Bird Migration

With the changing of the seasons also comes the migration of the birds. The kids love to hear the geese honking over head and flying south. Did you know that Texas is one of the only places in the world where you can see so many birds during seasonal temperature changes and we are home to the Texas World Birding Center? Texas is located in both the Central and Mississippi migratory routes for North American birds.

We have noticed a few new birds coming to our feeder in the recent weeks. Gone are the hummingbirds.... we do miss them! However, we have a cute little variety called a Tufted Titmouse, a shy Cedar Waxwing and Yellow Rumped Warbler. At least we think we've identified him as a Yellow Rumped Warbler, although he hasn't developed his yellow rump! We also think we have a Yellow Warbler although we are not experts at bird identification yet. Please let us know if we have misidentified any of these new birds. Have you spotted any new birds in your backyard?

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Cedar Wax Wing

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

Yellow Warbler

Thankful

December 2nd may seem a bit late to blog about what I am thankful for. But, since I was fortunate enough to have all of last week off from my teaching duties I spent the entire week not worrying about any academic responsibilities. My focus was getting the house in order, ready for the Christmas season and spending time with family. Since all of this blog is being compiled for the kids to reflect upon someday I thought it appropriate for them to know what I am most thankful for this year.

I am fortunate for many things in my life and my list could go deep and philosophical. But this year it is simply for the time I have had to homeschool my children. Lilly and Zane, I love you more than I ever knew was possible for someone to love. There seem no words adequate enough to describe the love I have for both of you and our precious family. I am thankful that God choose me to be your mommy. And I am thankful that God choose your Dad to be my husband and your Daddy!

I am thankful for two pairs of beautiful brown eyes that have taught me to see and love the world in a new way. I am thankful for all the muddy shoes that get piled on our shoe rack in the garage. I am thankful for the handprints on the window in the dining room. Sometimes, it's hard for me to clean them off because I know someday I will be wiping away your last handprint without even knowing it. I am thankful for the crayon mark on the wall beside the staircase. For these are all evidence of God's providence in my life. I am thankful for the giggles I hear in the "under stairs", watching you jump endlessly on the trampoline together, sharing books in your living room "forts" and building mud pies on the back porch. I love to hear you "play school" and try to juggle. Lilly, I love listening to you read to Zane. You are always patient and kind. And Zane, I love hearing Zane ask "Where is Lilly?". I would say that is one of your most often asked questions.

Zane I am thankful that you can beat me on just about every Wii game we own. I love to watch you drive your tractor like a race car driver and ride your bike so fast that I can barely keep up. I love it when you snuggle in my neck and kiss me one more time! I love your giant colorful paintings that you bring home from St. Thomas School. I am thankful that you brought me a big baseball bat and remained calm when mommy killed that big snake. I love that you already seem to have that "man gene" and kept your cool when mommy found all those rats and ran screaming in the backyard. I love to watch you sing to Tobymac and dance like Michael Jackson.

Lilly, am thankful that Mimi has taught you to play the piano so beautifully. I love to listen to you play "Zum Golly Golly" up and down the piano keys. I love the way you the way you stand up for others when they have been hurt or misunderstood. l love the way you make hot tea so graciously for us all. I am thankful that you have the best memory and keep me on my toes. I cherish all the sweet stories you have written and beautiful art work that you have made. I love all your ideas and your creative imagination. God has blessed you with a beautiful, unique way of putting colors and shapes together to make truly great art.

I am thankful to be blessed with two beautiful and precious children. Both of you are the best gifts from God your Daddy and I could have ever dreamed for. God is truly the great provider. I am thankful that He is both omnipotent and gracious. I love that that He chose to bless our lives and marriage with both of you. Thank you Lilly and Zane for being such great kids and for all the joy you have brought to my life.

