Land Between the Lakes

The weather has been wonderfully and unseasonably warm.

Until this week. Today's high barely made it above freezing.

I did have a chance to go to Land Between the Lakes. 

And I take any chance I get when it comes to visiting LBL.
It was too cold to do much, but I did take a few pictures.

On our way to Hematite Lake, we saw the largest herd of Fallow Deer I have ever seen.

There were about 25 deer.

Fallow Deer are not native to this area. They were introduced for hunting.
Now, many of them live happily throughout Land Between the Lakes.

I thought this exposed root was cool looking.

The thrill of the trip was on the way home. As we drove north on the trace toward home,
I spied a Barred Owl sitting in a tree near the road.

 He (or she) was beautiful in the late afternoon sun. He seemed to be dozing.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Susan

Macro Friday

March has begun and so has some more agreeable weather. It's still a bit on the cool side, but it's been pleasant enough. This week, the Nature Station at Land Between the Lakes opened for the year. We were there the first day. While the Nature Station can be quite busy, that was not the case on Wednesday. We were able to see all the animals and ask questions. We even got to see them feed their Virginia Opossum. It's not too different from watching a 'possum eating in our bird feeder, but it was still interesting. There are a pair of Red Wolves in residence. I don't recall ever getting to see them before, but one of them was out enjoying the sunshine during our visit.

The owls are my daughter's favorite animals at the Nature Station; they are my favorites, too. All of the owls are unable to live in the wild whether due to an injury or imprinting. It's a wonderful place for both the animals and the people.
We can see the animals and learn about them, and they have a safe place to live with plenty of food. I know I have said it before, but if you are ever near Kentucky Lake, make a trip to
Land Between the Lakes, you won't regret it.

The above is a macro shot I took of the little Eastern Screech Owl. I would have liked to crop out the sleeve of the naturalist holding the owl, but if I had I would have lost some of the fuzzy-ness of the owl's face.

This little owl is just about ten inches tall.

Unlike most other birds, Screech Owls come in two different colors or morphs.

He is the red morph. The other color they come in is gray.

The call of the Screech Owl sounds much more like a soft whinney than a screech. It's sort of dove-like.

Like the Great-horned Owl, he can raise or lower his "horns" as the whim takes him.

Isn't he beautiful?


As always, you can click on any of the photos for a closer look.

Don't forget to
stop by

blogging from bolivia
to link up your own Macro Friday post!

-Susan

Sweet Tweet Tuesday, um Sweet Shot Tuesday

Near the end of my thrilling day of the bluebird, this little guy came and sat on the chair just outside the window. He actually did this twice. The first time, my memory card was full! I didn't dare get up to get another card. The second time, however, I was able to capture him. Only four shots turned out at all. Here is my favorite.

Hope you enjoy! Feel free to click for a closer look.
Don't forget to stop by Life With My 3 Boybarians to see what others have to share.

-Susan

Blue Macro Monday

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of bluebirds visiting my deck again. I've been looking for them every day since then, but they haven't returned. Yet.
Today, I thought I'd share a few of the 1000+ photos I took that day. Some were pretty good, in my opinion. Most were not. But they were all thrilling.

This is the closest I have to a true macro shot.











In most places, this is a good time to put up bluebird nesting boxes. I just put up one box and have two others to put up soon. Bluebird boxes can be bought many places, but I found our local Lowe's had a super price on them. If you like bluebirds and dislike bugs, I highly recommend placing nesting boxes around your property. Around here, if you don't wind up with a family of bluebirds, you'll likely get a family of House Wrens. They're adorable and eat bugs, too.

As always, click on any photo for a closer look. Don't forget to stop by Lisa's Chaos and Smiling Sally to see what macro and blue things this Monday brings.

-Susan

Macro Friday

This week, I had an up-close and personal experience with a male Northern Cardinal. He, like many other birds, was under the impression that he could fly through my living room and into my back yard. Instead, he became acquainted with my window glass. Fortunately, he recovered nicely. Also fortunately, I had the forethought to place him in my left hand leaving my camera hand free.

The following photo is my entry for Macro Friday.

Yes, that's my house and camera reflected in his eye.


His feathers were amazing!

You can where he is still ruffled from his accident.

This is the first one I took.
As you can see from his beak being open, he was still a little shock-y.




