Trees I Notice

Over the years, I have discovered interesting trees

on our property. There's many different reasons why they

stand out and cause me to take notice.

Some trees are massive in their size.

Some just say....."Come stand in me!".....




This one seems to touch the sky.......




...while others say..... "Come lay in me!"...





Here...... trees grow with their arms entwined...




others it seems......their mothers they find.




Some trees it seems....... are so unreal...




then there's others...........you don't wish to feel.




Some could substitute for frames....... just fine ...




While others............they get engulfed over time.


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Then you have..... "the human touch affect".....

...used to welcome you down our drive...
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and the one in the field......

Alivia once thought......alive!

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-click photo to enlarge-

Quiet and Peacefully

Hawks have a special meaning for me.

They often can be seen soaring above our field.

Sometimes we see them perched, as here.

This is a Red-shouldered Hawk.

Red-shouldered Hawks hunt by patiently waiting,

perched in a tree or similar high point.

.........

Then there are Red-tailed Hawks, which was

the hawk I saw Tuesday, on my hike in the woods,

- they alone have a certain raspy "Kre eee arr" cry-

which is used in movies to

represent any eagle or hawk anywhere in the world.

They are considered a large hawk that

spends most of their time soaring.

.........

This, I believe, is a Cooper's Hawk-

They are a medium sized, dark gray or gray-brown hawk,

they have a longer tail that ends in a white band.

I only know these things because I "googled" hawks!

..........

Now this just doesn't seem fair!

They like to perch on our fence railings too-

only to fly away, before I can get a decent picture!

This was taken through my window just before lift off.

...........

Soaring hawks bring up memories of my Mother.
She would sit for hours on my front porch watching birds.

On the morning she passed..... while thinking
of her and sitting where she normally sat.....

a hawk swept down and took a small bird in mid air,
only ten feet in front of where I sat.

Agitated at first, but calmed with the thoughts of.....
how quiet and peacefully it had happened.

............

Bluebird Watch

The snow has melted, the sun is shinning

and I have Bluebirds on my mind.

On our property we have 5 bird houses that have been

home to a few Bluebird families in the past.

In February 2007, the Bluebirds returned a little too early and

we discovered two males huddled and frozen in one house.

Last year the Bluebirds failed to return here so

most of the houses were occupied by Carolina Wrens.

The wrens would often perch on this basket and sing .

Here's young wrens exploring the back porch-

a very young one alone on a tree-

and a young one hiding out under a shady bench.

Although Carolina Wrens are my favorite, with

their perky tail and beautiful song-

I would love to see Bluebirds here again.

So - I'm on a "Bluebird Watch" - starting today.

I would like to have the opportunity to take better photos of them !!!

Still White with Snow

Even with all the sunshine we had yesterday,

most everything is still white with snow from last week's storm.

The storm that gave the grandkids a full week of school closings.

This time of year there isn't much color in the field

besides the red bench and red barn.

The green pine tree has a little red in it sometimes-

and the smoke bush out front sports red sometimes.

Red also shows up on the porch - sometimes.

Then sometimes, Red and Blue show up on the porch together-

along with many others to eat their sunflower seeds,

while we inside eat our-

chocolate cake!

They're Back

Can you guess who's back?

It's the mom and her twins, the bird seed raiders.

Mom is the lookout-

while the two little ones feast.

She spies me through the window-

decides I'm not a threat-

then joins her twins.





I think one of the twins is taunting me though.
Note the tongue.

Bird House???

Does our home look like a bird house?

It does have the general shape of one -

and we do always have lots of birds hanging around.

There are four different feeding areas with "LARGE" feeders -

even the ground works for the doves.







But during deep snow times,










we try to make it a little easier on them-
we feed them on the porch.

Towhee

Snowbird

Cardinal

Goldfinch

The squirrels are always on the lookout for their share too!

Sometimes they look like they're begging.