Salt Is Fascinating

Who knew salt could be so fascinating? We are learning about the ocean in our Zoology course. A few weeks ago we read a chapter overviewing tides and currents, how they are made, what affects them, etc. One type of current is called thermohaline. This is a current that is affected by both temperature and salinity. Did you know that the freezing point of salt water is lower than the freezing point of regular water? We didn't! We decided to do a simple experiment of adding salt to some water and placing it in the freezer to see the difference. We did this one morning and really expected it to freeze at least by evening. We didn't add much water... about a half of a cup, heated it in the microwave to dissolve the salt, placed salt in it (we didn't measure). Then we waited, and waited, and waited.

It took about 4 days if not more to freeze this little bit of water with salt in it. If I had known it would take so long and been so fascinating we would have taken more notes. But, everyday it looked different. Sometimes the top had a small crust of frozen water on top. We'd look again and the top would be broken up and the pieces in the middle seemed to be cracking. It would look frozen and then frosty and finally all frosty and frozen. We noticed the small square crystals that formed on the sides and examined them under the microscope. The kids were delighted to see that the crystals formed in perfect squares with no mold... imagine that! We hope you will do this very simple experiment just to see the fascinating aspects of something so seemingly simple as God adding salt to the oceans waters. It affects everything.

Well, it was so fascinating in the freezer that I decided we'd take it out and watch it for a few days as it thawed. It only took it about an hour to thaw but we continued to watch it for several days. The whole process generated many thought provoking questions. Why did the salt accumulate on the sides of the glass so thickly? Why was there some salt on the bottom of the cup and even on the counter outside of the glass? Where does the salt come from? It all has to do with the water cycle. The water cycle in textbooks and even explaining it conceptually seems really quite boring. But, seeing it in action has illuminated the process in all of our minds. Seeing really is believing. Have fun!

Change is Beautiful

This weekend we went to Lost Maples State Natural Area to see the changing colors of the Maple Trees. This state natural area near Vanderpool pays tribute to this tenacious hardwood whose colorful fall foliage draws tens of thousands of leaf-peepers each fall. Patches of the bigtooth maple (Acer grandidentatum Nutt) are also found in western Oklahoma, northern Mexico and the mountains of the western U.S., with the largest concentration of bigtooths covering large swaths of mountain forests east of Salt Lake City, Utah. After visiting family in San Antonio Saturday we drove to River Bend on the Frio River and spent the night. The next morning we took part of the Texas Highway Hillcountry Trail--FM 377 from Leakey to Vanderpool to Lost Maples then continued home through Medina and Bandera. If you've never done this you should definitely pack up the family and go. It's not too late to go even this year. Texas Highways published a story about the fall colors around the state with Lost Maples included in the write up. When we were there they said only 50 percent of the trees had turned. It was spectacular. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. The first picture is at River Bend on the Frio. The rest were taken at Lost Maples.

River Update

Lilly and Zane today at the Brazos River. She's slowly doing down, down, down. The drop in the water level amazes the kids every time we go out to check.

We Are All Connected

Before reading the following post I wanted to give you some perspective of the beauty of Hawaii. Here are some of our favorite pictures.

A Little Perspective... A Flood of Learning

It rained forever last week. Rain, rain and more rain. Where was all this rain going and what on earth does it have to do with a man standing on one of the dirties beaches in Hawaii? You might be surprised...

We recently saw a documentary about several beaches in the Hawaiian Islands that are collecting points for much of the trash in the Pacific Ocean. Lilly and I have discussed this documentary quite a bit in the last few weeks during her study of the oceans. The topic came up while studying ocean currents and filter feeders. As we learned about surface currents we could easily visualize how the trash ended up on some of the beaches in Hawaii.

Surface currents in the oceans form gyres or large circular patterns. Gyres are formed mostly by the wind. In the northern hemisphere they blow clockwise and in the southern hemisphere they blow counter clockwise. The Hawaiian Islands are located pretty close to the equator. They also are located in the direct path of the north Pacific gyre. So, guess where all that trash ends up? Beautiful beaches in the Pacific Ocean and a floating trash island as explained in the documentary.

