The First Shades Of Winter's Demise?

This morning I saw a hopeful sign of winter's demise:  the goldfinches are starting to plume out in their bright spring best coats.

Thus far, it is just a hint of the golden yellow peeking through winter's drab.  But it is enough to see it, just round the head and chest feathers at this point, even if it is not yet a fully fledged switch.

It is as if the goldfinches are saying, "Take hope, warmer weather is coming along with the sunshine.  Have a peek." 

(Photo via matthew jumpingspider.)

Our Wild Kingdom Adventure Day

Yesterday was a snowy, blustery, cold and shivery day.  As we huddled inside, the birdies and neighborhood squirrels plundered the seeds with abandon.

Until it got a wee bit red in tooth and claw.

A red-tailed hawk (at least I think he was a red-tail, his feathers were more brownish than they look in this picture through the window screens and pouring snow, but it is possible he was a goshawk and I have mis-labeled) showed up, swooping in out of the blustery sky, and picked off something -- maybe a squirrel, maybe a large bird, but whatever it was weighed enough that the hawk only flew a bit out in the yard and then started tearing it apart and eating.

I just happened to be walking by the sun room when I saw the flash of giant wings swooping by the feeder, and then saw him land a few feet away.

He was an absolute beauty. 

After he finished part of his meal, he flew back up to a perch in a taller tree across the street, and watched the feeder intently for a while, then settled in and looked as though he were resting. 

We went about our business in the house, as I started making some dinner when...WHAM!  The hawk must have been swooping after another bird and gotten caught in a wind gust, because he crashed right into our glass storm door on the front of the house.

Enjoy The Moment While It Lasts

Our woodpeckers are missing.

That is not to say that they have gone entirely, but I haven't seen them at our feeders in quite a while.  We used to have a pair of downy woodpeckers -- their feathers fluffing out on the backs of their little heads like down fledging off a baby bird.  We also had some red-headed woodpeckers, another breeding pair, that were a bit territorial about our suet in the wintertime.

The last few days were bitterly cold, but none of them showed up to feed at any of our feeders or suet stations.

Living in the middle of town can be like that:  construction begins somewhere, and half your birdies move off to quieter pastures.  But I'm wondering if they will be back once the weather turns fully to snow and ice in the coming weeks?

I certainly hope so.

The last few years, I have enjoyed watching them rear their broods and bring them to the feeder once they fledged from the nest.  We had a Carolina wren family that lived in our pine trees out back for the longest time that did that every year.  They disappeared from our yard, though, when we were having our roof re-done, and have not yet reappeared, either.  Their loss on our big sun room feeder is painful.

It is funny how attached you can get to these little wild creatures, just by scattering a few seeds about and admiring them through a plate glass window.  But we do.  Or, at least, I do, watching them every day as a sort of half meditative, half naturalist practice that soothes me to my core, while the rest of the family just enjoys them on random occasions.

I do hope we haven't lost them to a quieter yard, somewhere outside the heart of town.

Great Blue Heron

As you probably guessed, we took a little trip just after Christmas.  It was a desperately needed and well-earned vacation, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

But we got back the afternoon before classes began again for The Peanut, and we had to hit the ground running from the moment we pulled into the driveway.

Alas, because I've been so crazy busy since we got home, this poor little blog has suffered for it.

Allow me to make up for it a little bit with a couple of pictures.

There will be many, many more to come in the days ahead not that I've finally gotten a chance to upload them this morning -- but these two were taken in a kind of serendipitous, magical moment that I wanted to share first.

During our trip to Hilton Head, SC, we spent part of a morning hiking through the Sea Pines Forest Preserve.  If you ever find yourself on Hilton Head Island and have an hour or two to view some spectacular scenery and enjoy the heck out of life, this is a wonderful way to do it.

We visited the preserve our last day on the island, and it was one of the best days of our entire vacation.  We had such a blast.

Bird Brains

I snapped this picture of a great egret when we spent the day at Sea World in Orlando during our  recent vacation.  Isn't he just gorgeous?

I wish I could have captured how the sweep of tail feathers in the back sort of billowed in the breeze that day, because it was really lovely as it shone snowy white in the sunlight.

I always confuse these beautiful birds with their smaller counterparts, the snowy egrets, no matter how many times I look them up and no matter how bright yellow their bills are compared to the darker color of a snowy egret's bill.  They are my birding faux pas every single time I try to identify one on the fly, what can I say?

In any case, these birds have got a whole routine down pat at Sea World.  You can tell when it is about to be feeding time, because suddenly snowy and great egrets begin to creep around on the rocks and ledges surrounding whatever tank is about to receive some glorious fish bits.

They also appeared to be super smart.

African Grey Crowned Crane

This lovely fellow is an African grey crowned crane.

Their range stretches from the Congo and Kenya all the way south to southeastern South Africa.  Despite their substantial territorial range, their habitat is becoming threatened by over-grazing from cattle and other farming as well as environmental and other issues stemming therefrom like overuse of toxic pesticides and fertilizers which threaten reproduction and drainage issues which threaten traditional marshy and other habitats.

Hello, Gorgeous!

