A walk on the beach

Walking on the beach this morning, I noticed 2 things:

• It's always farther than it looks
  
• When it comes to beach houses: the bigger & more extravagant the house, the less likely it is to be occupied (except by the construction workers that are there to make it bigger & more extravagant).
  

I took a lot of photos, but can't seem to get sister's computer to recognize my camera, so I searched her hard drive for some nice Don Pedro Island photos. And even though she's not much of a bird person, I found some nice photos of a great blue heron on their dock, and also one of an immature great blue heron.

Dogsitting

I'm vacationing on beautiful Don Pedro Island, Florida. Those that know me are probably asking "Vacationing from what? You're whole life is a vacation!" Actually, I'm sort of working here. I'm babysitting my sister's 3 dogs while she and her husband are away. One of the pups, Lizzie, is a "special needs" baby. She's blind and almost deaf, but when it comes to email writing, she's quite prolific as evidenced by the email that I received from her last month -

Hi Sue,
It's Lizzie here - I thought I'd write a quick note to say how excited I am that you'll be coming to Florda to take care of me. I'm currently writing an essay on my typical day so you know what to expect. I should have it done by the end of the day.


And, as promised, she emailed her essay to me by the end of the day:
My typical day… by Lizzie

I sleep in a cage. Mom calls it a “condo” because she thinks that makes me feel better about it. When I wake up I want out… OUT I said. So I cry and whine until Mom gets up. I try to wait until she’s awake, but sometimes she sleeps past 6:15… lazy girl.

Mom opens the door, picks me up and carries me to the kitchen where she feeds me and my brothers. Keil eats like a PIG, he’s done in seconds. I like to savor my fine dry dog food. As soon as Keil and Ben are done eating Mom opens the door and lets them go downstairs on their own. She then waits for me to finish and carries me down the stairs. She takes me out the entrance by the barbeque grill. And if the boys have wondered off she calls for them to come over in the same area. Sometimes I hear her mumble about the boys wondering too close to the street. One time Keil went way down the street toward the bridge and mom was mad at him for days! But I digress…

I’m quick; I know what I’m outside to do. I poop, then pee… but don’t rush me, sometimes I poop again. I then get a lift upstairs where Mom helps me find the water bowl and then I lie down for my first nap of the day. If mom watches the morning show on TV I nap on her lap, but now that she has high speed internet, she puts two pillows on the floor by her feet and all three of us nap there. The clicking of the keyboard lulls us to slumber.

When I awake… usually around 9:30 I might start to wander. That can only mean 2 things… I need to pee/poop, or I need water. If I didn’t drink earlier, that usually is what it means. Mom has a big gold cup with my name on it that she often brings to me to drink out of. It’s easier for her than leading me to the water bowl. If I still wander, it might mean I need my second pee/poop break. What… you don’t poop 3 times before 10 AM???? Mom always gives all 3 of us treats when we finish our second bathroom break of the morning.

Once that’s done, I usually settle in for my next nap. If it’s sunny and nice mom has the living room doors wide open and I find a sunny spot to lie down. Meanwhile Ben is spending all of his day following mom’s every foot step and Keil is barking at the passer-bys… until mom puts his barker collar on him. Mom always takes the collar off at night once we settle in to watch TV, but in the morning, if he starts barking, she puts it back on him again. That dog just does not learn!
Editor’s note: If Keil barks with the collar on, it will eventually empty, and need to be refilled. To refill, take the blue canister with “citronella” on it and while holding it upside down firmly insert the nozzle in the hole in the top of the collar. It will only go in the hole with the circle ring in the middle. The other hole is the sprayer.

Sometimes I wake from my nap and find a new place to nap; it’s usually just feet away from my first spot… no point in tiring me out. If I wander too long Mom assumes the same as paragraph 4… and out I go again. Mom is always guessing when I have to go to the bathroom. The boys are a little more obvious. They go stand by the door. I would do that too, but I can’t find the door. When the boys stand by the door mom will just open it and let them go down. Sometimes Keil won’t go unless she goes with him… I’m not sure if he’s afraid to go by himself, or if he just wants mom’s company. Sometimes she tricks him by starting down a few steps, he runs ahead and doesn’t notice that she has stopped and came back upstairs. I never said he was a smart dog.

The day goes by until it gets close to 5 PM. That’s when we think we should get dinner… well Ben thinks closer to 4 PM would be better. But mom makes us wait until at least 5, and she tries for 6 but sometimes gives in to the whining, jumping, and overall nuisance behavior. We all get fed, and then mom lets the boys go out and carries me. This time I poop and pee, I seldom poop twice after dinner, it just seems wrong.

Once back upstairs I look for a place to nap, once it gets dark mom closes the doors to the outside. Even though there are screens she complains of a little bug called a no-see-um. Apparently they go through the screen and annoy her. The rest of the evening consist of waiting… just waiting until mom decides to sit down for the night to watch TV. In the new leather chair she pulls the ottoman close. I get the lap, Ben gets to sit beside her leg, and Keil cuddles on the ottoman. If I fidget while I’m on her lap that means only two things… water (thank goodness for the gold cup at her side) or it’s bathroom time again.

