

Now we're consulting bird guides trying to figure out what is visiting the yard.  If I'm wrong on any identification please let me know! I'm still trying to figure out camera settings, but here's a few images that turned out okay.

Breeding Male House Sparrows?

I imagined these two chatting as they ate.  Jokes, maybe?
Q: Why do birds fly south?
A: Because it is too far to walk!

Black Capped Chickadee?

Q: What do you get if you kiss a bird?
A: A peck on the cheek!

Q: How did the bird break into the house?
A: With a crow bar.

Female Anna's Hummingbird?

 Q: Why do hummingbirds hum?
A: Because they don't know the words.

Female Brown-headed Cowbird?

Q: What do you get if you cross a duck with a firework?
A: A firequaker!

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird?

Q: What soap do birds use?
A: Dove.

Male Brown-headed Cowbird?

Q: What did the maple tree say to the woodpecker?
A: Leaf me alone!

And with our upcoming trip to Newfoundland in mind:
Q: Which bird is always out of breath?
 A: A puffin!


Help identifying the last little bird appreciated!

Above bird jokes from  http://www.jokes4us.com/animaljokes/birdjokes.html
Linking up to Saturday Critters

Autumn Treats

Autumn treats are here, from caramel covered apples to pumpkin spice lattes.

The prairie is putting on its last show of the year before the trees take center stage.

 I walked around Waukesha's downtown last weekend and enjoyed some of their painted guitars and murals.  They have a link to a map here if you're interested in finding them.

Perfect walking weather is starting to happen more frequently, last week's wave of heat and humidity has run its course and hopefully that was the last we'll see of it.  Linking up to Saturday's Critters.

A Walk on Bear Island

It turns out the best beach requires a ferry ride.  Luckily it's only $5 to get the round trip out to Hammocks Beach State Park in Swansboro.  If you're lucky you can even spot dolphins, we saw them from the dock but a group of school kids got to watch them frolic alongside their ferry.

Plenty of boat traffic in the channel along the way, folks enjoying the sun and the fishing.

The birds enjoy the fishing too, and don't seem to mind the boat traffic.  Hopefully the creatures underwater know to stay out of the shipping lane.

It's less than 15 minutes to the dock, boats leave the park on the bottom of the hour and leave the barrier island on the hour.

From the dock it's a paved 1/2 mile walk to the beach.  There is some vegetation on the dunes including small cacti that were blooming.

Showers, bathrooms and picnic facilities are available as are primitive campsites.  Bring everything you need but water!  No concessions were available, at least not at this time of year.  If I am ever in the area again I'm packing a tent to see this place in the morning before the people start arriving!

The island is just one big beach, dunes are off limits in order to protect the habitat.  Barrier islands protect the mainland from storms and provide homes to many animals including industrious little sanderlings chasing the waves to find their food.

The beach is also home to crabs, probably ghost crabs who come out at night.  Another good reason to pack a tent, though I wonder how curious they are and if I would hear them scuttling around while I was trying to sleep?

Shells that wash up on the shore are the only thing that you are allowed to remove from the island, but it was picked pretty clean by the time we arrived.  We walked about a mile in one direction and then turned back around and headed back for the dock.

On our return trip down the beach we saw a flock of brown pelicans.  A first for us!

On the ferry back we saw a couple of Laughing Gulls having a chuckle.  Not as exciting as dolphins, but still fun to watch!

Linking up to Saturday's Critters.

Yellowstone Flashback - The Wildlife

The following is part of a series of posts about the trip Wayne and I took to Yellowstone National Park in 2009.

It's not all bison at Yellowstone.  Everywhere we went we saw a variety of wildlife including elk and mule deer...

and even a coyote making his way across the valley.

The Fishing Bridge campground had bison filing right through the parking lot, but Wayne was just as happy sitting outside the camper and hand feeding the chipmunk peanuts.  I kept telling him he shouldn't feed the wildlife but he wouldn't listen to me.

When we were exploring the Lamar Valley we came across these mules all packed and ready to go, probably for a guided fishing trip.  I thought they made a nice composition.  It got me wondering what it would be like to see the landscape from horseback, but since I haven't ridden in 30 years I'll probably stick to hiking.

Down by Yellowstone Lake we saw a bald eagle, and it was pretty easy to spot fish in the Yellowstone River too.  The only thing we didn't see was bears and wolves.  Have to leave something for the next trip, right?

Well, that wraps up my series of posts about Yellowstone.  We didn't do any hikes except up and down a few of the popular viewpoint trails at the Grand Canyon.  I have a book on my Amazon wish list of the hikes in the park and look forward to getting back there and trying some of them out!

Linking up to Saturday's Critters.  While I was catching up on Eileen's blog I caught a post of hers about Pic Monkey's website which answered the question of how everyone was doing those photo collages.  I'll post about my cameras I tested using collages tomorrow! 

