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| house finches, lady cardinal and junco |
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| snow covered squirrel |
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| typical position for a nuthatch |
Tag Archives: Morris
Snow Blue Jay
I finally had a bluejay stick around long enough for me to get a few good pictures. Usually they are a grab and dash kind of bird.
Winter Birds of the New Year
Here is it January of 2015 already. Where did the year go?
Actually I’m glad to see last year go. It started out okay but ended pretty lousy. I was hollering for a do over towards the end there, but now I’ll just opt for a fresh start.
Now here we are, a fresh snow and good ole bitter cold to go with it. For a little while there I thought Mother Nature was going to take it easy on us this winter. I was enjoying the temps in 40’s, especially over Christmas- but alas, we do live in Illinois!
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| Morning after last night’s storm- about 6 inches of powder snow |
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| seeing double- pair of chickadees |
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| a Cold Mourning Dove |
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| Blue Jay |
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| Black Capped Chickadees |
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| Mourning Doves |
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| House Finch |
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| Downy Woodpecker |
Semper Fi
Bald Cypress Cone Hunting
I want to grow a few bald cypress’ for my yard next spring,
so we went cone hunting Saturday.
The bald cypress is so named because it is one of the few cypress’
that loose their leaves in the fall
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| My source tree. Lovely orange fall color- though most of the leaves are gone. |
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| This tree is loaded – no climbing though, tons of cones were already on the ground. |
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| Cones are small and sticky, smelling strongly of turpentine. Seeds are the amber colored chunks inside the broken cone. |
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| I think I got enough – maybe… |
I’ll plant them now, letting winter do the stratifying for me and have little saplings by spring!
Puffy Humming Birds
Our Morning temps have been dipping into the 40’s all month. The poor little humming birds are puffed up trying to stay warm and staying close to the feeders. This little girl stayed at the feeder all morning.
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| I have an itch… |
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| waiting for a turn at the feeder |
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| still waiting… |
Froggy Hibiscus
A Grey Green tree frog on a freshly opened hibiscus flower, sat still long enough for me to snap about a dozen pictures. It had just finished raining- couldn’t have asked for a more perfect photo opportunity!
Amour de Carotte
This is what happens when you don’t thin your carrot seedlings.
Finally get to see a Luna Moth
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| Luna Moth (Actias luna) |
I’ve seen them in pictures and documentaries on TV, but have never seen one in real life until now.
Almost the size of my hand (of course I forgot to put my hand next to it for comparison!) and is truly a beautiful pale green. It’s is also fuzzy.
This one is hanging on my front storm door. Too bad it didn’t pick something nicer looking for this picture like a flower or a shrub, but I think if I tried to move it, I would’ve lost my photo opportunity.
Curious, I did a little research and found that after hatching from the cocoon, it doesn’t eat, having no mouth parts and lives only a week, long enough to mate and lay eggs.
The Luna Moth is one of the largest moths in North America.
click here to learn more…
Bird’s Sunflower
Sometimes the prettiest flowers are not the ones you’ve sown.
Lil's Garden Tour 