I believe we are much more impacted by our experiences. Life is made of experiences that envelop our senses. Reading and documentaries can give us an insightful perspective but experiencing both the beauty and sadness of life can be life changing. One of the reasons the Hawaii documentary impacted us is because we vacationed in Maui, Hawaii in July. The beauty of the island is still very etched into our memories. I wanted the kids to experience how even the water that flows in the creek from our backyard eventually flows to the oceans and affect the beauty God has given us to enjoy not only in our backyards but also in the places we go to vacation. I want them to be connected in a deeper way to their choices and how their actions create reactions in the world and lives around them. None of us are on an island alone.

We used Google Earth to follow the water from the creeks that run behind our house,through Southwood Valley and eventually to the Navasota & Brazos Rivers. It would have been impossible to follow the entire route of the flow of water by car. My second option, was to use the maps application on my cell phone and follow one many of the creeks I knew would be flowing out in the country where I grew up close to the Brazos River. We started at a large creek on Blue Ridge Circle. We followed the creek path on the maps application until it crossed Hopes Creek Road. Once we got to the Hopes Creek road bridge the water was flowing so high and fast the kids could visually see how the water was higher and faster than at our previous crossing. At this point we were less than a mile from the Brazos River. Zane was telling us where to turn in order to get a great view of the river as he looked at the map. We went all the way down Batts Ferry Road. When the kids saw the river flowing they were amazed at how fast and high is was. This was their first time at Batts Ferry.

The various activities occurring at the river surprising. The water was flowing fast and heavily down the sides of the steep, sloping road. Sadly, the trash people left was floating into the river. When I asked Zane where the trash would end up he correctly stated, "The ocean!". All day he was explaining to family how the creek flows to the river and the river to the ocean and that you could see it at the end of the road.

The whole adventure was quite fascinating. We saw bugs clamoring to get to safety and vultures were flying overhead. We speculated as to why they'd be circling the river when it was so full and why the bugs were crawling up the grasses and shrubs sticking out of the water. It was easy to see that if the insects that lived along the banks of the river were coming up to higher ground. The animals would be moving to higher ground too.

We saw this beautiful Black Widow climbing on a floating piece of cardboard. She is the tiny dot in the center of the photo. We watched in amazement as she tried many times to get from one stick to another safe place closer to land. She would climb to the top of the stick, add a safety

anchor of silk & try to float to the next available stick. Although we cheered her on we did NOT help her help her. It was kind of sad seeing how distressed she was. But, we all know how poisonous they are and we dared not even touch her with a stick. We noticed all sorts of bugs, snails and worms crawling up the tall grass looking for a safe place away from the flowing water. We learned much more about nature than I had intended. We thought we were learning about water flow, water runoff and how our trash really can end up in the ocean. Zane also brought up the water cycle.

He is fascinated by hurricanes and he said, "Mommy, once the water gets to the ocean, the sun heats it up and it makes clouds and the wind blows it into a hurricane and it rains back on the land." I think for a four year old he has a pretty good grasp of the water cycle. Lilly was more fascinated with the bugs and snails and helping them get to safety.We did bring a few land snails home temporarily. I guess our house is the snail evacuation shelter! Ironically, Zane, my fearless rat man was terrified by the gooey snails and wouldn't even begin to hold them. They are pretty alien like once they come out of their shells.

All our observations of nature are paying off. God has much more to teach us as we experience and observe His handiwork than we can even imagine.

Lilly and I went back today to see if the river had lowered after days of not raining. The first photo was last week. The second is from today. Where is is standing was under water in the first photo. Before going I asked her to predict what she thought we'd find. She correctly guessed that the river would be lower. She was right. But, we were surprised by how much lower it already was, as you can see by the look on her face in the second photo. If you look at the fork in tree and at the trees across the river you can really see how much the river has dropped. We will continue to go and watch as the river recedes to it's normal level which at low times you are able to cross on rocks that line the bottom. Should be interesting to see the differences.

Microscopic Organisms

Today the kids found some "tadpoles" in a bucket of water at their Oma & Opa's house. Upon further inspection we saw many tiny organisms in the water. One tiny thing did look like a tadpole. We decided to take a sample home and look at it under the microscope. The little tadpole like creature looked extremely strange. Like a cross between a worm, june bug and a lion.

