Around the Yard

Linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

Since it is officially Spring, I want to wish everyone Happy Spring, Happy Passover and Happy Easter to my blogging friends.

These are the skies from the past week the skies over my yard, the vultures are always here.  Both Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures are hanging around in high numbers.

I was worried that some of the vultures are landing in same trees that the Great Blue Herons have their nest. I can only assume that they get along well.

This shot was taken on the same day as the shot above with the vultures and if you look in the top right corner of the photo you can just barely make out black dots.... more vultures flying around.

When I first took this shot of the heron nest, I thought it was empty. But, if you look closely ( or click for a bigger photo) on the left side of the nest you can see the heron beak and the top of the heron's head. Looks like a cute mommy.

Our weather has been all over the place lately. Sometimes it is warm or it can be very cold. We have had lots of rain or snow showers. No real signs of Spring here, I do see the daffodils are just coming out of the ground but no blooms yet.

I love to see a real pretty blue sky with some awesome looking clouds.

For NF Winged, beside the vultures, I have another one of my woodies, this is the female Downy Woodpecker just outside my dining room window.

The last two mornings, I have been catching the nearly full moon setting. It does look beautiful.

This Wednesday morning there were some thin clouds around the moon creating shadow spots on the moon. I hope you enjoyed my post and skies. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments.
Happy Skywatching and Happy Spring to everyone!

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to the host of NF Winged.  Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Vulture Sky

It's time to link up with my favorites memes Skywatch Friday and  NF Winged

First, I want to wish all my blogger friends and families a very Merry Christmas.

These are some of the late evening Vulture skies around my yard and during our walk at a local park called Soldier's Delight.  I have not had much luck birding or seeing any new birds lately. I do see the vultures every evening heading back into the woods next to my house.

 Lately my skies are Vulture skies

Soldier's Delight is a great place for hiking around the Serpentine grassland, it is compromised of 1900 acres of Serpentine barren. And the Virginia Pines has been an attraction for the White-Winged Crossbills. Was I successful at finding the White-winged Crossbills? The answer is no, so my search continues.

Back at home more of the vultures flying back into the woods for the night.

Sometimes they make loud crashing noises as they land in the woods next to my house.

A view of the sunset from my front yard.

                                         Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Eileen!

To see more beautiful photos and pretty skies please visit Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to the host of NF Winged.  Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Vulture Sky

It's time for some of my favorites memes Skywatch Friday and  NF Winged.

As I am typing this post, I am listening to the weather for the evening. They have called for this Northeaster storm to come up the coast and bring lots more rain, wind and possibly snow. After storm Sandy, I believe the East coast has had enough rain, wind and snow. I have a feeling I will wake up tomorrow with a dusting of snow on the ground.  Gee, winter is not even here yet and I am wishing for Spring.

Another sign winter is here, the vultures are returning every evening to roost in the trees next to my house. For my skywatch, I am sharing some of the shots of the vultures flying toward and over my yard.

 Above there is a long line of vultures, just about as far as you can see above the pergola. They seem to just keep coming. Probably the biggest group of vultures I have seen in flight, except my sighting in Panama.

 If you look at the very tops of the trees, you can see the black shapes of the vultures that had already landed in the roost for the night.

The sunset was actually the evening before my vulture photos. I love how the clouds look and how they turned a pretty color

To me the clouds above , resembles a bird the beak facing toward the right side of the photo and the wing stretched far out. What do you think it look like? I hope you have enjoyed my skies.


To see more beautiful photos and pretty skies please visit Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged. Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Skywatching locally

Hello,  I am linking up with Skywatch Friday.

These are a few scenes and shots of the sky from around my yard and neighborhood.

This cloud above reminds me of cotton candy.

One of my cute Chipping Sparrows. I will be sad to see my summer birds leaving soon, they will probably start heading south soon. I have not seen the male hummingbird lately only the female and the youngins.

A small sliver of the moon in a pretty blue sky.

The Turkey and Black Vultures are always hanging around. In fact they should be very happy soon, I believe deer hunting will be starting on Sept 15 on the reservoir property. They will be well fed by the hunters.

I like the tops of these pretty clouds.

Sunset at our lake.

I love this pink reflection of the clouds on the lake.

