Greetings from the Neglectful Blogger

Sorry, I've been kind a neglectful blogger lately! For some strange reason, I really thought I'd have more time for blogging once the lawn mowing and garden tending chores were done for the season, but things haven't turned out that way. Deer hunting seems to be taking up quite a bit of the weekend time, and knitting to keep my Etsy store restocked is keeping me busy indoors. But, I decided to put off housework a little while longer by editing some of the photos that have been in my camera for weeks and getting this blog post ready today (actually anything that delays housework is a good thing -- at least for me!)

Our deer have been quite busy in the backyard lately. With all the rain and snow we've been having, their tracks are quite evident and also the fact that the corn trays are emptied nearly every night. I put a couple of the trail cameras in strategic locations and here's a few shots from last week. This one is my fave! I wonder what they're looking at? Could be the gray fox or maybe the possum I saw again Friday night for the first time since last spring.

I like the trail cameras because they tell us what time the deer are showing up. The other morning there was a nice big doe here at 4 AM when I took Sophie out. I always keep her on the leash now (since the skunk incident), but that doe didn't even run away when Sophie started barking at her. We walked within about 18 yards of her and she finally ran.

This little buck was a complete surprise! We're rapidly approaching the deer's first "rut" season (this year it will coincide with the full moon in the first week of November). I'll have to put the cameras on again next week to see what other interesting pictures we get.

By now, most of you have probably heard we had a little snowstorm last week. Here's what it looked like out my backdoor on Friday afternoon. This was completely unexpected!

We ended up with 4.1 inches of snow! This broke the previous record set in 1910! It was awful wet and sticky snow--great for snowmen but pretty horrible for driving in. We saw quite a few cars in the ditch on the way home from work. Thankfully it was all melted by Saturday afternoon. (I'm really glad I finally got my carrots dug up earlier this week.)

This little song sparrow was right outside my back door looking for seeds on that snowy Friday. They're usually the first migrant sparrow to show up in my backyard in the spring, but I almost never see them -- especially this close to the house. I checked my migration chart and it said they usually head south around the 3rd week of October. I bet this guy was wishing he'd left last week instead!

The end of fall also marks the time when pocket gophers are extra busy digging new holes before the ground freezes for winter. Mr. Johnson has been busy trapping them again lately and it looks like this particular pocket gopher decided to get his revenge by digging in my weedy perennial beds right next to the house! Grrrrrr! I hope it dries out in a couple days so I can get this mess cleaned up before winter.

On my way to a medical appointment a few weeks ago, I happened to spot these lovely cattle on a little farm not far from here. I didn't have the camera with me, but was on the same road a few days later and stopped the car to get out and take some pictures. In this area where Holsteins, black Angus, and red & white Herefords are the norm, these cattle are definitely a unique sight. I love that face!

They are White Park Cattle (I had to google that!) These guys were all napping in the pasture on this fine sunny afternoon, but as soon as I parked the car and started walking up to the fence, they all got up and trotted over to investigate me. I resisted putting my hand out for them to get a sniff (even though I really wanted to). I just thought they were cute and unique and wanted to share these photos with you.
Have a good week everyone!

Have you read this book yet?

Are you a Birdwatcher's Digest subscriber? If so, perhaps you read Julie Zickefoose's recent review of the book "Life List" by Olivia Gentile. After reading Julie's review, I was able to borrow this book from my local public library.

This is an amazing story about Phoebe Snetsinger, a phenomonal birder with a life list obsession. It's an extremely well-written story and captured my attention from start to finish. Without giving away any details, I believe this story may be especially appealing to any woman who is a birder, a mother, a wife, or has any particular hobby or interest that you've ever become even marginally obsessive about.

After finishing the book I couldn't decide whether I was glad that I don't have any obsessions like this (bordering on mental illness, in my opinion) or whether I am a lazy underachiever for not pursuing anything in my life with more single-mindedness!