Mom and Dad try to stay up until 11, but Ben likes to go to bed earlier. So about 9:30 or 10 he stands by the door and looks longingly at mom. Sometimes she opens the door, lets him go out and then he goes to bed by himself. I’m not sure if he really wants to go to bed or just wants the treat we always get at bedtime. When it finally is bedtime, mom and dad shut off the TV, that click is our clue, but if that isn’t enough mom shouts “last call”. We know what that means. The boys climb downstairs while I get a ride down. We’re usually quick at last call, because we know we get a treat when we go to bed. The boys sleep on the blanket that’s in the bedroom, and mom puts me in my “condo”.
Editor’s note: The condo will be in the guest room when you arrive. The purple blanket in the living room is what the boys sleep on. It’s in the bedroom at night and I drag it to the living room during the day.

We sleep through the night awaiting our morning meal. As you can see, we lead a simple life, sleep, eat, poop, pee, drink, treats, lap time… that’s all there is to it. The more lap time, the better.

PS I eat poop. Mom hates it. So when I’m outside she watches me and yells if I start to sniff toward a poop. I play deaf. So she follows me around and taps me on the butt if my nose gets to close. Sometimes I ignore that too. This is all very fun for me, and sometimes she’s busy watching the other dogs and I’m quick. Score one for me.

Crooked little house

I took this photo on our way to Raleigh Thanksgiving Day. It brought back a childhood memory. Remember this one?
There was a crooked man,
And he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence
Upon a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat,
Which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together
In a crooked little house.

A flicker, again

This blog has no shortage of flicker photos, but I thought that this one framed by the autumn foliage was too pretty not to post. Yep, there are still leaves on the trees here at Lake Gaston, NC. Falling fast, though.

Gouldian finch aviary

First of all, let me just say that if I'd known that hubby was going to be hanging outside of the aviary with a camera I would have combed my hair before "bird chores".
I've raised many different kinds of finches in the past, but this photo (sorry for the blurriness), shows why gouldian finches are my favorites. Not only are they beautifully colored, they're also curious and friendly. It's no accident that there aren't any society finches in this photo. When I walk into the aviary, the society finches scatter and keep their distance. The gouldians come on over for a little visit.

The common loon

Yesterday was our first loon siting (kind of) of the season. First we heard it. Then hubby saw it, pointed, and I turned just in time to see the ever-widening water circles that he left when he dove. We waited. And waited. And when he surfaced far from the place where he dove, hubby again pointed, and again I looked just in time to see the water circles. We waited and waited & never did see where he surfaced. Amazing divers, those birds. But today I saw him (or another one) swimming near our dock.
The photo above is one that I took last spring of a common loon with his beautiful summer plumage. I wasn't close enough to take a photo today, but he looks much different in his "winter coat".

10,000 Robins

OK, 10,000 robins is an overstatement, but 500 robins might not be. And 200 robins defininetly is not an exaggeration of what we saw on Friday. As we watched, flocks of robins flew into our trees in groups of 20 to 50 at a time. They would stay for a few minutes, fly off, then another group would replace them. This amazing scene lasted about 30 minutes and we haven't seen any robins since. In fact, we rarely see robins here. Maybe the occasional one by the roadside, but almost never on our wooded lot.
So, why is my photo of the day Pup2 and not these robins??? Well, it's a bit risky handling a camera when bird watching from a hot tub, so as a second choice I'm posting Pup2 snuggling in her blankies on a chilly day.

A Thanksgiving Pray-er

The juncos are here!

Now that the weather has turned cold here in North Carolina, we have sunk to a new low in "bird watching wimpiness". Most of our watching is done while we're sitting in the hot tub on our deck. When we start to see dark objects dropping from tree limbs almost straight down to the ground, too fast to be a falling leaf, we know that the juncos have arrived. Those cute little guys in their batman capes are some of my favorite winter visitors.

Shades of purple

I've been breeding gouldian finches for about 4 years and until recently I've seen just 2 breast colors - white and purple (dark purple for males & pale purple for females). This photo shows a purple brested female in front, a white breasted male in the middle, and a purple breasted male in the back.





There is a third breast color, lilac, which is paler than the normal purple breast. I'm assuming that the young male in the photo below (and he's definitely a boy - sings all the time!) is a lilac breasted gouldian.




His breast color is even paler than that of his sister, shown in the photo below.




It seems odd that I've never had this mutation show up before. I haven't added any new birds to my aviary in 3 generations (bird generations, that is). Also odd is that the breast color of his mother (photo below) changed dramatically after her molt this fall. Until she molted she had a purple breast, just like her daughter in the above photo. Since her molt, it seems to be a mottled mix of purple breast and white breast.

Reflection ...

I don't know if this great blue heron saw any fish in the lake, but he could certainly see himself!

