Gold Beauty

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I just don't have any great shots from yesterday, so I'll pick the one that was most exciting to me and share a few of the others that have a good story or I thought were interesting.

I get an incredible amount of joy out of the birds in my yard. With Donnie's help, I have these great feeders just outside the kitchen window. Yesterday a mourning dove showed up. I've seen doves before, but not lately, so I was thrilled to see him/her. I thought it was pretty neat how the tiny goldfinch and the large dove were willing to share the sunflower hearts. The dove being so huge and the goldfinch so tiny.

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Speaking of goldfinch, boy there are still a bunch coming to my feeders. Usually by this time in the year they trickle off. Maybe they will stay this year? Notice the 3 tails in this shot!

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On another note, we had a snake sighting on the front porch yesterday.  Thanks to Joey for retrieving my camera while I stood watch so I didn't miss the shot!  It's a small king snake.  Woo hoo!  I like these guys.  I couldn't help it, I had to touch him, but I stopped short of picking him up.  The wood is a leftover from winter.  I had hopes of building one more fire, but it warmed up so quickly that never happened.  Maybe the snake will continue to hang out there!  I'm very cool with him as long as he's not in my house and not messing with my birds.  There are plenty of mice around here for him to go after...please!

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Waiting for the bluebird eggs in the box in my front yard to hatch!  No signs of renewed activity in Donnie's box after the first brood.  We are still hopeful for more eggs in that box this year too!

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And, since it's been a few days since I posted a food shot:-)  Leftover London Broil in teriyaki sauce, fressh colby jack shredded cheese, and asparagus sauteed in coconut oil.

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Red-Tailed Hawk

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Another beautiful bird at Noah's Landing on Sunday from the Wildlife Rescue Center of Sanford.

Another inch of rain yesterday.  Baseball cancelled AGAIN.  Joey has what Johnny had and is home sick today.  Can it be a sunny weekend yet?

Orange Lily and Pink Rose

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The roadside tiger lilies are starting to open. Such a pretty view while driving along! I spotted the lily in my daily growing in front of a wild rose and thought the orange on pink might be a pretty combo, so I turned around and parked and got out to take the shot.

He's a large area view to give you an idea of the location.

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And here's a close-up of the roses.  I don't think they photograph very well or look that pretty up close, but they sure are pretty along the roadside.

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In my backyard, I took this downy woodpecker shot.  I swear I am going to get some from the deck and not through the window and deck rail!

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At a neighbor's mailbox!

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During the morning school run I saw a Great Blue Heron.  I got off 3 shots and he flew:-(  I was going to try to get closer...

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A shot of the boys from the night before.  I just couldn't resist their cuteness with Johnny's new K'nex Roby the Robot.

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Hummingbird

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I always have hummers each year, and I always put out a feeder for them hanging off the front porch and the back deck.  They come and go all day including amazingly early (6AM) and buzz our heads and duel each other for the all important sugar water.  We enjoy watching them!

This year I decided to try a suction cup feeder on my kitchen sink window glass.  It took a while for them to find it, but now a male and female ruby throated hummingbird are dining frequently.  Between the clouds and more rain yesterday, I tried to capture a picture of him.  He would come to feed every 5-10 minutes, and I'd get about 3-4 shots per visit, make adjustments, and wait for the next visit.  I know it's not tack sharp, but I kindof liked this version showing the windowframe and feeder.

I tried putting a 500 watt halogen light pointed at the feeder but had mixed results.  Of course that changed the  light color being put out.

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Here are a few more versions you might like.

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I'm sure I'll keep trying throughout the summer to get an even better shot.

Horned Owl

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Another shot from our visit to Noah's Landing on Sunday where the Wildlife Rescue Center of Sanford had their birds.  Their goal of course is to heal and then release back to the wild as many of their birds as possible.  Some of them have permanent eye or wing injuries that make it unsafe for them to be released, so they go on outings to help educate the public and raise awareness.  Did you know that you shouldn't throw your apple core or banana peel out along the side of the road even though it's biodegradable?  The reason is that mice and other critters are attracted to the food smell and then the raptors try to swoop down and grab the mice and can get hit by cars.

We've had 4.5" of rain here since it started on Sunday.  The sky was noisy last night, and I don't think the sun is coming out today either:-(  Looks like the boys' baseball will get cancelled do to the field being too wet.  Bummer.

Here's a picture from September 2009 that I took at Noah's Landing of a horned owl too.  I don't know if it is the same bird or not.

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I took a shot with a similar perspective this year, and those ears are just to cute, but the grass wasn't as green and I just couldn't top this older shot thus my reasoning for posting the closer up from the side view today for my daily.

Nimue the Barred Owl

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The boys and I went to Noah's Landing yesterday.  They run a great educational and rescue type zoo.  Mom's got in half price, and the Wildlife Rescue Center was onsite with their raptors too.  The only bad thing was that it started drizzling on the way over and dropped 10 degrees while we were there.  But, the animals and staff didn't mind, and we kept right on enjoying ourselves anyway.  I took a lot of bird pics, and Johnny spent a lot of time in the bounce house.

My daily is a barred owl named Nimue.  I fixed a stray hair on the inside of each eye and enhanced the details and contrast and shadows just a tad.  The blue background is from one of those fold-up captain's chairs.

This big and beautiful horse is named Sophie.  She greeted us upon our arrival.  She was a good girl today staying inside the fence even though the electricity had been turned off.  She came to greet everyone, and on the way out at the end of the day we got to give her a carrot.  What a sweetie!

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This llama (alpaca?) was really sweet too!

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Here are the birds.  Always such a joy to see and photograph!

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Here's a baby opossum that we thought was so cute!

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A couple more pics of the boys being cute!

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That's a skunk upper left and an African Fat Tail Gecko upper right.

Happy Mother's Day

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Posting this pretty flower shot today to send a Happy Mother's Day wish to all the mom's out there.  I went to Lowe's yesterday to buy some annual flowers for my flower pots and took some pictures too.  I might spend part of my mother's day planting what I bought home.

I studied the calendar page that John B. did yesterday and decided to create a similar format one myself.  I cheated in this case and used Picasa's Picture Collage feature choosing very wide Gird Spacing as well as Use Image.  The top middle picture is the same as the background.  I have often wished that the Use Image feature would allow me to select any image I wanted vs. one of the collage pictures.  It would also be nice if the Grid Spacing allowed the margins to be different sizes that the spaces between pictures.  Maybe someday Picasa will beef up this part of the picture collage a bit more.  Otherwise it's off to PS or PSE or some other tool.

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Lowe's had orchids too:-)  No blue ones like Home Depot but still a good selection.

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Here are my helpers.  The boys enjoy picking out and planting the flowers.  I like the shot where they've parked themselves at the patio furniture:-)  All that baseball equipment and chairs have the back of my van pretty full too!  I had to work to get the flowers in!

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We're headed to Noah's Landing today.  It's a learning zoo with lots of rescued animals out in the countryside not too far from us.  Moms get in for half price today.  The Wildlife Rescue Center of Sanford will be there today too, and I'm hoping to take some more pics of their birds.  A great birthday present to myself  (yes, it's my birthday today too) would be another awesome hawk or owl shot.