Ya Hey Dere! Them Be Chickadees!!

The girls were in Minnesota this past weekend, at the International owl Festival. They had a good time and learned a lot about all different kinds of owls. As a bonus, they were able to spend some time with their Great Aunt and Uncle. This is the same Uncle of all the bird photography. Anyway, the girls had seen a picture of Alan with a Chickadee feeding from his hand, and wanted to give it a try. So, they bundled up (it is cold in Minnesota, dontcha know?), and grabbed some peanuts (who knew Chickadees liked peanuts, anyway?) and waited. And waited. And waited.





FTB says that she waited the longest, about ten minutes... Doesn't she look happy. :) I actually thought she looked to be frozen in place, but as you can see, success!! A chickadee has landed.





Next up it was Cuddlebug's turn, I guess she didn't have to wait too long. Apparently FTB woke the chickadees up and let it be known in chickadee world that there were peanuts to be had.

Baby Girl really didn't want to try, but then she did and said that it felt weird. I think little Mr/Mrs chickadee could feel her trepidation and took off, to Baby girl's surprise! Alan captured the moment very well, and now the blogosphere knows all about it. :)

While Baby Girl was "playing" with the chickadees, this deer was checking her out, trying to figure out if she was a friend or foe. Plus, I think that the deer is normally used to having no one around, so was a bit curious. Once Baby Girl let out her little yelp of surprise, I believe that the deer bolted for the security of the surrounding woods.

Like I said, the girls had a good time and I want to thank Alan and Jo for being great hosts. Who knows. (pun slightly intended) Maybe we'll all be back next year.

World Series Prediction!!

Time for some early prognostication (really early, since pitchers and catchers are just now reporting)

I'm seeing the Cardinals coming up strong this year and re-capturing the National League crown.

I also see a strong showing, in the American League, by the Blue Jays!

It will be a tough battle between the two teams in the World Series! With the Blue Jays coming out on top.
Unless, of course, the Orioles have a late-season surge. Then I can see the Cardinals beating the Orioles.

Many thanks to Alan over at his bird showcase, for allowing me to use his great photos.

Oh, and I really have no idea who will be in the World Series, I would have chosen the Rockies and Red Sox to repeat their appearance from last year, but I don't have photo props to help. :-) Besides, it was time to show off Alan's talent again.

"Take me out to the ballgame..."

Birds!

Time to brag about my wife's Uncle Alan and his great nature photography. I do this every now and again by showing off a sample of his work and encouraging you to go and visit his website. Lots of info on the little birdies (and big birdies) as well.

I present:

Yes, I am a bad-ass! So, do not even THINK of messing with me.

This one is an example of chowing down on the fly. :-) If the food is small enough, the eagles will eat it mid-flight, not wanting to waste any time landing and all. Some of us can relate as we stop by our local fast food restaurants and grab the burger/taco/hot dog Du jour. Invariably making a mess on your brand new shirt or pants. At least the eagle's slop will just fall harmlessly to the river, or land that it is flying over. Harmless unless you happen to be under it, of course.

This one is just creeps me out a little, because it looks like a vulture. Which just means, to me at least, to not get in it's way while he/she is on the hunt. How do you tell if an eagle is a male or female? I really have no idea, maybe you can find out at the site. Maybe you should go check it out. Just maybe. :-)

Last one from the eagle parade... Here's looking at you, kid!

For those that aren't eagle-centric, here is a hummingbird. This picture serves two purposes, one it shows you a hummingbird (duh!), and second, it is a break from the cold weather. Not too many of these guys/gals will be around here in the -10 degrees of fun! I must confess though, it is no longer that cold, on the way in this morning, the car thermometer said 36! Woo Hoo! Don't fret it won't get above twenty next week. Lovely.

Here is a male and female cardinal. I love the lines of this bird, I think it is one of the coolest birds out there and I am proud to have a couple of cardinal families in my backyard. Too bad I don't care too much for their baseball and football teams...