Next, we examined a mosquito larvae. "Ewww", was the main description from the kids. We could actually see the fluid inside of it pumping up and down a tube. At the end of it's snake like body we could see tiny wings and legs forming. As Miss Lilly said in a facetious tone of voice, "Too bad they won't form all the way." She was right. After viewing one last worm looking bug we put them all in the trash.

We also looked at the stamen of a Stargazer Lily. On the stem we could see the strands of plant material, hair like and colorful. On the yellow crescent shaped tip we could see very tiny crystal like particles. I'm guessing that was pollen. We may have to do more research on flowers and pollen to be sure.

To finish off our interaction with nature today we made leaf rubbings. I'm not quite sure which plants they came from since the kids found the leaves with Oma but, they definitely had fun. This was Z's first time to make a leaf rubbing. He was full of excitement to watch the leaf appear. Now we off to play with friends.... social hour!

The Flu & Procrastination

I know it's been a while since I've updated this blog. Z and I've had the flu. Z's flu progressed into a sinus infection and a persistent cough. All of which made for one grumpy Z and one tired Mommy. We are beginning to get our schedule back on track and hopefully we will have more time to post what we've been observing in nature. However, I must say that after my last post about the rats I have avoided the backyard... like the plague. The rat and snake experience profoundly affected me even going into the backyard for about 2 weeks. David and my father worked on the playhouse today and I went out and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day. Hopefully, after ensuring that we are totally rat free ( this may take the purchase of a cat) we will begin to enjoy our own backyard again. Until then, we're finding alternate places to examine nature.

Believe it or not, we've had two nature experiences inside. A beautiful Monarch butterfly came to visit one night. It kept flying into the window by my bed. I heard it thump, thump, thumping on the window. Evidently, it was trying to get to my nightstand light for warmth. I let him in and showed the kids my "pet butterfly" the next morning. They couldn't believe a butterfly slept in our room all night. The next morning, he perched in the sunlight on the window sill in the warmth. He looked as if he was asking me to please open the window so he could go enjoy the sunny day. When I opened the window he flew out as if it was completely natural for him to sleep on the curtains at the head of my bed and fly away freely the next morning.

The second experience wasn't so wonderful. A skink found it's way inside. Lilly saw his tail and thought it was a snake. Screaming ensued until we discovered it was only a long skinny skink. Both of my attempts to catch it "without hurting it mommy!" failed. I first tried covering him with a bowl and slipping a paper underneath. He fell out and scampered under the moulding where we have a pocket door. My second attempt involved the vacuum cleaner. To make a long story short, our vacuum cleaner must not be strong enough to suck up the skink or he ran farther than I thought. We haven't seen him again. No pictures of him... sorry. But I do have one very clean vacuum cleaner!

Have you noticed the mushrooms and other fungi growing lately? The kids love examining the mushrooms especially. The intricate, soft folds underneath the tops fascinate them. Last week we found the most unusual fungi growing on a piece of mulch beside our pond. The kids examined it with a magnifying glass and tweezers. It is most unusual. If anyone knows what it is please let us know. The tiny seed type things growing in the middle would not pull out. Another interesting find in our FRONT yard. Whew!

EEEW!!!

Last week the children came yelling, "A rat is in the garage!". Zoe, our West Highland White Terrier is an expert rodent killer. I called her and ran to the garage. I saw the rat sitting in the window on the outside of the garage behind the boards we set up "temporarily" against the wall. Temporarily turned into a year with all the excessive heat this summer.

I began pulling boards off one at a time. As I pulled more and more off the stack I could smell the stench.... rat urine. Yuck is just not sufficient. Zoe began to get excited. I decided that there may be more than one... possibly two? So, I got our other dog Daisy. Daisy began sniffing and getting excited also. At this point I decided to position the kids on each end of the wall, up high and out of reach of any escaping rodents. I wanted them to tell me how many they saw and which way they ran if they slipped by the dogs.

