More birds....

Not much new or exciting this week, except a few new bird notes. First the bad news. The Bluebirds have abandoned their nest. After 8 days the two eggs went down to one. The only explanation that I have is that they were probably laying 1 per day as expected but something (probably a snake) was removing an egg each night. I put a snake guard on the pole but too late to prevent the birds from giving up in frustration. Nancy did see a large snake near the back of the lot yesterday. We still see the Bluebirds around the yard and hopefully they are saving up some energy for more eggs and another try.

The good news is that there have been up to 4 Hummingbirds at the feeder at one time. The picture above was taken Saturday at the Hummingbird feeder off the back deck. There is at least one Ruby Throated Hummingbird feeding every few minutes. Plus, we have spotted three new (to us) birds in the yard. A Rose-breasted Grosbeak, an Indigo Bunting, and a Hairy Woodpecker.

That is about all the excitement....except for this bit of important information. Did you know that you can buy 1000 mealworms (to feed Bluebirds) on the internet for only $6.00. (They are $4.00 for 50 at the pet store.) Or better yet, you can get 100,000 for only $240. Just make sure that you grab the right container out of the refridgerator when reaching for the green beans.

The Sun, the Moon, and the Birds.

Here are some recent pictures from our yard. The first is a sunrise and the one below that is a full moon rise. The moon was full just a day or two ago. I don't know if it is because of the full moon or because it is just the time of year, but the Whip-poor-wills have been calling loud and long into the night, although we haven't seen any.
Speaking of birds, I hope to add some bird pictures in the near future. I just need to get the birds comfortable enough with me to get close enough for some better pictures. Coming to our backyard are: American Goldfinches (many), Tufted Titmice, Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Cowbirds, Doves, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpeckers, Flickers, House Finches, Wren, Nuthatches, and probably a few more that I can't identify or can't remember. We see Turkeys regularly in the area, although not in the yard. Also, the first Hummingbird showed up at the feeder two days ago. Best of all...we have a Bluebird nesting in the nestbox in the backyard with two eggs so far. We have been feeding the Bluebirds mealworms and raisens on top of the nestbox. Stay tuned for regular Bluebird updates and hopefully pictures.

Waterfalls, waterfalls....

Wow, Tennessee is a state of waterfalls! We have seen many since we moved here and we saw many more on the two day hiking trip we took Thursday and Friday with the Fairfield Glade Hiking Club. Twenty-four of us traveled about 1 and one half hours south to an area northwest of Chattanooga. We also visited Sewanee University of the South for lunch at the campus cafeteria and then a short tour of some beautiful architecture styled after Oxford University in England.

In the evening we had a wine and cheese gathering and then dinner. We stayed overnight in Monteagle, Tennessee. On the way home we stopped at two other State Parks for short waterfall hikes.

While hiking we saw deer, turkey, and an Eastern Racer (snake), and many,many wildflowers, including violets, bluebells, dutchman's breeches, and wild iris.

We had a fun and beautiful couple of days!

The view from here

The entire back of our house is windows which face the southeast. The view is different every day. Sometimes there is fog in the valleys; sometimes the fog is on the hills. There are many nice sunrises. The view here was on a cold winter morning in January. It kind of looks just about like the Tennessee license plate shown in an earlier posting.