There are a hundred or so green pecans strewn about our backyard that the squirrels have raided, leaving the chaff. They sure are persistent little buggers.
Ohhhhh, nuts!
Category: Critters
An acorn haiku – just because.
The acorns are back.
Weighing down each red oak branch.
The squirrels rejoice.
Last year was a lean one for the furry critters that live off the acorns in our neighborhood. The red oak was just too stressed. This year the tree is absolutely loaded with them. I just wish the pecan tree out back would cooperate.
Lenny the Leaf.
This morning as I was walking by the kitchen window I notice a leaf that appeared to have blown up and gotten stuck to the hummingbird feeder. I figured it was a remnant from some of the wind gusts during the weekend rain. When I took a closer look, i saw that it was not a leaf, but a moth or butterfly of some sort.
Very effective camouflage, i must say.
Birthday budgie.
When we adopted Keeto last year, he was approximately 6 weeks old. Based on that we guesstimated his birthday to be August 15. Today marks the completion of his first lap around the sun. Happy Birthday birdie!
Incoming.
Have you ever known of a parakeet that comes when you call it? Monte and I think it’s a pretty cool trick. Working from home today, I left Keeto in the kitchen on his perch in the window. My office is all the way on the other side of the house down a hall with several doors off of it. After a while I called Keeto… and aimed the camera at the door. It wasn’t too long that I heard him flapping down the hall and caught a few pics of him coming into my office… landing on my hand a couple seconds later.
The pictures aren’t too good. He repeated the trick a few times and I used a couple of different shutter speeds. This was the best sequence I captured.
It’s a bird… no, it’s a plane… no, it IS a bird. Pretty bird!
Backyard varmit.
I much prefer these guys outside the house than in the attic. They still seem a little miffed that they’ve been blocked out of getting in back in. Sorry little buddy.
Bathing beauty baby bluejay.
We have lots of baby bluejays around the yard. They take turns sitting in the bird bath and splashing. This guy paused long enough for me to get a shot before he flew off. It’s a bit grainy due to the zoom, but I’m posting it nonetheless.
Dude!!
Wally found this guy on b-dock today. We took a couple of shots and then let him go on his way.
Happy July 4th!
Wow, that was a fun raftup! We got to the cove at about 5pm. Rory & Greg arrived first on Sapphire. Monte hooked them up with a stern anchor and a bow line to shore. Then Lori & Dave arrived on Camelot. Then Marty & Sue on Caribbean Hug. Then Wally & Robert on Voodoo.
We cooked up some beef fajitas right before the sun set — it was so easy, using the pre-seasoned skirt steak from HEB, and the cast iron skillet was as good as a grill. We’ll definitely have to bring those again.
There was a beautiful full moon – the Buck Moon. I have not mastered the art of photographing a full moon on a non-stationary boat yet, so no good pic to post.
iPod wars raged into the wee hours. I threw in the towel around 2AM. This morning I woke up to the sound of Voodoo dropping off Rory & Greg. They were just returning from a moonlight sail. They apparently left at about 3:30 AM, headed for the dam. They turned around at Sometimes Islands at about 6:30 and made it back to the raft-up by about 8:30. Those guys stayed up all night long. Crazy sailors!
We had a great day. But we are pretty tired from all the fun and schlepping.
This is a shot of a dragonfly that was darting around behind Cupholder this morning. I’m not sure why he hung around, but he stayed for an hour or two.
Keeto at about 10 1/2 months.
After being out of town all last week, it’s nice to be home this week — for lots of reasons. One is that I get to visit with Keeto in the morning. Such a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty bird.
Keeto will be 1 year old around the middle of August. It’ll be another good excuse to throw a party. 🙂
Florae and faunae. And Friday.
Yay Friday! This was a great Friday though. I got to sleep in until 7:30AM (!). Then I finished my last meeting at 3:00, so that I could run to a couple of non-work related appointments, one of which was a well-deserved, self-indulgent, overdue pedicure. 🙂
Then we went to dinner at one of our favorites, and the best Indian restaurant in Austin, in my opinion, Bombay Bistro.
Monte planted a huge patch of basil from seed earlier this spring. Today he thinned out the patch and brought some inside. It’s gonna be a great year for basil!
Then, i saw our resident deer grazing in the front yard, munching on grass and the leaves of the crepe myrtles. He, or she, was not very startled by us tapping on the window to get it to look our way for a shot. I think this is the same deer that we saw a few months ago with an injured leg nesting next to the window of our guest room. The leg looks like it has healed, but there’s a huge knob on the knee of its right foreleg. I’m glad to see it grown up and fending for itself.
Unfortunately, the light wasn’t great, as the deer was standing in the shade of the red oak out front. But he did strike a great pose.
Have a great weekend!
Happy Summer!
Here’s another gratuitous bird pic. Well, same window. Different bird.
I didn’t have a good shot of this guy. For some reason, even though there are four feeding stations on this feeder, they always go to the one that is blocked when viewed through the window. He did take a moment to peer around the side at me. So, that ‘s as good a shot as I got this time around.
Today is the first day of summer 2012. The solstice was about 10 minutes ago, actually. So how’s that for getting in early? 🙂
I’m hoping that this summer brings lots of good times, there’s sure to be more lake fun. And who knows what else.
I wish you a happy summer, too!
Mamma Dove.
This afternoon, before I heard or saw any signs of it outside, I noticed a red blob on the weather radar that I usually have running in the browser in the background. We were due for a very brief blow of rain and wind any minute.
So I took a break and walked into the kitchen to look out the window. Sure enough the wind was gusting and the sky was grey. As I was looking out, I noticed this mourning dove sitting in the crook of a tree branch. I realized it was a nest, and that was the mom (or dad?) sitting on a couple of babies, probably to keep them from falling out of the nest as the the branch bobbed in the wind.
The nest was pretty far away, and I had to use digital zoom — so, the the quality of this shot isn’t too good. I wasn’t able to get a good shot of the babies, but in this one, you can make out the mom — looking right at me. 🙂
Little critter.
One of the shy turtles in the cove today.
Sheila365 