This peacock was strutting his stuff at Disney's Animal Kingdom and I couldn't resist trying to snap a few shots of his gorgeous plumage.

I wish I could have captured how his feathers glistened in the bits of sunlight that filtered down through the enclosure he was in, but it is a tough thing to ask a haughty wild animal to pose perfectly for you.

So this is what I got when I just snapped away and hoped for the best.

This is my best close-up shot of him.  Isn't he gorgeous?

And he knows it, too.

This is not the sort of man you want to bring home to momma, now is it? 

If you go to Animal Kingdom, do take the time to walk the entire length of the forest trails -- there is one in Africa that features a number of animals including gorillas and has a lovely bird sanctuary area, and one in Asia that features tigers and a myriad of other exotic birds as well.

I'll be sharing more photos going forward.  Consider this one a taste of things to come. 

For folks who are wondering, this is my own photo which I snapped with my Canon EOS Rebel T2i camera with an 18-135 mm lens. I swear this camera practically takes the photographs itself -- my eye just has to worry about the framing and the timing of the shot.

Dreaming Of Sea Pines Forest Preserve On Hilton Head Island

I had a vivid dream last night, about one of my favorite places:  Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.

It has been a few years since we've had time to get down there for a vacation.  Too many losses over too little time in our family of late, and not nearly enough space on the ends of everything for actual vacating in the truest sense of the word.

Our last trip there, Mr. ReddHedd had the flu and Mother Nature conspired to keep us indoors for a lot of the trip by stirring up serious windstorms that made the beach miserable with blowing sand being thrown in your face constantly, and cold, driving rain pelting you otherwise.

But The Peanut and I managed to find some lovely shells and take a few walks anyway, and even fit in some dolphin watching.  And I have a beautiful lettered olive shell, that we found at low tide the morning we were leaving from our trip, on my computer desk as a reminder of our fun.

For some reason, the marshes and beaches of Hilton Head Island call to some internal voice in me -- the confluence of water, waves and wildlife, I suppose, which the island has in abundance.

When we have visited in the past, we've gone during the "off" season, in winter or very early spring usually when the summer crowds have long disappeared and the beaches are quiet because it is well into sweatshirts and gloves weather.  Perfect for a woman who turns into a lobster instantaneously even with a heavy dip into the sunscreen, and also perfect for someone who loves quiet and solitude.

Which is why I've been dreaming of the island, I think.  Some internal drive for a wee bit of peace and quiet.

Restoration, Life and Lupus

I am tired of always being tired.  Can I just say that out loud?

We just got back from what should have been a vacation, but instead just wore me out.  I had trouble adjusting tot he time change this trip, spent a lot of the time waking up at 5 am in Phoenix (which was 8 am back home in WV, so my body was convinced it was logical), and as a result am just exhausted right now.

Throw in what appears to be a cold caught on the airplane and the usual lupus issues from travel and I'm pretty much useless today.

So I'm going to take it easy.  Again.

And that is where the problem comes in:  I have been doing that a lot of late.  I don't whether it is the heat and humidity this summer, or my increasing age, or what, but life is kicking my ass and I would love to know what I can do to make it stop.

Better diet?  I'm actually eating better lately, including lots more fruits and veggies, thanks to beginning the new Weight Watchers Points Plus plan a few weeks ago.  But there's always room for improvement, right?  So I'll try to be conscious of that going forward and do better where I can.

I Wish I Were Here...

After several days in a row of frigid temperatures, and skies that alternate dumping sleet, freezing mist and snow?

I am seriously ready for a little daydreaming about the beach.

Which led me to think about so many of the great trips our family has taken through the years for vacations.  One of our favorite spots on the planet thus far has been Hilton Head Island, as much for the nod to nature that a lot of development has taken there as anything else.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

It's definitely bird feeder refill season out there this morning.  With the wind chill, it's below zero outside, and all the birdies are fluffed out and desperately seeking nuts and seeds.

Can't blame them.  I'm inside and still a little chilly this morning myself.

The thermometer says 8 degrees out there, but I think it may have gotten stuck because it feels a lot lower.  At some point, though, I'm going to have to brave the chilly weather and go out to refill all the feeders or risk a cranky birdie mutiny today.

No one wants that, now do they?

On My Bird Feeder Today...

Look who I caught on my bird feeder this morning?

He's been playing peek-a-boo with me today whenever he's seen me at the computer.

The bluejay pair has been hanging out and snatching peanuts ever since I filled up the feeder yesterday. I caught this one posing with his treasure this morning.

He was as curious about my camera as I was about trying to get the right focus.  Not sure I completely hit the mark here, but I was trying to use manual focus instead of automatic to blur out the background a bit more.  Plus, I was shooting through the window, so I couldn't use a flash to brighten things.  I bet there is some way to make the color pop more, but I haven't figured it out just yet.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Here's the view from where I sit in my sunroom.

Our tree is up and lit this morning. It's snowing outside at the moment, too, although not the sort that piles up or sticks around for long. Just enough this morning to give everything a sugar-frosted look.

It's lovely from inside our snug little house, but not so much for the folks driving to work.

The bird feeders are freshly filled, so I should be inundated with grateful, hungry and fluffed out for the cold birdies any time now.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...