Ornithological Geekery...

Everyone have a safe Memorial Day weekend! The city folks are descending on us in droves! I'm so thankful I'm out of the "city" limits of my little town this summer. No RVs parked by my windows! No bar bands playing 'til all hours of the morning! Woo hoo!

We have some green finally!

Sorry my pics always include stacks of building materials, lol. Those are the siding boards for Micah and Adam's house. But you can see the green!

I drove to Bemidji (about 45 minutes away) yesterday for  a brief shopping trip to Hobby Lobby and to meet the kids (Micah and family) for Chinese food at the closest Chinese restaurant in our little neck of the woods. It's been a year or so since I've gotten to Hobby Lobby. My intention was to buy some little Tim Holtz paper dolls for my ATC collages. They're so cute. (This bunch will last me a lifetime!)

They range in size from about 2" tall to maybe 4". I really just wanted the smaller ones (shown in the picture above) but they come mixed together. I'll think of something to do with the larger ones since they won't fit on ATCs. I can even give them to other crafters as gifts. :) (Or cut them up and use parts of them.)

For size comparison:

 I also found this really cute bunch of washi tape with camping designs. I'll have to make some camping ATCs!

This is a shot of my garden! The petunias are a Mother's Day gift from Micah and Adam. The other basket contains two little seedlings that Nathan brought home from school. I also refilled my suet feeder so Josh might get some good woodpecker photos. We saw an indigo bunting this morning! First time I've seen one "in person". And Josh got a photo of a pileated woodpecker yesterday, but he hasn't posted it online, so I don't have it to show.

I took a break after posting this last picture and visited with Josh, asking him if he might like to post some of his bird photos so I could use them on my blog. He was nice enough to start a Facebook album called Ornithological Geekery. So here are a few of the birds that have graced our yard. (These were taken with his phone out the window for the most part and he's aware the quality isn't the best. He purchased a little zoom but it doesn't work well.)

American Goldfinch-They used to be our state bird!

Eastern Kingbird

Baltimore Oriole

Common Loon-our current state bird. :)

Indigo Bunting-My first real sighting.

Hairy woodpecker

Eastern Bluebird

Pileated Woodpecker-One of my favorite birds of all time.

Downy woodpecker

Chipping Sparrow

Rose-breasted grosbeak

Indigo Bunting again.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Okay, now that I've inundated you with bird photos, I'll try to just add them as we see them. Josh saw a scarlet tanager the other day. I saw one about six years ago. I don't know why some birds are so rare. Maybe they strayed here by accident? It's an interest Josh and I share, and it's kind of fun checking out the feeder throughout the day. Lots of swans around, too. I guess they were almost extinct a few years back, but they're back in a big way now.

I've been pretty lazy so far today, but I think I'll venture into Nevis and walk on the trail. It may be busy, though it's overcast with only occasional sun. I skipped walking yesterday because of weather, so I'd better make up for it today. Here's a pic of the only sky I saw yesterday. That circle of blue was kind of unusual. I hope we see more soon. The sun has broken through a couple of times today, but I think we may have more rain in the forecast. Summer begins!

Looks like I have lots of blog reading to catch up on when I return! Happy thought!
Thanks for stopping in! God bless and shalom to all! :)