The woodpeckers & the hawk

Strolling with Pup 1 yesterday, I heard two birds calling loudly to each other in the woods. When it comes to recognizing bird calls, I'm admittedly a bit weak and I couldn't identify the birds by their sounds. But I figured if I watched closely I might see something interesting. And I did. It turned out to be a pair of pileated woodpeckers. I just love those birds and we usually only see them a couple of times a year, although we often hear their hammer-like pecking in the distance. I picked up the pup and hurried home for my camera and binoculars. I managed to snap some not-too-great photos before they "flew the coop" with a red-tailed hawk following them. Unlike the woodpeckers, the hawk landed nearby and posed nicely for some photos.

Taking it easy ...

I have a comforter (really thick, really comfortable, really flowery) that my grandmother gave me when I was in my teens. Without getting too specific, that was about 30 years ago. She also gave similar ones to my sister and my 3 cousins at the same time. When I pulled mine out at a family reunion out a few years ago, they all remembered them, but not surprisingly, theirs had all gone missing somewhere along the line.

This is not a comforter that gets put away in a closet and forgotten. I use it often. Most evenings I pull it out along with about 6 pillows and Pup 1 and I snuggle in front of the television. After hurricane Katrina, I gave a lot of thought about things that I would take with me if I ever had to evacuate, and Grandma's comforter is definitely on my short list.

For the last month I've used it many afternoons for my lazy bird watching. (The birds aren't lazy, I am.) We've had no shortage warm sunny days this fall and many afternoons I've spread the comforter out on our dock and spent some time looking up. When these vultures started circling directly above me,
I decided that I must be lying a little too still.

Preparation

Even though our daytime temperatures are still in the 70s, this squirrel seems to be checking out his future winter home.

Focusing on Flickers

milkweed pod

Today ...

Along our deck railing we have multiple plant hooks where I hang bird houses, bird feeders and plants. One of the hooks had been empty since last month when I put away our hummingbird feeder for the winter. Yesterday I put a feeder there filled with sunflower seeds. Today I watched to see who would show up. The results: many chickadees (one pictured above with a seed in his mouth), titmice, white breasted nuthatches, one goldfinch and one purple finch. Then there was a little brown headed guy that I didn't immediately recognize. When I saw him fly to a tree trunk and walk upside down, I assumed it must be a nuthatch even though it looked nothing like the white breasted nuthatches that we see all the time here. I looked it up in my field guide, and yes, it was a brown headed nuthatch.


Also seen today, 3 bluebirds splashing away in the bird bath -








Although it may look like it, I did not take the above photo from inside a jail cell, nor were the birds in a cage. I was shooting the photo from inside our house, and didn't want to spook the birds by opening our vertical blinds.

Coloring up

Here are 3 of my gouldian finches in various stages of their juvenile molt. I took this photo a few weeks ago, and they are actually much more colorful now. Soon, I'll take some new photos.

Pearl, all grown up

This is Pearl - my "silver surprise" that I wrote about in my July 4th 2005 post. She has completed her juvenile molt and is now a beautiful purple breasted silver gouldian finch.

Footloose

This was a real treat for our little Pup 2 who rarely gets to run free. At our own home, we always walk her on a leash, since our woods house many hawks and a few eagles. But I've never seen a hawk or eagle at my parents' home, so we felt that it was safe to let her run (almost fly) across their yard.





Here she is tuckered out and tucked in.

Sunbathing turtles

The turtles were enjoying the sun as much as I was today.



This one called his friends to join him -

Trying

Julian is the boy on the left - stretching tall to impress Hannah & Princess.

Sunflower envy

I love sunflowers and have had precious little success growing them. Needless to say, these photos weren't taken anywhere near my home. I took these photos a few weeks ago while driving the back roads of upstate NY.

Hand feeding a baby finch

This little one has taken up much of my time over the past 2 weeks. I found Sammy cold and barely alive on the aviary floor - a victim of the dreaded "gouldian finch baby tossing syndrome". Even after warming him in my hand for hours, I couldn't get him to open his mouth for a feeding. Along came hubby with the magic touch, who "tickled Sammy's chin", which caused him to start begging for food. And he hasn't stopped since.





Day 2 - here he is with a little food in his crop.






Day 5 - he's growing, but not as quickly as he would if his biological parents had kept him.





Day 13 - Sammy was too busy travelling (and eating like a pig) last week to pose for photos. As you can see, he's really progressing.






Day 14 - He has a full crop, but that's not stopping him from begging for more food.

A surprise in the country

Over Labor Day weekend, we left the absolutely beautiful (finally a bit cooler) weather of Lake Gaston and headed north to upstate NY for our annual family reunion at my sister's house. Up there we found equally beautiful weather and we enjoyed every minute of our roundabout back roads drive from my sister's house back to my parents' house on Monday.
The scenery was mostly farm houses and corn fields, so we were shocked to see these gold domes peeking above the trees.





It's the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville NY.








Beautiful!