The Blurry Bird Blog Bit II

I'm still here, have just been "out of pocket" for awhile due to the major distraction of putting a house together, from paint to furniture to what-nots.  We're getting there, slowly but surely.  New kitchen counters look fab, bedroom furniture is finally ALL here, tho there are a couple small issues that we have to wait for someone to come out and look at...ARG. Anyway, I have finally ordered a belated Christmas gift for myself, it is back-ordered naturally, so probably won't see it for 3 more weeks...a new 4-hook, squirrel repelling, tall bird-feeding pole. Dang they're expensive! If you haven't checked out Duncraft's website, I recommend that you do if you feed the yard birds...

Speaking of, I have been taking more blurry shots from inside the house but have not gone out birding ~ other than snapping beach birds during the past couple of visits ~ in some time.  Our weather is up and down, today being down to 55 for a high. Yesterday it was 75. We've had frost a few mornings...one of the perks of living in central Florida.  Yes Virginia, it can frost in Florida!

Ok without further ado....the latest (mostly) blurred birdy bling around the homestead...

The chipping sparrow is an occasional visitor...

I believe this female red-bellied woodpecker and her mate are the only 2 RBW's visiting the feeders...I love how they use their tail to stabilize themselves...

What the...? A red-winged blackbird came through briefly...

The titmouses have been checking out the suet...they continue to be very flighty...

The Carolina chickadees are occasional visitors and also very flighty, which is weird considering how people-friendly (curious) the black-capped ones are...

The yellow-rumped warblers are occasional and fleeting...

This is Mo, Larry, or Curly...one of three squirrels that are almost always on the maple tree or under the bird feeder eating fallen seeds...due to crippled nature of the feeder, at least one of them knows how to get to the platform feeder despite the baffle....

Finally, robins! They came, they saw, they conquered....and now they don't visit anymore, but I do see them around the area.  This is the first I've seen any robins at all since arriving in Florida over a year ago, tho the Stokes field guide claims they're here year-round. What's up with that?!

The Carolina wren (me-thinks the same one) still visits occasionally, and seems to be getting a little less timid....

Two female brown-headed cowbirds and a male No. cardinal...I wasn't sure what the dark birds were (except female) until I saw the male...

The cowbirds are abundant in S Dakota so I knew him right off....

Beings that this is Florida, there are 'shrooms...this one appeared in our backyard...

The mourning doves are plentiful...

As you can see by this shot...which also captured Mo/Larry/Curly zipping up the maple tree...and a chipping sparrow at the green feeder.

Our daughter visited for a week in early December...we had perfect weather the day we got our beach therapy.  Here she's greeting some brown pelicans as they do a fly by....

There isn't much variety of shore birds at the beach here, I'm sad to say, at least not that I've found yet...will try to explore the Intracoastal Waterway side soon...of course there's gulls; this is an immature (winter) ring-billed gull.

The willets are a common sight at the beach...

As are the sanderlings...

...Back on the "ranch"...a female cardinal poises for a shot at the feeder while Mo/Larry/Curly hangs on the maple tree...the cardinals are very common and plentiful, and a bit hoggish of the feeders...

A red-shouldered hawk visited recently...a step up the food chain from the other feathered visitors...

While trying to snap the hawk, I heard a familiar drumming sound...and could just make out this pileated woodpecker in a pine tree a couple houses down, and waaaay up high...

This was the first time I saw a blue jay eating suet instead of the seeds...

Naturally I could only get one blurry shot of this bright yellow fellow... a pine warbler...

Hubby and I went for a bicycle ride yesterday... and discovered a couple of these bright red mushrooms like the ones always depicted in fantasy art that includes faeries and elves...when we got back home we jumped in the car and drove back to the spot so I could take some photos.  :o)  Do you think they're poisonous?  Hmm.

Well, I'll see you next year...I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and will have a healthy, exciting 2013!  See you in the new year...