I hope you enjoyed my day and skies.
To see more beautiful skies from around the world please visit: Skywatch Friday.
Thanks to Sylvia and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday!. Thank you for stopping by to see my post. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Backyard birds

I am linking up with World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

This week I am showing a few of my yard birds. I have been watching the Carolina Chickadees go in and out of one of my bluebird houses.

This Carolina Chickadee enjoys my feeder with sunflower seeds.

A White Breasted Nuthatch outside my window.

The Black Vultures found a carcass of a deer around the corner from my house. Yesterday, I drove by there had to be over a hundred Black Vultures on the ground, on the deer and in the trees. One of my blogger friends asked why I see these Vultures hanging around so much. I think they like my neighborhood because of the deer carcass and the woods for roosting. During the hunting season, the hunters were taking what they wanted and leaving behind the rest of the deer. So that would leave plenty of food for both the Turkey and Black Vultures.

I hope you enjoyed my post and I want to thank you for stopping by and your wonderful comments.

To see more beautiful birds please visit Springman's World Bird Wednesday   and for more nature scenes please visit Michelle's  Nature Notes.  Thanks to Springman for hosting World Bird Wednesday and to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes.

SWF>>>>Walk in the woods

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday


These are some shots of the skies with the moon and planets over my backyard. Also,  some shots from my walk with Goldie Girl on the fireroad going thru the woods to the lake.

 These shots of the crescent moon were taken on  Feb. 26. I enjoyed looking at the moon when it was lined up with Venus and Jupiter. My son was able to show me where to locate various stars. It was a beautiful evening with a clear sky. I was able to focus on just the crescent moon.

 I would have loved to have a clearer shot that included all three Jupiter, the moon and Venus. My moon in the middle looks like it has a star effect when it should look like the crescent moon in the photo above. I guess I need some more practice.

I like this view looking up at the sky thru the pine trees.

Goldie Girl and I checked out the reservoir, I spotted some Common Mergansers across the lake way too far away for my camera.

I was checking out the treetops looking for a "new" bird or first of season bird when I spotted one of my regulars the Tufted Titmouse.

More of the Turkey and Black Vultures flying over my yard. It is like clockwork, they arrive back into the trees next to my house every evening.

This photo above of the full moon was taken in the morning of March 6. The moon was setting and I watch it slide down behind my backyard trees.


To see more wonderful skies from around the world click Skywatch Friday. Thanks to the hosting group: Sylvia, Sandy and Wren. I also appreciate all the visit and comments. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend!

A Vulture Skywatch

I am linking to Skywatch Friday   with up my backyard sunrise, a capture of the moon and lots of Vultures.

 

On Sunday morning there were NOT many clouds in the sky but the few that were there are a pretty pink color.

I like the closeup of the moon, it is cool seeing some craters and shadows. Not bad for my handheld Canon Powershot.

I do not think there is a time that I look up at the sky and NOT see a Vulture. Every morning they fly out of the woods next to my house and every evening they fly back. I can almost time their exits and the time they return. It is like they go to work, like I do every week day. It is amazing the numbers of vultures both the Turkey and Black Vultures that roost in the trees near my house.




My youtube video of the vultures.

Another shot of the moon and a pretty blue sky.

I hope you enjoyed my skywatch.
To see more wonderful skies click on my link Skywatch Friday  Thanks to the hosting group: Sylvia, Sandy and Wren.

I also want to thank you for visiting my post and blog. I appreciate the lovely comments. I hope everyone has a happy and safe weekend. 

Birding the Panama Canal

I am linking up with World Bird Wednesday and  Nature Notes

These photos are from our vacation to Panama last week. We visited the Panama canal locks a few times and one day we were on a ferry ride on the canal and we went thru a few of the locks. A common bird we saw besides the Pelicans and thousands of Black Vultures was the Magnificent Frigatebird.

They have a long wing span and a long scissortail.

The adult female has a black head white a white breast, the juvenile has a white head and chest.  The male is all black. My photo above shows one female with a few juveniles.

There were many Magnificent Frigatebirds hanging around the canal locks and ships. They are known to forage for fish floating behind the ships or steal fish away from other birds like the pelicans.

To see more beautiful birds and great photos make sure to visit Springman's  World Bird Wednesday and for more nature posts please visit  Michelle's Nature Notes

Thanks to Springman and to Michelle for hosting these great memes. Also, thanks for stopping by to see my post. I hope you all have a great week and Happy Birding.