Winter Wildlife

It's been a while since I've posted some photos of our local backyard wildlife (or front yard as it generally is around here).

This little opossum was scrounging around the bird feeder and eating up the sweet potato fries we had thrown out for the birds.  The birds didn't touch them, but he located all of them, even the ones still under the snow, and had a nice little meal.  I felt bad for him because he was limping and favoring his back left foot.  I hope he heals up soon and doesn't become an easier prey target because of it.

We feed the birds throughout the winter and the little Tufted Titmouse is one of my favorite little birds. When food is scarce they appreciate the feeders and become very brave when we refill them. They want to be on standby as soon as the new stuff gets loaded into the feeder!

The Northern Cardinals and Mourning Doves aren't so brave, but they do sit in the closest tree waiting for me to move back a safe distance.

This little mourning dove wasn't concerned about the food - he was peeping inside the french door window while I was clearing off the table.  (Pardon the blurry shot - my windows are very dirty).

Nature and Stuff

It's been a while since I've blogged.  What can I say, it's been a busy month!  But that doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying the wildlife around the house. I even actually dusted off the camera to snag a couple of photos.  I was trying to get the pair of chipmunks that have taken up residence in the rock bed around one of the trees, but the bunny and the birds were the only critters cooperating with me.

Bunny Foo Foo

Ready for Take Off!

As for me, I'm doing fantastic.  I finished up my radiation treatment about a month ago and am finally feeling back to my old self again.  Once fall rolls around I plan to start back on my P90X workouts.  Unfortunately with my surgery and treatments, my first two months of hardwork has reverted back to ground zero due to not being able to work out and not sticking to a good diet.  But, I'll get it all straightened out in due time.  For now I'm busy working and spending at least one day a week lounging by the pool and enjoying summer.  The garden is growing, the critters are abundant and the weekends are full of good times with friends.  Life is good!  :)

I <3 Hummingbirds

Today I was finally able to capture hummingbird photos without them being on the feeder - something I've been trying to accomplish for quite some time. When Ike came through Kentucky last weekend our screen got torn off the side of the deck where the feeder usually hangs. Without the screen there the hummingbirds kept getting caught inside the porch. For fear of them not finding their way out, being hit by a ceiling fan or eaten by a dog we decided it would be best to move the feeder to the evergreen tree in the backyard until we get the screen fixed. Had I known that was all it would take I'd have tried this a year ago! Now when the hummingbirds decide to take a rest from eating or want to check things out before they approach the feeder they perch in the branches of the evergreen - perfect photo op!

(Click for a larger view)

Pure Luck - Hummingbird Moth

Yesterday as Jason was casually looking out the front door he started all of a sudden flipping out yelling, "Camera! Quick! Hummingbird Moth! Hummingbird Moth!". After realizing what he was saying I snatched up my camera and ran to the front porch where we have a small barrel of flowers in full bloom. Sure enough, hovering over the flowers was a hummingbird moth! I've seen photos of these before but have never seen on in person and it was so cool! It was much smaller than I expected it to be. In the haste to get a good photo I switched the camera to auto mode, and glad I did because I only got four shots before it flew away. This is the only shot that turned out worth a darn. Jason has some more on his Flickr page.

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

Nikon D80 - First shots

Over the weekend I sold my Nikon D50 and upgraded to a Nikon D80. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from my first outing with the new camera body. These were taken at the pond on the grounds of Louisville Memorial Gardens East.

Momma duck and her almost grown brood:

Dragonfly at rest:

Cicada City!

Apparently it is the time of year for cicadas to hatch, or whatever it is they do.  We have 3 trees in the back yard filled with moulted cicada shells.   It really is quite an eerie site when standing under the trees and looking up (see photo below).  All of the lower branches look like this from the underside of the leaves.  And the ground around the trees is littered with shells as well.  We are now starting to hear them sing when sitting outside...summer is here!

Though not all of the cicadas are singing their song.  It turns out that dogs seem to have a craving for cicadas...and what we have is a free-for-all cicada buffet.  Blue doesn't care for them too much, but I'd be willing to bet that Lois Lane and Hardy have eaten three days worth of meals in cicadas alone.  It's a miracle there are any left to sing between them and the squirrels munching away.  *gag*    So if the cicadas go extinct this year, I'm pretty sure I know why.  

One of the survivors:

View from under the tree:

The ground around the trees:

Property Photos

Jason and I went out to the property to look around now that the trees have started to get their leaves and everything is starting to bloom - wow what a difference just 3 weeks makes from when we first went out to look at it!  We also wanted to figure out exactly where we would clear for our camper and general living area as well as find the best place to put in a circular drive to easily get the camper and vehicles in and out.  I took a few photos while we were there, of course it's mostly just trees!  Also added an arial view from Google maps showing our tract.  :)

Photos are here!

Camping We Will Go!

This afternoon we signed the final papers for the purchase of 6 beautifully wooded acres in southern Indiana!  No, we're not moving.  We bought it to use as our own private get-away.  We love nature and love to go camping, so what better than to have our own private camping spot all year long?  For now we plan on putting the camper out there and may eventually build a little cabin in it's place.

I was hoping to get some photos up with this entry as we had planned on going out to the property after the signing, but it was pouring rain so it wouldn't have done much good.  Plenty of photos to come I'm sure as there will be much nature and photo opportunities each trip we make!

I think we need to name our little get-away...but so far no luck in coming up with anything good.  I considered "The Oaks" since we did buy it on Oaks Day (the race day before Derby Day here in Kentucky).  But I'm not sure that fits right.  We may need to spend a couple of weekends on site before it can be appropriately named.  Jason mentioned "Camp Mesker" and another that comes to mind is "Dog Woods" since our dogs will almost always accompany us there.  I'm sure we'll think of something eventually...suggestions welcome!

Moving the Earth

 ...or rather the Earth moving us!  At 5:40am Jason and I were woken up by the sound of the windows rattling, the blinds rattling and the whole house shaking.  It was a short 5 seconds, but we knew what it was as soon as it was over.  We had just experienced our first earthquake!  Kentucky is not known for earthquakes as other parts of the nation are, so it was kinda shocking to us!  The actual 5.2 earthquake supposedly evolved out of West Salem, Illinois, which is about 350 miles away from Louisville.  

So that's my interesting news of the day!

Photography Hobby = Blogs of Photos

So now that the weather is trying to get nice it's high time to break out the camera for some wildlife shots.  I've been capturing photos of our backyard habitat critters for the last year or so and finally decided it was high time to get a good wildlife lens to really do the job up right.  So after much research, off to Murphy's Camera I went to purchase a new Nikon 80-400mm VR lens.  Since I've had it it's rained, rained and rained some more...go figure.  But I did manage to get a little juvenile woodpecker to look half-way decent and in focus...but I have lots of practicing to do.

Speaking of practice, now I have a partner in crime!  Jason decided he'd like to join me in my wildlife jaunts around the yard, local parks, zoo's, camping trips, etc and decided to bite the bullet and buy him a camera as well.  So he is now the proud owner of a Nikon D80 (better than mine!  *sob*) and a nice 200-500mm Tamron lens!  So this weekend we're off to the Louisville Zoo to test out our new goods!