dragon_moon | Entries tagged with birds

http://www.birdchick.com/2007/05/you-gotta-know-when-to-hold-em.html

I never see baby birds, so this is kind of cool to see a baby crow. In the comments she said that the parents did find the baby in the basket are taking care of it, so all is well. Anyway, imho this crow is so ugly that he's adorable, but your mileage may vary. ;D

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: shakira~whenever whereever

Well, our days of beautiful sunshine seem to be pending at the moment. This morning is pretty grey and chilly, but at least it wasn't pouring. Nate and I had a lovely walk, though most of the tulips on our walk are now quite bedraggled.

http://www.kusine.com/2007/04/vulture.htm

How would you like to be working in a tall building, look out your window and see a vulture looking in at YOU?! LOL. Too funny!

Current Mood: giggly

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/birdchickblog/247590.html?mode=reply

What an unusual version of a red-tailed hawk! He is just gorgeous though. :)

Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: three days grace~pain

Heather and I took Michael to the Cascade Raptor Center on Sunday - they were celebrating Earth Day. It was absolutely amazing how many people were there - cars were parking up and down the street for what looked like a mile. Probably not, but there were a LOT of people there. Michael actually wasn't in a good mood and wasn't remotely interested in the birds, so we didn't get to peruse as much as we would have liked.

Still, we got to see some lovely birds. Lots of falcons, hawks and owls and the like. They even have a pair of turkey vultures - both were sunning themselves, so it was neat to see them up close. Other than their heads, they are actually quite pretty birds. I've seen bald eagles and golden eagles before, but apparently from quite a distance. The golden eagle was HUGE! Wow, was she beautiful. The bald eagles were nesting, as was another pair. Pretty cool! Maybe there will be an opportunity to go see the chicks later this year. ^___^

I haven't figured out the manual settings on my camera, so for the smaller birds I couldn't get the camera to focus on the bird instead of the wires. But I did get some pictures of the bigger birds, and the two vultures.

Today I've been feeling a little sick, but hopefully it's something that will go away without progressing any further. Feeling okay now, anyway. We'll see.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: corinne bailey rae

Flemish Giants are a huuuuge breed of rabbits. We had a few bucks when we were raising rabbits, and maybe a couple of does. All of ours were just plain white, but they apparently come in all sorts of colors too.

Check out the rabbit that is the SAME size as the dog about halfway down the page!
http://www.rabbitandcavydirectory.com/Breed_Gallery/Flemish_Giant.htm

Hmm. This Farm has a little blurb on the Flemish Giants and a pretty picture. They also have lots of rare sheep (neat!), some pigs, chickens and cattle. But, I'm a little bit concerned about their Longhorn description as it describes them as 'docile' and having a great nature. They're in England, perhaps there are two types of Longhorns? Because our longhorns tend to be a bit wild and flighty, though they are great mothers. *G* The one pictured doesn't look like the longhorns I've seen, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
http://www.churchfarmstowbardolph.co.uk/animals%20page.htm

Herman, the Giant Bunny. This picture makes him look far larger than either 17 or 22 pounds!
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_giant_bunny.htm

This site lists a few rabbit breeds, but also has some chickens and ducks.
http://www.omlet.us/breeds/breeds.php

These irises grow wild up on the hill. This is from last year, though this about the time they usually bloom.

Current Mood: blah

hehe. I think that I have a chicadee and a tiny goldfinch trying to get the nerve up to try out the new birdfeeder. YAY!!! I heard this chirping noise out my window, and saw this tiny bird - at first I thought it was a hummingbird, but it didn't move or buzz like a hummingbird. It looks like a pale gold (the sun is behind it so I can't see super well), so I'm guessing it's just a small goldfinch. Anyway, that's cool they're finding the new feeder!

http://redbullartofcanusa.com/

I've always meant to look at the can art and keep forgetting. They don't have that much up in their gallery, but their "permanent" gallery is kind of cool.

Current Mood: chipper

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2007/03/im_in_ur_pond_f.html

Absolutely adorable! My computer played it a little slow, but it was worth it. The duckling appears to be feeding the koi! Though, one of the commenters said he was probably just wetting the food to make it easier to eat...still, it's adorable! ^___^

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: red hot chili peppers

TGIF!!

These are from a few weekends ago, when the blue heron started out right next to the bike path and then flew over about five feet out onto a little bit of land. SO pretty! My apologies for not being very good with bird photos yet. *G*

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm

Had a great day today. Went out to the ranch a little earlier than normal, so Nate and I could take a walk up the hill. The lower portion is fairly clear of blackberries, but I still don't see a way to make it up to the gravel road. I'll have to talk to my cousin, as my uncle thought he was working on clearing a path to get up there. Have to find out where he's doing that from so we can enjoy the long hike again! I'm so looking forward to it. It is so nice to be able to walk Nate off a leash and not have to worry about running into anyone else.