The Blurry Bird Blog Bit

Bet you can't say this post's title 5x really fast. Seriously, I had to take these photos from indoors, through a glass window, and from several yards away...I'm pretty sure I'm minus one tiny bird too small to get the camera to focus on, plus the recently spotted Eastern bluebirds did not come in today (that I know of)...seeing those a few days ago was a lifer experience!  (Well, sort of...I'm pretty sure I saw at least one somewhere while living in S Florida for those 6 months before we bought our house in NE Florida, but it was one of those zingers and all I saw was a flash of bright blue)...

Ok, I'll point out the obvious here and say that the birds have discovered the newly hung bird feeders.  When we left for Hawaii the end of May, the tall pole for hanging feeders on was firmly in place (or so we thought).  This was left by the previous, original home owner. Somewhere in July my brother-in-law checked up on the house for us and discovered the pole lying on the ground, broken.  SIGH.  Turned out the metal had rotted through and...snap.  And I have yet to get to Home Depot to buy a new one, so the old shorter one was stuck in the ground in the meantime.  At least one squirrel leaps above the shortened cone gizmo meant to keep him off, and shimmies up to the platform feeder.  I know, I know, I NEED to buy a new pole!  I want to put it in a particular place, not where it had been before, and this means chopping down the 8 foot "sprouts" from a magnolia tree stump...the thing looks like a big bush after 5-6 months of growth...anywho, it's one of many items on my to-do list (or hubby's)...at least the birds have found the feeders!  The hoards seem to come flocking in all at the same time, briefly, once a day around 3 PM-ish.  The N Cardinals are plentiful and frequent visitors to both the feeders and the ground below them.  These photos were all taken during within about 15 min. today.

It appears that the tufted titmouses (titmice ?) are a year-round bird here... 

Wouldn't you know, I can't find my Eastern bird books and this wren isn't in the W book so I can't ID it as yet...only one that I can conjure up mentally is "Carolina" ?

I do know female goldfinches when I see them....

Well, is it a house finch, purple finch, or Cassin's finch??  I'd say it isn't a Cassin's, too much color, and the W book says we don't have house finches here in Florida..?  Hmm.

A chipping sparrow made its debut...

And there are always varying colors of N cardinals about...

...Just this one deep red male...

The blue jay can be heard before seen, what a squawker...

...And last but not least, this red-bellied woodpecker was pecking at something on the fence.

A Tale of Two Frogs

I've finally purchased bird feeders for our backyard...now I wait for the birds to re-discover the free handouts...a N. cardinal shot by this morning but didn't stop to eat or check things out.  In the meantime, there's other wildlife in the backyard...dragonflies, squirrels, and -- Hello! -- this cute little frog was on one of the handles on a wheelbarrow this AM.  Maybe he heard about the other frog inside the house.....

...But this frog doesn't do much croaking....I however should be croaking, considering how much frog tape I've been putting down.  Today we ordered our new kitchen counters, they should be installed w/in the next 2-3 weeks.  The price would make anyone croak!  Tomorrow I've got to finish "frogging" the kitchen.....ribbit!

Birding Arcata Marsh

Overall, my one birding attempt during my short stay in No. Calif. was successful, just not when it came to taking photos...it's taken awhile to decide whether to even bother posting about it, but despite the poor lighting and my lack of mad camera skills, a few came out "interesting" due to the lighting...

I visited the Arcata Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, 

A great place to bird, with ponds and close proximity to Arcata Bay...

Right off, near the trailhead, I found cedar waxwings....

Further along the trail, I found a male and female downy woodpecker...

Neither would hold still long enough for me to get good pics...

Song sparrows were in abundance in the bramble...

...As were the American wigeons at one of the ponds....

Among the flock of wigeons, a lone green-winged teal was spotted...

Near the bay, a single willet was wading and feeding...

Sharing the inlet with one stealthy great egret.

Aloha, Florida!

From Hawaii it took 4 airplanes

Just to get me to No. Calif.,

But it was really, really good

To see my parents and sis (1 of 2) again...

If only for a few days.

