Rose with water droplets

Howdee All,

Jeff and I are at the New River Birding and Nature Festival.

Having a Grand time…It truly is a Wonderful place with Awesome Naturalists.

Today was the first day.

I have lots to share…but no time to put it all together..

So I leave you this Water droplet rose…

You know I have a love of Water droplets lately…

Luckily today was a beautiful day in West Virginia..

Rain tomorrow… OHHHH>>>>>>Maybe more Droplet photos

For now…its time to sleep…getting up at 5am~

See you all in a few days…Festival ends on Saturday…but, hoping to have some time to get a post together before then..

Where did the time go?

Howdee all,

Seems like we just arrived at Sickstas and Craigys and now we are gone..and in West Virginia..

When we arrived five weeks ago..there were no leaves on the trees…

When we left they were all leafed out..

Making it harder to see the birds… 

Unless they came out in the open like this Summer Tanager..

When we arrived the Bluebirds were just checking out the nest box…

Before we left…Craigy and I peeked in the box and saw three eggs..

When we arrived the Chickadees were in and out of the moon…building their nest..

Ten minutes before we left, I saw the Chickies fledge…What a treat! I didn’t have my camera, nor did I want to take the time to grab it…I savored every moment…as the awkward little fledglings left the Moon for their first flight.

I saw ferns unfolding..

I will see more here up north…seems like it’s a few weeks behind here…

Ballie enjoyed his daily walks…

When we are at New River he will be lucky if he gets a walk all week, we will be gone all day birding.

Seems like we just arrived and Craigy was starting to put in the new kitchen..All of the cabinets are in now…and the countertop is next…

Craigy likes to sit by his pond watch the fish…six Goldfish..Sicksta put some flowers in the pond.

And Craigy plays in his pool too…

Jeff is always busy killing Vampires…don’t even ask.

I found this dead, but colorful bug..

anyone know what it is? > I bet Sicksta Lori does.

Found a beautiful living bug also..

lots of bugs in Sickstas yard.

When we arrived the Iris were just budding~

Before we left we were able to see many different Iris blooming..

Love the colors of these…I had a love affair with Water droplets

And enjoyed the birds coming back from their trip south.. 

I enjoyed Sickstas Garden and hanging out with her…

After weeks of searching…I found some Morel Mushrooms!

We saw the first NC record Cassin's Sparrow.

We saw what devastating damage a Tornado can cause..

We did all that, yet it seems like it was no time at all…

Where did the time go?

The Warblers have just started to arrive in numbers…and we will miss that..

We will miss Craigy yelling at the Kitchen as he puts it together..

We will miss the Bluebirds fledge…

We will miss the flowers that were just about to show off…

We will miss Sicksta, Craigy and the pups..

Such is the life of wanderers….

Goodbye Sicksta and Craigy and pups…

See you in November..

I hope the time goes by slower then…

Tulip Poplar flower

Howdee all,

When I go looking for Morel Mushrooms, one of the trees I look under are the Tulip Poplar trees..

The trees have these beautiful flowers

Most people don’t see them because they are high up in the trees.

Sometimes wind will take a few down to the ground

…and then I can enjoy how beautiful they are.

Morel near a Tulip Poplar

Today is our Bittersweet departure from dear Sicksta and Craigys..

We are on our way to West Virginia

New River Birding and Nature Festival

May not have internet,or much time to blog..

…So if not…See you after the festival!

Water droplets on yellow

Howdee all,

Guess what?

Yep

More

Water droplets…

This time on Yellow..

This below is a Cytisus flower

And a yellow Iris..

Drippidy~ Droppidy

Liquid jewels

I think of earrings when I look at these droplets  below..

A fuzzy orange tongue

Lapping up the droplets…

Terrible tornadoes again….Luckily none in our area.. 

I was up most of the night as the weather radio went off about every hour with an alert.

My heart goes out to those who lost their homes, businesses, family and friends…:(

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Jeff and I leave North Carolina on Saturday….

always Bittersweet…

We are heading to West Virginia for a week to attend the New River Bird and Nature Festival…then onto Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding.

Warbler Heaven:)

Cassin’s Sparrow, Scotland County, NC

Howdee all,

When I read online on Facebooks new ABA Area Rare Birds group created by Chris West that a first record for NC Cassin's sparrow was seen just a half hour drive from where we were~~I wanted to see the bird.

Jeff and I have seen Cassin's sparrows in Texas, but this bird was way outside its range.

When I mentioned seeing the bird to Jeff, he wasn’t so thrilled. The Cassin's Sparrow is a rather plain looking bird.

There was a Fork-tailed flycatcher seen the same morning the Cassin's was discovered, but hadn't been seen since… I thought idea of seeing a Fork-tail flycatcher might be more appealing to Jeff as it is a Gorgeous bird and would be a life bird for the both of us…

I knew the chances were pretty slim on seeing the Forkie…but..it got us out there to the Cassin's. :)

We followed the directions from The Carolinas Birding List and put in the GPS coordinates..

They were spot on..

The second we drove to the spot we heard the Cassin's..

There was one other car there…a father and son.

They told us that two Cassin's were singing earlier…

Very interesting. The talk on the listserve is that the droughts in Texas etc..could have them deciding NC is a good home.

Subject: Cassin's Sparrow range
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 06:03:49 -0400

Cassin's Sparrows have long been one of my favorite sparrows.  I have 
fond memories of waking up to their songs while camping in western 
Oklahoma. Thanks again to Gil for finding and bringing everyone's 
attention to them.

It is always risky to speculate why a rarity has shown up, but with two 
Cassin's Sparrows in the state, one has to wonder.  Cassin's is native 
to short and mixed grass prairies with some larger plants - shrubs and 
yucca - from which to sing.  This area is mainly in western Texas, 
Oklahoma, and Kansas and eastern Colorado and New Mexico.  Populations 
tend to fluctuate greatly, often in response to drought.  The drier the 
year, the further east they nest.  Interestingly, most of their normal 
range is in one of the strongest drought in years. Of course, "further 
east" is usually central Oklahoma and eastern Texas.  Who would have 
thought North Carolina!!

John Dole
Raleigh, NC

Here is what Daniel, posted on the listserve later in the day..and a link for photos..

Subject: Cassin's Sparrows, Scotland County
 Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:35:45 -0400

After finding the longspur at Fort Fisher, Dad and I drove up to Slate Circle to try for the Cassin's Sparrows. It took us a little while to find the right field, but once we did both Cassin's Sparrows were singing as soon as we got out of the car. We got great looks and bad photos of one of them, and heard the other one. Link to photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/WhiteEyedVireo/CassinSSparrow41611#

Daniels dads photos are much better than mine…As the distance was great and I just have a point and shoot with 20x …

See the Sparrow?

Here..let me crop the photo…ha..oh there it is!

We actually had great views in the scope….theirs, we didn’t bring ours~ mistake…I could have had a nice digiscoped photo of this bird, as it sat quite a long time singing in the same spot.

This Savannah sparrow was much closer …

I did take a video of the Cassin's ~which is much nicer..because the best part of the whole scene was hearing the bird….a beautiful song…and also the displaying.

In his display flight, the male Cassin's Sparrow flies straight up and then floats downward on fixed wings, singing the entire time. This behavior, distinctive among sparrows, is sometimes called "skylarking. via Cornell

So here you go…listen to the video…

I had no tripod..only a monopod..and keeping it still was difficult..so bear with me here…
Note~at the end of the video the~ Skylarking

There were some storm clouds coming in from the west ..

It started to rain..

It was time to go…

Oh..and no Fork-tailed flycatcher