Monday, September 28, 2009

This is the male Baltimore Oriole that showed up in my yard yesterday!



I am only putting out grape jelly right now to attract the orioles. When it is a bit cooler I will also put out orange halves and nectar. I set up a pole system with just oriole feeders...everything orange!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Amalia has emailed us a couple more of her wonderful photos. Hope you enjoy them!


Piliated Woodpecker. We hear them a lot more than we see them, so this was a great sighting.





This is a baby Bluebird in Amalia's yard. I have several, too, that are hanging around every morning for a helping of mealworms.


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Emily, our store companion, is recovering from a facelift!


Emily had a facial wrinkle that was rubbing against the bottom of her eyes. It was causing the eyes to cloud with pigment because of the rubbing. She would have eventually gone blind because of this. Her wrinkle was completely removed. Dr Patricia Novey did a wonderful job with the surgery. Emily will now be wearing this inflatable ring around her neck for a while to keep her from scratching her face. Even wrinkleless, we think she will be as cute as ever.







We raised Painted Lady Butterflies in the store in this case called A Butterfly Garden which we sell in the store. Today we released them!


Susan is releasing the Painted Lady butterflies.





This butterfly sat on the edge of the Butterfly Garden for a long time before it took off flying all around the yard.



A couple of the butterflies sat on the liriope flowers when they flew out.


Monday, August 17, 2009

A visit to St Marks National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, August 14th.


This Gray Kingbird was a life bird for Susan and myself. We were happy to get a fairly decent picture of it. We were using a Nikon Coolpix L100.





Tern, Tern, Tern...Royal Terns and Skimmers. This is a digiscope picture I took with my new Swarovski scope. We were at the lighthouse tower and these birds were far out on the sand beds.



Caspian Tern...This was also digiscoped with the Swarovski Scope and a Nikon 8400 Camera.



Not too great a picture, but worth sharing because this oprey had a huge fish... I think almost as long as he was.




Susan took this picture of Mary. Susan was using that new Coolpix she bought. You can also see the sheer beauty of St Marks NWR. It's my favorite place on earth!





The lighthouse at St Marks.






On our way out of the Refuge we noticed this alligator. We actually haven't seen too many of them there lately. We used to see so many more. Where are they?







At the end of the day, when we leave the refuge, I always say I would like to see a bobcat, a Florida panther, a black bear, and deer. We saw the deer as we were leaving. One down and three to go. In the past we have seen a bobcat and a black bear...I wouldn't mind the panther to add to that list!







Saturday, August 1, 2009

These are some wonderful photos by our customer, Amalia. She has a great backyard for the birds!


Ruby-throated Hummingbird




Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird



This is a leucitic hummingbird. If it were completely white, it would be considered an albino hummingbird, but because there are some markings on it...it is termed leucitic.
Great photo Amalia!



This male Rose-breasted Grosbeak was photographed last April. During migration in the Spring and Fall they visit our yards here in northern Florida. They particularly like safflower seed!




Northern Parula





Baby Bluebird. There are lots of these all around Tallahassee right now. We love our bluebirds!






This father Bluebird has chosen the side of a tree truck to feed his baby.








This is my favorite shot. Baby Bluebirds can do a lot of begging! Wonderful photo!







Friday, July 24, 2009

Susan and I did a birding trip on June 30th to Marymoor Park while in Seattle. It's a fabulous place for birding!


We saw 59 birds during our morning visit to the park. Most of them were Life Birds for us (Mary and Susan).






This is a photo of a baby Barn Owl in a nesting box. The photo is by Clay Taylor. He is a representative for Swarovski Optiks and joined us on the walk.



This is Susan along with other birders who are obviously in awe of some bird. This is a typical pose for us birders!





The next 3 photos show some of the interesting plants and flowers that we saw in Marymoor. It was a wonderful park to visit. I would go again if I lived a bit closer!









This is a dark-eyed junco. She is a cute bird. We get a few here in Tallahassee in the winter.
Photo by Clay Taylor.








Susan sneaked this photo of me (Mary). You can see Clay in the background with his huge camera lens.









The next two photos are tree swallows. Mom has just arrived to feed her starving babies!
Photo by Clay Taylor.










Feed me! Someone please feed me!
Photo by Clay Taylor.










Spotted Towhee. We had one here at Alligator Point last winter...very rare for us. I didn't see it, so this was my first!
Photo by Clay Taylor.












Red-breasted Sapsucker. Life Bird!
Photo by Clay Taylor.






This is a beautiful bird...Lazuli Bunting. It apparently loves to sing. It sang the entire time that we watched it.
Photo by Clay Taylor.





The singing Lazuli!
These are but a few of the photos that Clay took (and I took a few...his are much better). He downloaded all his photos of this birding trip and allowed me to share them with you. Hope you enjoyed them. If you are ever in Seattle, go check out Marymoor Park. I think you'll like it. Happy Birding!
















Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Mary and Susan's whale and bird watching trip around the San Juan Islands in Washington State, June 30th.

We boarded a boat at Anacortes about 1 1/2 hours north of Seattle. We spent 5 hours around the islands searching for whales and birds. We saw the Orca Whale, which I have pictures of below. We also saw the Minke whales and harbor dolphins. In addition to the birds pictured, we also saw the Pelagic Cormorant, Common Murre, Heermann's Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Great Blue Heron, Black Oystercatcher, and Bald Eagle. I am sure I have forgotten some...I don't have my list at hand. All but the heron, eagle, and Double-crested Cormorant were Life Birds for us. It was a marvelous trip. I took many pictures, but these are not mine. These were taken by Bart Rulon, who was a naturalist on the boat and his camera lens was about as long as my arm. His pictures are way better than mine!


Orca Whale "Spy Hopping"




Orca breaching the water! They were incredibly fun to watch.


Orca whale again. These whales have distinct markings, as in the white under the tail. These whales all have names and the naturalist could tell them apart!



Another Orca Whale! There were many to see!




There were several of these rock islands covered with birds. There were mainly Double-crested and Brandt's Cormorants, with a few added gulls.




This is a Pigeon Gillemot. Another bird for the Life List!




Rhinoceros Auklets were everywhere. They are related to the puffin. But the Tufted Puffin in the picture below is the bird that we were searching for. We saw two on this trip.






Near the center of this picture is the Tufted Puffin. Right near the end of our five hour trip through the San Juan Islands, this marvelous bird flew into a group of birds floating by the boat. What a treat!






Monday, July 6, 2009

Down at the refuge


Purple Gallinule


Gull-billed Tern



Ring-billed Gull



Orchard Oriole

Assorted waders...can you spot the Wood Stork?



This male Towhee has been pecking mirrors at HQ pond car park for over 3 years now! Give it a rest dude!
All pictures taken by Carol Miller