During lunch, we were watching the hummingbirds and finches at the feeders. Grandma has two hummingbird feeders - one on each side of the trailer house. I'm used to seeing the Anna's Hummingbird, but this is the first time I've seen the Rufous Hummingbird! SO pretty! We noticed that it seemed to be going from one feeder to the other, then disappearing for a while. After many hours (visiting, picking up groceries and Rx for grandparents, etc) we came back to discover that one of the Rufous males was guarding BOTH feeders as well as he could. He finally got to the point where he'd land on the fence and wait for one of the other hummingbirds to try to feed, then he'd dive bomb them. Then he'd go over to the other side of the house and repeat. Insane! He's using up all of his energy reserves doing that!! He also did NOT like us messing around in the garden. Eh. Oops! May have to move the feeders further from the house, but then that's no fun for watching them. So cool to see hummingbirds all day long like that, though!! I wish I had some that came to our house here in town. Maybe once my garden is up and growing it will look more inviting.

Sooooo tired. Couldn't get to sleep until midnight last night, and then woke up at 5 in the morning. Ack!! Oh, well. Had a great day but now I'm running out of steam. Also, today was gorgeous and sunny without being too warm. Perfect!

Current Mood: giddy
Current Music: breakout

I don't like either of these pictures as well as the other Mallard, but the one of the pair is interesting enough. I'm going to talk to our camera shop sometime soon and price a zoom lens so I can get better bird/nature shots in the future.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: loretta lynn~van lear rose

This was from a couple of weeks ago, along the River Path. This guy was on the Pathway but he let me take a picture before flying away. I think they're such pretty ducks.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: tori amos~the power of orange knickers

The raised bed garden box has been constructed. It is quite beautiful - redwood and all. Smells nice right now, too! Family is wonderful. Mom and I discovered that while garbage cans are great for hauling soil, it's much too heavy when full. So we had three cans half-full of soil...and the box isn't half full. So, probably two more trips are necessary. Oh, good lord. Will do one tomorrow, and the other...well, we'll see. Picked up some bird netting so the cats should stay away from all that lovely dirt. Plus, it will keep the birds away from the veggies once they've started growing.

Got TCBY peanut butter shakes for a treat for Papa for helping with the box. They're an old favorite that we haven't gotten in ages. So, that was a wonderful end of day treat.

Oh! On the way back out to the ranch, I saw a red shouldered blackbird! OMG, so cool! I've seen them in Michigan before and knew they were in the area, but never have I seen one here. Craziest thing - there's one small patch of cat tails in a sheep pasture, and he was balancing on them singing his little heart out or something. The little red patches were even standing up. SO cool!

( strange lj meme )

Current Mood: exhausted

This morning was simply wonderful. Woke up early and took Nate to the river. They have some really nice paths out by the mall, and then they're building up the ponds and such off to the side for the fish and birdlife. It's SO COOL. I still don't know what the black waterbirds are, but I did get to see them again today. One of them was swimming when we first spotted it--it had a fish caught in its bill, and then it would dive for a minute or two, and then repeat. Nate wasn't at all impressed with all the birds until we came across our first mallard pair right ON the path...a few waddles and quacks and he decided that birds were just *fascinating* and oh-so-exciting. lol. There were quite a few mallard pairs and canadian goose pairs along the path, but thankfully none of the geese were actually on the path. Wouldn't want to tangle with them. At least not if they're anything like domestic geese.

Oh! For part of it the path is in essence a bridge over the pond, and while we were on that part a blue heron came out from underneath it and flew across to the far side. So awesome!! We got to see another one around the corner, only that one actually stayed much closer. They are such beautiful birds.

On our return, Nate was all excited around the spot where the blue heron erupted out from under the path. I was wondering if he was hoping to see the bird again, but all of a sudden this huge rodent scurried out and starting flurrying about. I'm almost positive it was a nutria, because it certainly wasn't a beaver.

Anyway, that was our lovely adventure this morning!

In other news: went to walmart and stuck to my list really well, except for a really cute flowered candy dish. It's reminds me of a gerbera daisy. Almost forgot to get my pictures though, and that's half the reason I went!! Nuts. Room is straightened up, clothes are actually folded AND put away, minor rearranging, bettas are happy, graham cracker frosted cookies are made, and life is just generally good. This weekend should be the start of getting ready for flower and vegetable gardening. Yay!!! :o)

Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: tori amos~sleeps with butterflies