I finally got to the inside boards. As I pulled one big board off I saw something totally unexpected. Not one, two, or even three rats. There must have been at least 9 clinging to this board 3 feet from my face. The dogs went crazy and the rats went scurrying away in every direction. I headed for Zane because Lilly decided to go in and get popsicles for everyone.

Zane was fine. He was not even phased by all the commotion. By the time all was said and done. I had definitely accounted for 6 rats. Four the dogs killed and two that scurried away in opposite directions--a few down the fence line toward the field in the back.

Needless to say I am reevaluating our backyard feeding of the birds. The rats were feeding on the scattered seeds. In my research I've found that the best way to get rid of rats and mice is to eliminate any food source. That means rethinking where and how to feed the birds and bringing the dog food in away from all the critters.

Considering all the snakes we killed were along that fence line, David thinks that the snakes were following their smell as they headed to and from the back field along the fence. They were looking for dinner too.

We may not have many posts of pictures from our backyard for a while. But, we will continue our nature studies. Lilly is learning keyboarding. As she gains experience I'm hoping to get her to post here as well. Below you will see some pictures of a few picnic & nature outings at George K. Fitch Park & Wolf Pen Creek. The kids love going both places. If you haven't been you should definitely go walk through the nature trails.

~George K. Fitch Park~ is located behind

the College Station Library. It apparently

doesn't get much attention from the city.

We found lots of trash laying around the

trails. On our second vistit we decided to

"adopt" the park and bring trash bags and

pick up a little trash every time we go.

On our outing to Wolf Pen Creek we noticed many new and interesting things. The picture to the right is of a Mockingbird that followed us all along the trails. The interesting thing was that he only had one leg. It didn't seem to bother him in getting around at all. We also had a squirrel follow us dropping nuts on our heads and at our feet. We saw a beautiful white cat along the creek bank. We tried and tried to get her to come out but never succeeded. Lilly was highly disappointed.

We also discovered raccoon tracks in the fresh mud. The kids were

excited to follow the trail and speculate which way it went what it ate and what it may have been looking for. They followed the tracks under a bridge and eventually lost the trail into the water.

Another nice thing we liked about Wolf Penn Creek were the signs that labeled the kinds of wildlife and trees in the park. This is a picture of a Mexican Plum tree. If you're interested in attracting birds to your back yard fruit producing trees and vines are a great way to do this. This is evidently a native species.

This log covered with a beautiful fern was

another find. The log or branch fell from

the tree and was covered entirely with

this fern. We noticed the trees had other

plants growing on them as well including

Spanish Moss. Next time we will be taking

out Nature Books, adding specimens and

writing down the names of the things we

find.

Time "Flies"

Time has definitely flown by the past few weeks. I wish I had time to write about all our adventures. More birds keep showing up. They are getting used to us and allow us to take pictures without flying away quickly. Some I still haven't photographed yet. The hawk is growing more bold in watching over our yard in hopes of having a Sparrow breakfast.

The cool weather has brought mushrooms and several caterpillar chrysalis'. David killed a hog nosed snake today. Sorry, no picture. I'm beginning to think we need to get a Guinea or some other snake alarm. Ich! I wish I loved them as much as all of God's creatures.

Lilly had a "Nature Sleep Over Birthday Party". You can read about it on our other blog: twojoyfullylearning.blogspot.com. Zane is loving the bird "seeing". He chose a birding guide along with binoculars at Half Price books last week and spent an hour on our bed "bird seeing". The Lord is gracious. The kids are much more fascinating to watch than all of nature. I've included a slide show of all our pictures. Some were taken by every member of the family. Yes, they are all from our backyard. Enjoy!

An Appropriate Ending

Ugh... I can't think of a better metaphoric (I'm sure that's not a word but my brain is overloaded) way to end a tough week. Well, really just two days. Yesterday my dad went to the ER with chest pains. I spent the majority of my day in the ER awaiting news with my brother and mom. Thankfully, he is on the mend. He had 65% and 90% blockage of the arteries leading to his heart. He's still in ICU but he is stable and will go home soon.