If you get a chance to read the book, let me know what you think about it.

You Know You're From Minnesota.....

You Know You're From Minnesota When......

......Weather is 80% of your conversation
is it any wonder when we have weather like this?

......You keep snow tires on your truck all year because it ain't worth it taking them off for only 4 months!
and that's a darn good thing today!

This photo of my front yard was taken at 11 AM TODAY (October 12, 2009). I think I'll use it for my Christmas card this year!

......You have gone trick-or-treating in 3 feet of snow
only 3 more weeks till Halloween and I think it's gonna be one of those years!

......You laugh every time you hear about a blizzard shutting down the entire East Coast
I think this weather system is heading northeast and I promise not to laugh too hard


.......You know what "uff-da" means and how to use it properly
yup, that's exactly what I said when I looked at green leaves covered with snow: "uff-da!"

......You own an icehouse, a snowmobile and a 4-wheel drive vehicle
I don't even have to explain this one do I?

......You have ever worn shorts and a parka at the same time
I know if I went to the mall today, I'd see people in this attire

......You can name both of the seasons: Winter and Road Construction
Thank goodness, at least this means road construction season is finally over!!

......You actually "get" these jokes and pass them on to your other friends from Minnesota
and to all my friends not from Minnesota, hopefully this explains what makes us proud Minn-e-sodans!


Merry Christmas!

Oh No, SNOW!!

This blog post is dedicated to all my southern friends and relations--wish you were here! :-)

Here's one my frozen-solid backyard birdbaths covered with our overnight trace accumulation of snow. Poor birdies don't know what to do!

And adding insult to injury, it's COLD too!! Glad I got that last 2 buckets of apples picked yesterday afternoon when it was sunny and still in the 40's.

Hopefully October will still have a few nice days for us......

A Finished Project & Miscellaneous Photos

Here in Minnesota it's gone from being a dry and summery September to November-like weather--been rainy and chilly here for almost a week now. Somehow, autumn and October just missed us altogether and our weekend forecast is sounding like December with lows in the 20's and snow showers predicted! Oh well, I'm planning to take advantage of a couple sunny days predicted for tomorrow and Thursday and get my lawn mowed for the last time and whatever other outside chores I can accomplish during the small sunny window of opportunity.

As usual, I've been knitting like a fiend while hanging out indoors the last few days and I finally finished this Montavilla Market Tote (a free pattern from KnitPicks--click on this link and scroll down the right hand side where you'll see the title "100+ free patterns") This is a long overdue birthday present and hopefully I'll be able to get it washed and dried tomorrow, so I can ship it to the recipient before her next birthday rolls around!

I have no other blog-worthy items to report, so I'll share a few pictures with you in this post. I thought this was a cute picture of the Downy Woodpecker waiting for the Hairy Woodpecker to vacate the suet log, and it's another good size comparison for these woodies too.

I helped with birdbanding at Quarry Hill Nature Center again last Sunday. Here's the White-Throated Sparrow I was able to get out of the net. This is Glenna's hand holding the bird and after she banded it, she allowed me to release it again. They're really pretty little sparrows and I'm starting to hear quite a few of them in my backyard and out in the deer hunting woods right now too.

And speaking of deer hunting, we were out again last Sunday, but no deer seen. I'm sure the weather change this weekend will bring a change in the deer habits too. And of course, once it freezes hard, there will be a lot less vegetation to deal with in the woods which always makes hearing and seeing deer much easier.

Here are a couple pictures from one of the trail cameras we had out there. These pictures are always my favorite! The deer are so inquisitive and this camera was located on a tree right next to one of their trails. It doesn't make any noise, but there's a fabric webbing that attaches the camera to the tree and I'm sure she was checking out my scent on that webbing.

Here's a cute little guy venturing out on his own (click on the picture to enlarge it and you'll see his little antler "bumps"). Doesn't he have the sweetest face? I don't think his spots have been gone for very long. There weren't any other pictures of deer just before or after this little one, so I hope he finds some other young deer to hang around with for the winter.