Yes, I need to clean the glass when the weather is warmer.
As you can see, I'm not the only birdwatcher in the family.
Katrina is very excited to watch birds.

Now, if I had a camera as cool as my friend, M's, I wouldn't have to wait until birds crashed into the glass to get photographs like this!
As always, click any of the photos for a closer look!
Don't forget to
stop by

blogging from bolivia
to link up your own Macro Friday post!

-Susan

Birdy Thursday

When I was a kid, my great-grandmother and great-grandfather used to call Slate-Colored Juncos snowbirds. It's a much prettier name, even if it isn't the correct one, ornithologically speaking. They certainly aren't the most spectacular birds to grace my front deck, but they are pretty in their own way.
Yesterday, I caught one in flight with my camera.


Recently, I have had one of my favorite birds visit my deck: Rufus-Sided Towhees. They are much more nervous than most my feeder friends. I finally got a photograph of Mr. Rufus-Sided Towhee yesterday.
His Mrs. was on the deck, too, but I never did get a decent shot.


"Thanks for the seed! See ya!"


Lately, I have had an abundance of White-Throated Sparrows. Yesterday, I traipsed through the woods and saw several of these little guys. I think they are adorable. They have the same method of finding seeds that the towhees and chickens do. They all scratch. In the case of the sparrow and the towhee, they do a sort of
scratch-hop-back thing that's cute.


I realize that these aren't the most amazing photos ever,
but I enjoyed taking them and thought you might enjoy looking.

Have a great rest of your week.

-Susan

Macro Friday

It's Friday again, and this time I actually have some macro shots!

Yesterday, an adorable Tufted Titmouse decided that he could fly through my front door to get to my back yard. Unfortunately, that isn't possible. The good news is he was only stunned. I learned long ago that when a bird hits the glass the best thing to do is make sure it's picked up quickly if it's stunned. Otherwise, outside cats and dogs will find a tasty treat. So, I picked up this little guy and brought him into a quiet room while I awaited the cardboard box. I put him in the box for only a minute or two. He was recovering quite quickly. So, I carried him, box and all, back out onto the deck from whence he came. He was alert so I picked him up and he immediately assumed the perching position on my right index finger. I hadn't even thought about photo opportunities until I saw this lovely little bird perched on my finger like a parakeet. I asked my hubby to fetch my camera quickly. I haven't ever shot photographs left handed before, but the little bird would not move to my other hand. So here are my photos of the Tufted Titmouse who made my day. The first photo is my entry for Blogging From Bolivia's Macro Friday. All of them can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Visit blogging from bolivia to link up your own Macro Friday post!
Have a great weekend!

-Susan

Sweet Tweet Tuesday, um Sweet Shot Tuesday

The weather has been simply wonderful the last few days! Cool nights with warm, sunny days. My kind of weather. The hummingbird feeders are finally in and the seed feeders are full of seed once more. When new feeders are put out, it's always the same three cohorts who are the first to arrive. Invariably, the Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, and White-breasted Nuthatch come to sample the sunflower. The only thing that changes is their order of appearance.
All three of these small seed-eaters are friendly, quick, and
tolerant of humans.
They are smart enough to know from whence comes their seed.
In some ways, nuthatches are my favorites of the three. They "fuss" at each other and seem to be very clown-like in behavior.

I had about five minutes of kid-free time yesterday,
and I shot this little nuthatch.
In editing, I had a problem. The afternoon sun was shining over the house and into the woods, but my subject was in the shade of the house. So, my initial edit looked too fantastic to be real, but it really did look more like that than the more muted edits. The woods were on fire in the sun. Late afternoon is always my favorite time of day to watch my woods. Morning is my favorite time to be out in it all.


See his little tongue?


Posing for me

Seed selection is a very serious business.

Here's the more muted edit of the first one.

I also have to talk about my bird feeder. I have nicer, newer feeders. But this old feeder has character. It was built by my grandfather during a coal miner's strike in the sixties. Yes, my bird feeder is older than my husband!
It needs some work, but I love it. I'll include a picture of my entire feeder soon, I'm sure.

As always, feel free to click on any of the images for a closer look.

Stop by Life with my 3 Boybarians
to see what other sweet shots are out there this Tuesday.

-Susan