Second on my mind was 911. I don't think any American can go through today without thinking of where they were and what they were doing that tragic day 8 years ago. I usually deal with stress by trying to avoid it. That's exactly what I was doing today. Trying to occupy my mind with prayer, good things and trying to stay out of the funk.

Actually, I was updating this blog which I try to do once or twice a week. As I was typing I noticed the sparrows fluttering and chirping on one bush in our yard. Then, more came, and more--all chirping, fluttering and making a fuss. So much that I called my daughter to the window. I was thinking, "What berries or food have they found over there?" Then I saw him. "A SNAKE!!!!" I yelled! I went into mommy mode. This being the 3rd snake this year I've killed, I told Pocahontas to watch him and sit on top of the picnic table--the snake was far away. I told her to scream if he moved. I gathered my "tools" quickly and ran back to form a plan. The last time this happened I used wasp spray to stun the snake. Then a shovel to hold him down. I had to call my son, who had been napping to bring a baseball bat which I used to pound the poor snakes head.

This time I couldn't find the wasp spray, my dramatic daughter was crying at the "evil thing!!!" but I grabbed every sharp tool I could find in the garage and set close by so she could hand them to me if I needed them. Well, as luck would have it my first swing with the shovel struck the lower part of his tail. I didn't want him crawling under the fence so I had to leave him pinned under the shovel that I was holding. I told my daughter to hand me the other shovel. As luck would have it the shovel she handed me had a shorter handle. She was screaming by this time because he was striking the shovel I had him pinned with. Daughter screaming, birds squawking.... AHHHHH! To distract her I told her to go in and call Daddy and tell him what was happening. Hind sight is 20/20.

By this time all the tension and anger was just rising inside of me. I had her screaming and crying in the house and this bird eating, child biting snake on the other end of the shovel I was holding. The poor snake never stood a chance... even without the wasp spray to stun him. He was striking and striking. I finally thought, "Okay, this may be a short shovel and a long snake but this is it--YOU'RE DEAD!" I start striking and swinging the other shovel with my left hand. I finally got a good hit behind his head, pinned him down, grabbed the tree trimmers and snip, snap, it was over. I'm still amazed at the things us mommies do when it comes to our children. It's not just poop, snot and throw up. We truly can list just about everything under our job description. Yes, this is the actual snake. We had to get a picture for our nature blog. First things first!

I came back to reality and I hear my daughter crying and yelling into the phone, "No, I don't think the snake bit mommy!!!" My poor husband! I went to the phone, hugged my daughter and reassured my hubby I was fine. The snake was dead and I had to leave to go get my son from preschool. All in a days work I guess.

Tiny Birds

This week Pocohantas spotted a very tiny and beautiful bluebird. We is a little bit bigger than the hummingbirds, very shy and fast! We think it's an Eastern Bluebird. I wasn't able to get a photo of him so I went to the Texas Bluebird Societies' webpage and downloaded this photo.

We did get a great photo of the tiny woodpecker. We are not sure of his species. He is either a Downey Woodpecker, a Yellow-bellied Sap Sucker or a Hairy Woodpecker. I haven't been able to find good pictures at the right angles to see tail feathers, etc for identification. Oh well, right now we are just enjoying watching them and their behaviors!

Pocahontas is especially fond of the little girl squirrel (Little Lady). She's praying that she will be able to hand feed her someday.

Shadow Hawk

We've been found out! This morning I noticed the birds were considerably sparse. Then suddenly I saw a huge expanse of wings swoop down into view where the smaller birds are always pecking away at the seeds. I couldn't get a good view of the hawk (not sure what kind). I ran upstairs to get the best picture I could from my window. You can see the figure of a hawk in the shadows. We really need a better camera! Then, the hawks began calling to another. The birds were mostly gone all day until this afternoon. Some came to the other side of the yard to get a drink from the fountain. I did get a quick pic of Little Lady eating acorns high in the tree by my window.

