snowbird

after a week of snow on the ground, the only place not covered is where Buddy's truck was parked, so that is where the birds are looking for food 

be prepared to stop

On the first day we arrived in Rapid City on the 4th of July we saw a sign warning of Bighorn Sheep - Be Prepared to Stop! 

The sign is right at the turnoff for the campground. We looked and looked but never saw any. 

Finally I asked Monty in the office about the sign. He said the sheep stay up in the high peaks all summer, but at the first cold snap they come down to the valley looking for food. He said they would stand in the road and congregate and sleep over in the Catholic Church parking lot across the street.

Well, since I left Rapid City while it was still warm, I didn't get to see any bighorn sheep. But Buddy found some yesterday after work near the campground! 

There are also a lot of Canadian geese looking for the Canyon Lake that has been drained, maybe also looking for warmth, but they may have to fly a little farther south.

Bighorn Sheep, check!

welcome home

katydid

There are lots of things I miss about home when I am away - family, friends, my bed. But some things I didn't even know I missed.

Like last night when we came dragging in after midnight, we parked and opened the doors of our little airport rental car and were immediately enveloped by the cacophony of the katydids welcoming us home.

Even though we are in humid Georgia, we kept the bedroom window open last night, thank you katys for singing me to sleep.

 living in the woods - stickbug looking in

UFOs

perched watchful hawk

robot Jinx and Madison visit grandpa Buddy's workshop

UFO top done! (UFO = quilter talk for UnFinishedObject)

found a new use for the old swingset - outdoor quilt display area!

grazing

The local bear family just passing through, mama and three cubs (they wouldn't pose all together). Just making the rounds, grazing in the grass.

Maggie

Our cat has disappeared. No trace. Maybe the victim of a bear or coyote, or maybe she went for a walkabout. Maybe she is just asleep in that big cushion in the sky.

Born in South Georgia, St. Marys, around 1998, she was named for the Magnolia outlet mall in Brunswick on her way back to Ellijay. That was her first car ride and she did not like it, a trend to continue her whole life.

She was a birdwatcher, liked to watch the hummingbirds flit around. But she was compassionate - when birds would fly into our high windows and land feet up on the deck, she would come running to administer mouth-to-mouth before taking them to the screened-in porch for dissection.

She liked high places - she watched the yard from the top step, she slept on top of the 4-wheeler cushion, she watched from the porch swing as the raccoons would come and go to eat her food at night.

Maggie and her buddy, Tasha the dog

You know how your kids get pets then the kids grow up and leave home and leave the pets there? That is what happened to Maggie. Left to be raised by grandparents, she liked the quiet life with the old folks out in the woods.

She was still pretty spry for a 15-year-old cat, we would be gone for long periods of time and she had a caregiver who would check on her and feed her, elder care. So if you have a loved one who is getting on up there in years, go to see her and give her a hug because the next time she might be gone.

Thanks for all the good times, Maggie, hope you are in a happy place!

posers

I wonder what kind of birds are these that like my hummingbird feeder? Several will perch on one side so the feeder will tilt and the nectar will flow out...

According to the folks at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology they are house finches, the male is the red one. 

Oh it is for hummingbirds? There's no sign to that effect...

don't feed the bears

this sign is on the porch, but maybe they can't read yet...

mama bear pushed through the screen looking for dinner 

and/or teaching the 3 little ones how to forage

pileated woodpeckers

Pileated Woodpeckers in the woods by our house. These are huge, like hens!

They were doing a little dance, so of course I Googled it and found this:

These birds have been observed performing a courtship dance. This dance consists of one bird bowing, scraping, and stepping sideways in a circle around another bird.

I was curious about the coloring as they both looked the same, I know in some birds the male has the more striking colors. According to the internet, the male and female both do have the same coloring, the striking red head etc., with the only difference is a small red mustache on the male.  

Well, both of these had the red mustache, so I guess they are both male, and maybe it wasn't a mating ritual after all. Or maybe it was… not that there's anything wrong with that…

nesting

the scout - hmmm this satellite dish looks pretty good

me carry BIG sticks

geesh, look at these BIG sticks he brought, can't build a nest with them!

yes I threw them all out - now bring me something I can use!

will just do it myself 

must hurry - about to pop...

Northern Mockingbirds making a home on the satellite dish just outside our camper window! It has been very entertaining, apparently they are new at this, first timers. They would put one stick in and two would fall out. Buddy the Builder wanted to go out there and help them. But then all of a sudden they got serious and finished it in one day - and not too soon, the next day there was an egg! Guess she put her foot down and made it happen. 

area happenings

Common Grackle

House Sparrow

canola field

Mr. and Mrs. House Sparrow

Cumberland River overflows

the Silver Box

Happenings 'round here - still bird watching out my office window. Big yellow fields that line the interstate are canola (for making canola oil). Downtown the Cumberland River has been out of its banks and onto the River Walk for two weeks now. And on the Job front, it seems that wooden studs and walls and trusses are out of style, the all metal box that will be the Navy Federal Credit Union building.

Land Between the Lakes

Great Western Furnace circa 1855

The Homeplace Interpretative Center

Bison

elk

Quilts displayed at The Homeplace

We recently drove over to Land Between the Lakes. The 170,000 acre recreation area was formerly called 'land between the rivers' but when the two rivers were formed into lakes, the resulting peninsula was designated Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area by President Kennedy in 1963.

We took the south-to-north route of the Trace and only made it halfway through the park, stopping at 3 visitors centers, the iron furnace, the bison range, and the elk and bison prairie. The Trace goes up the middle of the park, so we didn't see the lakes on either side. A huge park with lots of campgrounds and trails, even a 100 mile OHV trail, and 300 miles of shoreline, I am sure it is a very busy place in the summer months. But it was a nice drive on a cool spring day, not crowded at all, our kind of trip.

happy earth day

Thanks Mother Earth 

for your trees and flowers and wildlife, 

and for trails for us to get back to nature!

~photos Clarksville Greenway rails-to-trails, Clarksville, TN - 21 April 2013