Around The Yard

I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately.  I thought I  might try my hand at it.... get a bit of practice. Clicking on these photos will open them in a new window on Flickr and will give you a slightly larger view of the pictures.

I love cloud watching.  I liked how the clouds swirled.   It did not rain.. just a few clouds around. 

Those are the gourds we put up years ago for purple martins. The purple martins scouted, but chose not to nest.  A pair of Great-Crested Flycatchers have nested in the gourds every year.  They poke nesting material in each gourd in hopes that you won't figure out which nest their babies are in.  The nests usually contain a snake skin.  The parents are very mindful of humans and will usually fly into the trees if a human is seen. They nest in April and leave sometime in August.  I do not know where they migrate to and from.

A Ruby-Throated Hummingbird visiting the feeder.  The feeder is in the shade most of the day.  It is difficult to get a good picture of one.  I think this one turned out okay.

I encourage you to visit my friend Dorothy's blog Counting My Blessings and watch her video of the hummingbirds feeding right out of her hand.  Just amazing!

We only have the one family of hummingbirds and they usually have two babies.  This is the time of the year they go into a feeding frenzy.  I wish we had as many as Dorothy.



This Northern Cardinal seems to be saying "do you mind?".  I was in the house with the windows closed and my really long lens on my camera aimed through the dirty windows.  Birds have the most amazing hearing... they hear every click of the camera.  They have great vision too.

I hope you enjoyed these snapshots.  I enjoyed taking them :-)