Oh and before I end this post, I want to mention that last hummingbird in my post from October 2nd, really WAS the last hummingbird......I haven't seen any since, but I'm planning to leave the nectar feeders up until our predicted hard freeze on Saturday night.

Is She the Last One?

On this chilly and rainy October 2nd, I was amazed to see this lone little hummingbird still sipping nectar from my deck feeder. I wonder if she's the last one remaining from the hummers in my yard this summer? Or is she a migrant from up north, taking a little rest and sustenance in order to continue her long journey?

Safe Travels Little Hummingbird! I'll be looking forward to seeing you again next spring!

Fiber Therapy

It's been a particularly crappy week at work, so this morning I decided to stop at my local yarn shop on the way home for a little bit of much needed fiber therapy. I actually did need some yarn for this black vest I'm working on because I won't have enough yarn to do the ribbing around the arm holes and neckline, so here's my ball of yarn for that.

I've taught some classes here before, so Kristen (the store owner) asked me what classes I wanted to teach this fall and I asked her what was available. She told me I had a choice between socks on circular needles or mittens. Since I've never made socks that way, I chose mittens. We'll be using this pattern where you actually knit a mitten that's sized specifically for your hand and here's what I whipped up this afternoon so Kristen can put it on display in the store to advertise the class. I figured since I was still in "knitting teacher" mode from teaching Lynne a couple weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to teach this class too. So on the first 2 Saturdays in November, I'll be helping some knitters learn something new and probably get some Christmas presents knitted too!

And here's my "therapy" purchase -- this beautiful dark mauve-colored ball of "Sublime," a delicious blend of 80% extra fine merino and 20% angora that's unbelievably soft. I'm going to knit it into a neck warmer for myself.

Kristen brings her sweet little Japanese Chin dog (Lulu) to the store with her every day, so after about an hour sitting in the store with Lulu on my lap and also being able to see and touch all the beautiful yarn, I felt a whole lot better. Pretty cheap therapy, I'd say!

Eurasian Collared Dove!

OK, this is another pretty crappy picture (taken through the kitchen window screen), but I was thrilled to finally confirm that the big dove I had spotted when I got home from work this morning was, in fact, the Eurasian Collared Dove!
I spotted this really big, light colored dove trying to land near the ground feeder tray late this morning when I was making my sandwich at the kitchen sink, and then a noisy crow flew down and scared the dove away. Later on when I was filling the bird feeders, I saw this dove fly away with a bunch of mourning doves from one of my pine trees (where MODOs like to hang out). I knew right away it wasn't a MODO because of the squared tail with a white band across the bottom. I waited all afternoon and finally around 4:30 I happened to spot it on the ground again and that's when I got this picture. You can just barely see the black "collar" on its neck, but the dark primary wing feathers and squared tail are pretty obvious. Here's how my big Sibley's describes this bird: Much larger and heavier than Mourning Dove, with square tail; pale overall.

I had one of these show up in my backyard in March of 2006. That was a first confirmed sighting in Olmsted County in like forever, and now here's another one. For some of you folks in the southern and eastern US, I think this is probably a fairly common backyard bird, and I've heard their numbers are increasing even here in far southeast Minnesota, but they're still uncommon enough for people (like me) to get excited about.

The National Parks

Tonight is the premier of The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS. Finally, the night I've been waiting months for--ever since I saw the first preview of this new Ken Burns series way back in May.


We will begin the story in 1851 with tonight's episode. This series will run 6 episodes this week. Sorry Blogger and Facebook friends, but I'll be spending every night this week with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan. Want more information? Check out this PBS link.

New Yard Birds

Yesterday was one of the birdiest days in the backyard that I've had the pleasure to enjoy in a long time. I got home from work and spent almost an hour wandering around with binoculars and camera. I even saw a couple of birds that I couldn't identify, but thanks to my good birding friend Hap in New Hope, he was able to positively ID these birds for me -- even with these fairly crappy photos I attached to his e-mail. While neither of them are lifers, both are first-time additions to my backyard list.