These next two pictures of a Red-tailed Hawk, are pretty interesting. He/she had some, I think they were sparrows, harassing it. Probably because he/she got too close to their nest. Anyway, my wife's uncle said he never saw anything like this, when the sparrow actually was flying on the hawk's back. And he has pictures to prove it.

That's it, for now. If you want to see more, just mosey on over to here. Or you can wait a few weeks, and I am sure that I will post more.

Have a great day!!

More Birds!!!

Okay, I know that the first pictures aren't necessarily of birds, but maybe they are and you just can't see them! :-)

Truth time! These are from a little while back when we had a lovely ice storm hit the entire area. These pictures come courtesy of my favorite photographer, well at least favorite photographer that I know personally, well.. Okay, not looking for any trouble here. So, it's my favorite nature photographer - that I happen to know. :-) As you may be able to see, the above picture was taken from the Galena territory on December 14. Looks warm doesn't it? Well, that is all covered in ice and it isn't very warm.
Spectacular image of a tree just standing there, taking all the punishment that nature can dish out, if you go to Lady of the Rose, you can see another icy image. Pretty cool actually and a well-taken photograph, that won a prize at the Sandwich Fair.
Don't think anyone is home. Or if they were, they ain't coming out!

Finally! Birds!! Here are a couple images of one of my favorite birds, the Northern Cardinal - these guys are, well uh guys. Yep, for some reason God made the male cardinal the attractive one. You see, the female is kind of just another brown-ish bird. Oh you can still tell one, by it's shape, just not the reds.
Below, is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, as you can tell by the second photo.

Lastly, it is a Black-Capped Chickadee. Gee, I wonder where it got it's name from?

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

More posting to follow.

Birding with Grandpa!

Actually with Great Grandpa!

And Uncle Alan, yes that uncle with all of the bird photo's. It was an educational experience for all. Too bad the weather wasn't better, but what do you expect for this time of year? The kids and Jenni met Grandpa and Uncle Alan to do a little bird watching. I believe they were on the lookout for an owl of some sort.... Ah yes, the screech owl. No that isn't a reference to Danny. (Stop that!)
This is a cute picture of Danny and Jessie (see he likes you!!), it looks like they are in a bird next or something. I really don't know since I was here... at work. :-(
Have a Happy Pre-Thanksgiving Day!!

A Calm Day

Although someone did ask me if I took my meds. That'll teach me to share that bit of information with anyone. :-)

Today was a rather quiet day, since we are winding down using one system and will be ramping up to a new system starting Monday.

Gonna need some Advil!

Actually, I think that I have the new system down pretty good, still learning new things here and there, but that was to be expected. Anyway, today was kind of slow and dull, because since we will be going to the new system on Monday, and there was some kind of Indian (India the country, mind you) hoiday, we had top cease bringing in new equipment on the old system Tuesday. Which means that we could only work on what has already been processed on the old system. Guess what! It be all gone now. Well most of it anyway.

I'll come in tomorrow, because I am a slave to my own greed, and get some more work done - at least one post here. :-) We have to get ready for some bigger wigs to come in and help us with the transition. JC says I NEED to go out with the bigger wigs when they get here. Something about visibility, but if something is going on at home, guess what? I be going home.

I need to stop talking like that. It is really crappy English, and if I want people to take me seriously - as a writer, then I need to be a little better with the language and all of it's proper uses. Ya know what I'm sayin'?

I was playing with Google Docs earlier and left a couple of posts on the family blog, of which I would post a link to, but I can't remember the URL, so you will just have to trust me. :-)

It's a pretty cool little tool, because I can type up a document, or whatever, and edit it for later. Then I can also open it up to be shared with, whoever, and whatever. So far, I like it, and I think that Jenni will as well. I mean she types up her emails in word and then copy and pastes them to her email, the only difference her being that Google will do the cutting and pasting. Cool, right?

I feel like adding a picture, so I will...

... So I can't count.

As always go to Alan's website for more.

Okay, that's all for now. I'm actually motivated to write something, must be the meds, so I better get cracking - or I will regret it, or is that forget?

Cheers, it's Friday!