Earliest Ever Red-wing Blackbirds

Most years, I'm on the lookout for red-winged blackbirds--scanning the roadsides where the habitat is right.  This year, I hadn't even begun that spring tradition.  While observing and counting birds in our backyard for the Great Backyard Bird Count, I was surprised to see not only one, but soon two male redwings show up the fourth and final day of the count! :)

 I have never seen them this early.  I even searched back into the archives of this blog--the closest thing that I have to a gardening journal...although they seem to arrive more often than not around mid-March, I have seen them later...and as early as the 4th of March one year...but February is new to me.  Even after reading posts on Facebook of a friend who had already seen them, I was expecting a to have to wait a bit for them to get from South-Western PA to North Eastern PA.  Let's hope that they are bringing an early spring with them.

Increasing Numbers?

Somehow I remembered the Great Backyard Bird Count was over the Presidents' Day weekend.  I compiled my lists each day, and I even managed to take a few pictures.

Comparing past years, it seems that I normally counted between 1 and 4 goldfinch in our yard (at least during the window that I was counting); this year, I had a difficult time counting them all!  I settled on 28, but there could easily have been more.  I'm not saying that my two acres is enough to support all of the birds that come for the seed I put out, but, I am happy to see the numbers going up.

In addition to the goldfinches, there were several more blue jays...and a grand total of 39 mourning doves!!!

     

Trail Cam Pics from Autumn 2016

I was looking through the trail cams memory cards today...these are from quite a while ago, but I cropped and saved them today, so I might as well share.

Thank you again, Jeff, for getting me the game cams and for sharing the joy of what we find on them. :)

2016: A Year in Review

I had the best intentions of sharing more on my blog this past year.  Although, many pictures were taken and a lot of work was done, little if any got posted.  Plans are in the works to post some of the projects I've begun, and, hopefully, I will create more posts showing before and after shots.

For now, I will add photos taken throughout the year showing seasonal changes (at least those I have found so far (shots of snow from last winter and this year see to be missing...as are big chunks of June and July).  Too many pics to share anyway.  ~smile~

---This is a long process...especially when starting on New Years Eve...I'll post what I have sorted so far...mostly mid to late summer:

Finally a small assortment of berries for the birds--with more to come as more things mature and as I add more species.  This is the first time that our sassafras made berries! :)

More Fox Captures from Game Cam

First evidence that there is more than one fox.  A pair? :)

More Fox Captures from Game Cam

"New" Visitor on Game Cam Pics

For approximately 3 months or so, I have been consistently using the game cam that was a gift from Jeff a couple of years ago.  Today, I looked through about two weeks worth of photo captures.  For the first time, in all of those months, there is finally a shot of a bear.  In our 8-9 years here, we have seen a bear twice--well, Jeff and I saw one a few months after moving in (it was eating from our bird feeder)...several years later, I saw one probably 10-15 feet away from me (this time no pane of glass between us).

I am excited to see it again.

I adjusted the brightness on this and left the time stamp.

After all of these months, I'm still waiting to see a turkey (or flock of them) go through.  I'll have to wait and see what the next few months bring.  Hmm...I have to wonder if I would see some babies in the spring--fox with its kits would be really cool! :)