It took another 3 airplanes,

And from 3:00 AM to 3:00 PM PST

To get to Orlando, FL,

Where Ru picked me up and

Drove us back to Flagler Co.,

and HOME!!

A storm damaged our one bird feeder stand,

Some time ago,

So I am anxious to get that replaced

And see what feathers will flock

To our backyard...

As for the front yard,

I discovered a dove nesting! 

It makes for easy birding when the current priority is
Interior paint
and
Furniture.

Aloha, Hawaii

Well Great Big World, we made it.

Four months are up and we are DONE

Co-managing the Kona Tiki Hotel,

As of about 4:00 PM HST yesterday.

Right now I still mostly feel "numb".

We met a lot of people who thought

That this job must be a really great gig.

I can say I'm not sorry I did this,

I can say what an accomplishment,

What a unique, amazing thing to do...

But I will never say how "great" it was,

Or how "fun" or any other cheerful, 

Breezy adjective...

And I will never, ever say

That I'm coming back to do it again!!

Honestly, you'd have to experience it

To understand what it's all about.

(Ok, I deleted more whining...)

I feel like I've been deeply conditioned

To deal with this type of lifestyle;

I had to place all of my normal "things"

from my regular life on hold, 

In a mental holding tank...

And right now they're still there

Cause I am still here...

Getting back to "normal"

Will take some time...

How long, I have no idea.

But I do know, I won't start the

Deprogramming

Until I'm back on our

Precious mainland!

We fly out tomorrow evening...

Our final two days.....

This is part of the view from our current room on the top, third floor as we chill out for a couple days...we finally have a lanai and a better view of the wide open ocean after 4 months in the ground floor office/food prep area/bedroom/living quarters that doesn't have a lanai... since that space was used to expand the indoor living space...

Up here we can see the yellow tang fish, and the black fish I forget the name of....which we saw up close and personal the few times we went snorkeling...

...And we can see that there are java sparrows up in the eaves of the roof, making nests somewhere out of sight...we can see them come and go with pieces of grass...and ok we shouldn't but we put some chips out on the railing for a little snack for their hard work.

And always, the roaring sea crashes into the sea wall nearby.....



Will I miss Hawaii?  No, but I can say I'll miss pieces...like feeding the java sparrows and the one family of saffron finches and No. cardinals every morning.  They'll miss me too cause I can see that the current mgr. is barely putting any seeds in the coconut shell feeders....

I will miss a couple people, too...Mike H. the maintenance dude w/ his one-liner tees, great laugh, and good heart...and Meriam, the gentle Micronesian woman who was a housekeeper for a few weeks, and who shared her family with us one night over a bbq that they prepared for us, to thank us for hiring Meriam...her daughters played the ukelele and sang and danced for us, it was magical....thanks to "Bloody Meriam" we got to see someone chewing beetle nut for the first time, too! Yowza!

And, I can say that it's cool that we were able to see Kilauea Volcano, the world's most active volcano...countless beautiful, tropical flowers...sea turtles! ... and I snorkeled for the first time and subsequently saw many tropical fish for the first time...and even a red pencil urchin...and eels!
They really do exist!

And we did meet some pretty awesome, creative people (musicians, artists, writers)...Michael and Barbara, Tom and Rebecca, Tom and Catherine, all great inspirations for me to get re-acquainted with my creative side, so long over-due...this is what I believe was the true purpose for experiencing this crazy adventure...that, and the chance for Ruben and I to strengthen our bond as a couple...not that we thought we needed it but BOY did we get it!


So, aloha, Hawaii.  And aloha great Pele, Volcano Goddess and fierce ruler of the island.  You are a force to be feared and revered.  May you find peace some day from all that fury over a love that was not to be.

And finally...aloha, Kona Tiki. 

So quaint and serene on the outside,

A haven to so many who seek escape.
(But that just wasn't my own perspective.)

I will remember you well.

It is time to climb back into "the box".
And I am so ready.

(Edited: 10-2-12)