Hap identified this one as an Eastern Phoebe. I knew it was some sort of a flycatcher, and before it turned on the branch, I was able to note that it had a light yellow wash on its belly. It was a fairly large bird, in fact I first thought it was an Eastern Kingbird when I saw it land in the tree, but the tail was wrong. All spring and summer I hear phoebes singing in the woods up the street from our house, and they've probably been in my backyard before, but this time I was lucky enough to actually see one!

Farther out in the yard, I spotted this bird (about the size of a red-winged blackbird) in the top of an apple tree. At first the coloring reminded me of a female or juvenile Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (and they're still hanging around here). But after I looked at it closer, the beak and head were all wrong for a grosbeak. I scoured my field guides, finally decided it must be some sort of a sparrow, and included these photos in my e-mail to Hap. What do you think it is??

If you answered "Female Dickcissel," you would be correct!

Actually, I was pretty darn excited to know that I have finally had a Dickcissel visit my backyard, and here's why...... Several years ago, when I stopped mowing that 1-acre patch in the backyard, the reason I gave Mr. Johnson was that it would help save on gas and lawn mowing time, but my ulterior motive was to create a wild grassland area that might attract dickcissels and meadowlarks. To date, I have not seen either bird in the backyard, however some undeveloped industrial areas a few miles north of us have dickcissels hanging around all summer, so I guess my backyard might have been a quick stopover on fall migration.

Thanks again Hap! I'm so grateful for your help with identifying these 2 birds.

And on a totally unrelated note and for my Minnesota blog readers only, here's a link to a really cool mapping site (North Star Mapper) that I got last week from Margaret at the Minnesota DNR. She had sent me an e-mail asking for the "exact" location of where I'd seen the Loggerhead Shrike earlier this summer. I was able to use this site to give Margaret the specific X, Y, Latitude and Longitude coordinates of the bird's location for the DNR's records of this rare Minnesota bird. I was also able to use the site to get a good aerial look at my own backyard!

Window Collision

I saw this big smudge on my basement sliding glass door last week and when I looked a little bit closer I realized it was from a bird collision. I walked outside to check for a lifeless body on the patio, but could find no evidence of an injured bird, no feathers, no blood. Looks like a cardinal, don't you think? There are still quite a few juvenile cardinals hanging around the backyard and there's a feeder just above the patio where the cardinals like to eat. I'm wondering whether a surprise visit from the Cooper's hawk startled the birds at the feeder and this poor cardinal crashed into the window in its rush to escape.


On a totally unrelated note, there has been lots of migration activity here in just the last few days, in fact I just looked out the dining room window and spotted a male American Redstart in the oak tree. (Yard bird #49 for 2009 and a first for the backyard too!) Anyway, when I take Sophie out for her night-time potty breaks, I can hear hundreds of little birdies peeping in the sky overhead, no matter what time of night: 8:30, 12:30, even 4:00 when we get up. It's so amazing that they can fly at night like that. So, while I'm getting ready for work, Mr. Johnson always takes Sophie for another walk and I asked him when he got back, "did you hear all those little birds peeping?" His response? "No." Then when I got to work this morning (at 5:15) I could still hear them while I was walking in from the parking lot. I asked one of the guys who was walking in at the same time, "can you hear those little birds peeping above us?" He looked at me really strangely and also responded, "no." Then I asked my office mate when she got in (of course she already thinks I'm pretty strange) and she laughed as she also said "no." So have any of you heard the little birds peeping at night?? I hope someone says yes because people are starting to look at me like I'm some kind of kook!!

