Springlike Hike

The weather here in February has been unusually mild.  Temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s.  So Finn and I have been hitting the trails more than usual at this time of year.

Most of the vegetation is still brown with trees still leafless.  So, there weren't too many opportunities to take pictures. 

My son Eric and I were discussing this old foundation that has been on the side of the trail for many years.  We think it may have been an old spring house.  Back in the 70s and 80s when we hiked these trails with our kids, the parks used to provide trail pamphlets that explained the different things along the trails.  Eric ran into one of the park naturalists the next day who said she didn't realize the foundation was there.  She asked Eric to take a picture and send it to her along with the location.  Imagine that!  Us telling the naturalist where things are in the park.  I thought that was funny.

This little fungi is usually white.  I just thought the green (though actually kind of gross) perks it up a little.

Looking over one of the bridges, I spotted these cute little "hands" imprinted in the mud.  There are plenty of raccoons in this park.

Today, Finn and I spotted our first duck of the season in the Kingfisher stream.  It was great seeing Mr. Mallard!  Spring isn't too far away for sure!

A longer look of the Kingfisher stream.  You can see part of the other trail on the opposite side of the stream.

Meet Some of My Friends

I love taking pictures of the birds I see, but some are more challenging to get a good picture.  They are usually small, and quick moving birds.  They never sit still, and dart away quickly.

My favorite little bird is the Carolina Wren, and I always try to get it's picture and share every time.

When I started counting birds 6 years ago, I rarely saw a Hairy Woodpecker.  A Hairy looks just like a Downy Woodpecker, only larger.  After 6 years of counting, I finally see a Hairy or two almost every week.  Here is a male Hairy.

Always have to take a picture of the brilliant male Northern Cardinal.

When it's cold and/or snowy, I usually have a Northern Yellow Shafted Flicker stop by, this is a female.

This is one of the hardest birds for me to get a picture of...the Tufted Titmouse.  I wish this would be a profile picture, because it would be easier to see him at his best.  I'll keep trying to get a better picture.  I do like his eyes!

 I have quite a few Red Bellied Woodpeckers coming around too.  This is a female.

The last few pictures are of a White Breasted Nuthatch.  He too, is constantly on the move.  I have a ton of blurry pictures of this guy...here are a few of my best.

Birds of a Feather...

I haven't been hiking lately, either because the weather was nasty and/or I was just too lazy and not motivated enough to get up and get going!  However, I have been doing some decluttering of the house, so that's one good excuse...but it's the ONLY good one I have.

I did go hiking yesterday and the day before yesterday.  I went without Finn because I just didn't want to have to try and catch him first.  He likes to hike, but for some reason, he makes me run around the house after him to get him ready.  Then I have to get his seat ready in the car.  My car is fairly new, so Finn sits on an old blanket along with his seatbelt.  He also wears a harness and sometimes a sweater.  Then I have to make sure I have his Kroger "poop" bag in my pocket.  I just didn't feel like dealing with all that, so I went alone.

I find myself walking faster now that I have a new knee and without having to stop and pick up poop, or wait for Finn to sniff everything, I can cover pretty much ground in almost an hour of walking.  Today was really, really cold, and I had laundry to do, so I skipped hiking.

This past Sunday and Monday, I did my bird counts and took lots of bird pictures.  I will have to split them up into at least two, maybe three entries.  When I count birds, I can only count the most I see at one time.  I know there are a lot of birds that come to the feeder, but how many times do I see the same individual bird?  This past Sunday I saw 25 cardinals all at once.  I managed to get 3 pictures, before they all flew off.  There were also many cardinals in the tree that I didn't a picture quickly enough.

Here are 5 Cardinals sitting under one of the feeders.

Here are 5 more Cardinals under one of the pole systems I have.  Those two gray birds are Dark Eyed Juncos.

Six more Cardinals and more Dark Eyed Juncos

Though I like to take pictures of individual birds because I like to  look at them closely, I've been trying to take some pictures of groups of birds, to show how many different kinds come to my feeders.

This next pictures includes, cardinals, mourning dove, house sparrows, two female brown headed cowbirds (they are the larger gray birds).  The male cowbirds actually have brown heads.  Herb always teases me saying he just saw some elephant birds....bad joke.