Later, as a storm blew in we noticed this cute little woodpecker. We think it's a Downey Woodpecker. It's very small like the sparrows we see. He was feeding out of the hummingbird feeder, which the bee's have also found. The hummingbirds have a hard time shooing away the bees. But, when this little guy came in they all zoomed away. Maybe they'll all learn to share. As for the hawk.... I told the kids we all have to eat. Hopefully it won't be one of our little ones.

Funniest Squirrel Ever

This is "Little Lady". She is a young squirrel that frequently comes to visit. She is quite the comic and very friendly. Her behavior is different from all the other squirrels in our yard. However, she is the only female we've seen. When she shows up 4 male squirrels come tromping in and she just ignores them. She plays with rocks... by throwing them in the air and rolling around like she's going to catch it while laying down. She doesn't appear to be scared of us either. She treats us kind of like the boy squirrels in her life--"You again?! Okay... watch my cute tricks!". Hopefully she'll stay a while and we can get a video of her cuteness. The kids love watching her more than the birds. Pocahontas thinks we should try to tame her and dress her like the "Lizard Whisperer" does with her lizards. Hmm--that's not

quite the type of nature study I'd intended. But hey.... if she can catch her and dress her; who am I to discourage her creativity? ;) "P" actually laid on the swing for 45 minutes this afternoon hoping she'd come visit. She was disappointed her Little Lady didn't show up. This could be a good lesson in perseverance. Somehow, I think Little Lady may win this one.

"Umm-- Koolaid"

Z thinks the hummingbird might be thinking...

"Ummm.....Koolaid!"

Pocahontas looked through our Hummingbirds

of Texas book and has decided this must be a

Black-chinned Hummingbird. One thing is for

sure, he or she is very protective of the

"Kool-aid".

Bird Thought of the day...

"Uh ohhh!"

*Posted by Pocohantas

The Lizard Whisperer

This morning when I went to feed the birds this tiny gecko scampered across the kitchen floor. It was such a tiny little fellow. I was too scared to pick him up with my fingers. At least not without screaming and waking up the kids. Then, I accidently flipped him over on his back. He stopped wiggling after a few seconds. At first I was confused because I was being very gentle with him and I knew he surely wasn't dead. Then I remembered seeing a young girl on television that dressed lizards after flipping them on their backs. Evidently it puts them in a sort of trance for a few minutes. As "Pocahontas" is showing in the picture below. The kids were fascinated by all the little lizard's insides and kept asking me, "What is that?". Looks like we've got some lizard research to do.

I've added a link to to Lily Capehart's website also known as "The Lizard Whisperer".

Animals That Visit Us

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

This little guy looks like such a scruffy! He is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. He is a baby without all of his feathers as well. His parents have been here since last fall and we are excited to have two babies visit daily. They come out later in the day around lunch time or a little later. We never see the parents. Just the babies trying to hobble up on their splayed legs. Their legs are spread apart much wider than all the other birds. I'm sure this helps them with clinging to the trees to eat their main food source, insects from decaying trees. So much for cutting down the small trees that have died! Less work and more habitat for these beautiful birds.

Blue Jay

The little baby Blue Jays are adorable. Notice the thin feathers around it's neck. We have two

that visit regularly and they both look much thinner than their parents. Their little feathers are still growing in. One will come in, land on a branch and scout the area. If the coast is clear he will call to his sibling. Then, one will swoop down, land on the edge of the bowl, quickly grab a piece of dog food and fly back up to their branch. Once on the branch they chip away at making the piece of hard dog food into more manageable bites. The kids are enjoying watching their feathers grow in as they slowly begin to look more like their parents.

Adult Blue Jay's keeping an eye on their babies.

Top:Common Grackle

Middle: Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Bottom: House Sparrow

Baby Northern Cardinal...one of the 1st

to arrive every morning. He's like the

scout all the birds send in to check and

see if the coast is clear.

Finally we have Mr. Gray Squirrel. He definitely rules the roost. I think we need to put some pants on him!