Woodson Art Museum & Birds In Art 2009

Boy where does the time go? I can't believe how fast last week went by. Now that bowhunting season has opened again, my free time has become even more limited. So before any more time goes by, I figured I'd better finish telling you about my and Lynne's last day in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Late Saturday afternoon, we drove over to the Woodson Art Museum just to make sure we were able to find it for the next day. It's a beautiful place, smack-dab in the middle of an historic residential neighborhood. We were able to do a quick run-through of the Birds in Art exhibit for the final 15 minutes the museum was open that day. Lots of good stuff there and we couldn't wait for Sunday when we'd have more time to enjoy the exhibit.

Sunday dawned sunny and warm once again. Our plan was to check out of the motel early and head over to the Woodson museum by around 11:00. Lynne had gotten in touch with Julie Z. via Facebook on Saturday night, so we planned to meet her at the museum around noon and spend some time with her before she was scheduled to speak at 1:00.

(Don't forget -- you can click on any of these pictures to enlarge them!)

The Woodson Art Museum is surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens with lots of trees and even some wildlife. I spotted this cute little red squirrel having a snack.

The gardens also contained a variety of beautiful bronze sculptures. I'm sure most of you have probably seen that e-mail that contains pictures of horses a woman in California makes with driftwood? That's exactly what this horse sculpture looked like. We weren't supposed to touch the sculptures, but this one got the best of me.......I had to tap it with my finger to confirm that it really was bronze and not driftwood.
I liked this sculpture of a pair of wolves.

This fountain of a little child holding ducklings was pretty cute. If you look close at the base the child's standing on, you will see there are ducks there too.

I loved this towering sculpture of cranes. You can't tell from this picture but it was probably about 15 feet tall.

Close to the museum entrance was this sculpture of wood ducks. It reminded Lynne and me of some of the wood ducks we had seen during our Birders Who Blog, Tweet and Chirp outing a few weeks ago.

My favorite was this sculpture of wild turkeys. If I was rich, I would like a sculpture like this in my front yard!

Here's Lynne and me with Julie. What a warm welcome she gave us. It was fun to have a few minutes of her time as she gave us the "artist's tour" of the Birds in Art exhibit. It was really neat to hear some of the stories about her artist friends and their work. Julie's original art works were on display too, so she also shared some stories about her own art with us. We really enjoyed hearing her speak and seeing all her wonderful pictures. It's one thing to see and read the stories on her blog, but hearing her speak in person was really cool. She even gave us special recognition for coming to see her, knowing full well that Chet Baker would not be in attendance!

You can read Julie's blog posts about the Birds in Art 2009 exhibit at this link.


The museum didn't allow cameras into the exhibit hall, but we were able to purchase a beautifully printed catalog of all the artwork displayed in this year's exhibit. Because I'm no artist and can barely draw a stick man, I have a true admiration of artistic talent--especially my favorite theme, birds and wildlife. In closing, I want to share a few of my favorite pieces from the 2009 Birds in Art exhibit.

Duel

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This is a bronze sculpture! I loved it especially since I once saw a pair of ring-necked pheasants fighting like this on the edge of a soybean field.

Late January Afternoon

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Even though Cindy created this painting from turkeys spotted in her New Hampshire backyard, I've enjoyed seeing this same scene with real turkeys during a southeastern Minnesota winter.

Sowing Seeds

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You're going to think I'm nuts, but I've let some of these thistle plants grow in my backyard for goldfinches and butterflies (the flowers are a favorite nectar source of tiger swallowtail butterflies). This scene looked so real I almost expected to see the goldfinch fly right out of it!

The Red, Red Robin
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I first saw this large block of wood and when I walked around to the front, realized it depicted a corner of a gravestone with a robin perched on top--all carved of wood!

Mountain High

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These beautiful mountain bluebirds are carved from basswood and the juniper branch they're perched on is made of metal. This was the most amazing sculpture I've ever seen and the detail was unbelievable.


After working in an art gallery for several years, I acquired a much greater appreciation for art. During that time I was fortunate enough to meet Thomas Kinkade and see some of his original works of art. Limited edition prints are wonderful and my house is full of them, but there's really nothing like seeing an original work of art up close.