Governor Thompson State Park in Crivitz

The only place I went this summer that I still haven't posted about is Governor Thompson State Park in Crivitz.  I drove up there on a whim for the 4th of July weekend because it was one of the few state parks with an open site and it wasn't far from where Katrina lives.  She actually travels there to present at the schools sometimes for her job.

This interesting pair was guarding someone's driveway just down the road from the park entrance.  Kind of like metal jack-o-lanterns.

The park is very much off the beaten track, which is probably why it still had openings.  However, it had great sites, a new looking shower facility, a lake and lots of hiking trails available.  The drive into the town of Crivitz is half an hour so make sure you're stocked up on supplies before you get there.

The campground has a total of 90 sites but only 16 are electric.  There was a trail just steps away from my campsite, and when I checked it out I was the only one using it except the deer.

She just watched me walking towards her for a few minutes, like she couldn't quite figure out what the heck I was doing there on her trail.

A few things to be aware of, even in July the ticks were unbelievable on every trail.  I was constantly bending over to flick them off my shoes.

That trail from the campground loop led to private land that had a deer stand on it.  Wear bright clothing, especially during deer season.

When I made my way back to camp there the doe was on the trail again.  We went through the same routine before she eventually darted off into the underbrush.  This time she made a disgusted sounding snort.  Joke's on her, I've got fingers to flick off the ticks and she doesn't!   I'm linking up to Saturday's Critters today, check out the link if you want to see more critters.

More about the park in the next post.

Ridges and Swales

Our first full day in Door County was a winner!  It started out cloudy and windy, but we knew that wouldn't last long.

Baileys Harbor view

My parents decided on a whim to visit Katrina in Menominee and then make a stop in Door County for a few days before continuing on to visit other relatives in OshKosh.  I decided that was a golden opportunity to force them to see the "quieter side" of Door County.  Most folks come to the area to shop and go to fish boils...we're going out of our way to search out the hidden treasures, of course.

No moon view...this time

Ever heard of The Ridges Sanctuary? Me neither until a patient at work mentioned it this winter.  After some internet research this destination became the focal point for our proposed Door County getaway and that is how we ended up in Baileys Harbor away from the worst of the crowds.

Admission to the privately owned sanctuary is $5 to walk the trails.  In the visitor center we also purchased the trail guide for an extra $2, along with some great all natural insect repellent called Bug-Me-Not that is made right here in Door County.  There was a basket of sprays available to use before hitting the trails and it was one of them.  Make no mistake, even on a cooler windier day like the one we visited you'll want to put something on.

The Ridges is a series of low sandy ridges alternating with swales.  The swales are low swampy areas, you know, the kind of place mosquitoes love.   Each ridge was formed during the final stages of a lake level rise and grew while the lake level was falling.

Solitude Swale

 Each ridge took 30-50 years to form.  Within the sanctuary wooden bridges span the swales to link the trails that are on the ridges.

We got there a little less than an hour before my parents, so we had some time to get information and do a little bit of pre-looking to scope out the elusive Ram's-Head Lady Slipper.  We didn't have any luck spotting it on the Mountain Maple Trail, but when Wayne went out to the parking area to look for my parents I got lucky by running into the naturalist, Carol, who was happy to take me right to the spot.

Even though the sandy margins of a boreal forest is perfect habitat for this plant the naturalist was only able to locate three specimens on the property at this time.  It is a State Threatened plant, here and in neighboring states, and I must remind everyone not to poach Lady Slippers as they are practically impossible to transplant and all that is accomplished is that yet another plant dies.

The tiny flower was about the size of my thumbnail, and its darker color was hard to spot.  Be careful and stay on the trails, this one was less than a foot from the trail edge!  Even stepping off the trail to let someone pass could endanger a special specimen like this one.  Keep an eye out!

Picture perfect Trillium

We hiked most of the Winter Wren Trail with Mom and Dad, pointing out things of interest to them, like the tree that was struck by lightning.

And there were a few dragonflies flitting about along with the mosquitoes, and even one resting on the bench, so be careful where you sit too!

But the biggest surprise was when Wayne spotted a snake slithering out of a hole in the side of the visitor center.  Mom dropped to the ground below and then two youngsters stuck their head out to see what she was up to.  I'll link this post to Saturday's Critters in honor of these little guys.

There were plenty more wildflowers we spotted, and after my parents left us we made our way down to the range lights as well.  I'll save all that for some later posts...and that's just a start to all the neat things we've seen so far!

Backyard Bears Video

I know I told you about our backyard bear visit in Gatlinburg already.

Something's going on with the young bear's hind leg.  Looks like a healing injury of some sort.  Maybe even human intervention?  Looks a little too symmetrical to me.

But here's the YouTube video version of our visit.  Click on the YouTube symbol or the little box in the lower right hand corner to view it in Full Screen.

We really enjoyed our rental house and I'd recommend either the 4 bedroom Mountain Extacy property we had or the 5 bedroom Mountain Splendor property next door to anyone.  I bet the bears are frequent visitors, just remember to lock up that garbage good when you take it out!

Linking up to Saturday's Critters for the first time thanks to Linda!