The 2009 Birds in Art Exhibit will be touring the United States until January of 2011. Shown below is a listing of future dates and venues for this exhibit. If you see that the exhibit is coming anywhere near you, I urge you to take some time and go see it.....I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Just in Time!

Just in time for tomorrow morning's bowhunting deer opener, my Go Girl arrived in today's mail.
I believe this may mark a turning point in the enjoyment of my morning mug of coffee AND participation in outdoor activities; plus no more risk of squatting too close to treacherous poison ivy or prickly gooseberry bushes in the woods. I wonder if they're thinking about making a camouflage version??

Saturday Adventures in Wausau

Saturday dawned clear and after making our own waffles at the motel's breakfast bar, Lynne and I were ready to hit the parks around Wausau for some birding adventures. Earlier last week I visited the Travel Wisconson website and printed out some birding information for the Wausau area. It's nice that they have put all that information on-line; it's a great resource for anyone traveling to Wisconsin!

Our first stop was Bluegill Bay, a really nice park right close to town. There were nice walking trails through mixed deciduous and evergreen woods. We saw lots of Cedar Waxwings, a couple of Eastern Phoebes, and some vireos that we weren't able to positively ID (but we were leaning towards Yellow Throated). I heard these Red Breasted Nuthatches long before I saw one. This is the first of these I've seen so far this year. I hope they show up at my feeders again this winter because I think they're such charming little birds!

As the name implied, there was a bay with bluegills in the park. We did see a few of the fish, but were much more excited by the herons we saw. There were several Green Herons present and they weren't at all shy.

There were also Great Blue Herons everywhere we looked! I was thrilled to see this one on the walking path (scratching its chin!)

I tried sneaking up on it, but this bird wasn't nearly as tolerant as the green herons, and took off the other direction when I got within about 30 yards.

Of course, the usual flock of mallards was hanging around, but I did remark to Lynne that it seemed strange we didn't see any Giant Canada Geese here (or anywhere else for that matter!)

And the action wasn't all in the trees or water. I spotted this little leopard frog while I was checking out some flowers at the edge of the river bank. Isn't their camouflage great? I would never have seen this little guy except that he hopped out of my way as I walked across the grass.

Most of the grass was mowed away from the paths, but at the edge of some evergreens, we found this blooming Orange Hawkweed bravely trying to establish itself. You can see how close it came to getting dug out too!

Right next to the parking lot I found these cute little pink flowers, but I can't remember for sure what they are. I've narrowed it down to 2 possibilities: something in the purslane family or one of the wild pinks. If anyone has a positive ID, be sure to leave a comment. Thanks!

Our next stop was Rib Mountain State Park, one of the highest elevations in Wisconsin. From this lookout point, we had a good view of the City of Wausau and we were even able to pick out the Super 8 we were staying at.

At the top of Rib Mountain, I had the chance to climb the 60-foot observation tower (and no, I wasn't able to get to the top without stopping to catch my breath!)

Check out these views! I thought the outside railing was a tad too low, so I stayed close to the interior of the top platform for these shots.

Lynne chose to enjoy the view from the ground and we played "camera duel" as I made my way back down. Hi Lynne!!

For any of you who have been lucky enough to meet Lynne in person, you know how friendly she is. And it's not just humans who are charmed by her.......

Lynne & Max

The granite boulder formations in this park were amazing!

I was fascinated with all the plants and ferns that were able to establish themselves and grow in the cracks of these rocks. (This picture has become the newest desktop wallpaper on my home computer!)

And even though it was close to 80 degrees in the middle of September, signs of fall were everywhere we looked.

Thanks for sharing our Saturday adventures in Wausau, Wisconsin. My next post will feature our visit to the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and the "Birds In Art" exhibit, where we got to spend a bit of time with Julie Zickefoose and hear her speak in person!