Who needs TV when you've got Bluejays!

Last Saturday morning, I decided to whip up a batch of pancakes for breakfast. Before we sat down to eat, I filled the peanut wreath and hung it from a tree branch a few yards outside the dining room window. I think the bluejays actually watch for me to refill and hang that peanut wreath in the tree because they're flying in already before I even get back in the house. Once our pancakes are buttered and syruped, we're ready to sit back and enjoy the show right outside the big dining room window. Hope you enjoy this series of photos too!

The bluejays are greedy and hungry, but only 1 bluejay at a time is allowed to pick a peanut from the wreath. The rest of them must wait their turn.

It's not always an easy task to get just the right peanut out of that coiled wreath.

Selecting a peanut becomes even more difficult when there's only 1 left and it's securely lodged at the bottom of the wreath! This bluejay eyes the peanut and plans his strategy for securing that final peanut.

Now he's perched on top of the wreath, but obviously there's no way he can reach the peanut from there.......

well, maybe he can if he just streeeeeetches over the edge a little bit........

hmmmmm, no luck with that. So he decides to try it the way he's seen the nuthatches get a peanut........

Crap! that's not going to work either! Having a bluejay audience laughing behind you makes this especially difficult!

Bluejays are just not well-suited for clinging upside down to feeders! But they are persistent when it comes to peanuts......

Oops! So close....... Wonder what that other bluejay is thinking?

One of the bluejays eventually snatched that last peanut out of the wreath and the show was over. I especially like to fill the peanut wreath on weekends when I have time to sit back and enjoy the show. Early mornings seem to be the best time to attract the bluejays in large numbers. Once they spread the word that peanuts are being served, they all flock in to enjoy this special treat. This entertaining bluejay display is definitely worth the the price I have to pay for peanuts in the shell.

Surprise Backyard Visitor

As I was watching and counting birds for Project FeederWatch last this afternoon, I was really surprised to see this American Robin perched on the edge of the birdbath. Fortunately my camera was close by and I was able to capture this series of photos, because we just don't see too many robins here in Minnesota on November 22nd.

"You know Robin, it's only 30 degrees outside. Even though you're standing on the birdbath heater, I don't think that water is much warmer than 40 degrees!"

A test of the water with wings and tail is the first step toward scooting off that birdbath heater.

Into the bath -- with one foot on the heater for security -- never can be too sure how deep the water is.

Wow, that must feel so good! I love watching robins take a bath -- they're such vigorous splashers. Just look at all that water spraying around!

Now for a few more flutters with wings and tail......

Back up on the heater and the bath is all done. I looked away for just a moment and when I turned to the window again, the robin was gone -- hopefully moving on to warmer regions.

Backyard Buck

A couple days ago, Mr. Johnson happened to notice that a few small trees in our backyard have been rubbed rather vigorously by a whitetail buck. He seemed to favor my staghorn sumac thicket. This one was on the outside edge of the thicket.

Here's my hand to use as a guide for the size of the tree being rubbed.

This one was farther inside and towards the back edge of the thicket.

Pretty much the same size tree again. Check out those gouges in the wood below my hand! Those antler tips are really sharp!

On the other side of the yard in the aspen thicket, we found another tree that had been worked.

Same size again, so we were pretty positive this was the same buck. This tree was deeply gouged. They're really strong and so aggressive this time of year! Can you imagine how dangerous it is for them when 2 bucks have locked antlers and are fighting? I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those antlers.

Since it was obvious there's a buck in the backyard, Mr. Johnson turned the trail camera on again......and we weren't disappointed. We're fairly certain this is the buck that's been rubbing on our trees. This guy doesn't have very big antlers, and the general rule is that the larger the antlers on the deer, the larger the tree they'll work. This buck has a nice big body, but due to point restrictions in place this deer hunting season, it's not legal to shoot this buck, so maybe we'll see him around again this year.

I got these pictures in reverse order, but he showed up twice in one night for corn. I'm guessing he also stayed around to visit with some of the does that frequent our backyard overnight too. There was lots of deer activity and photos on the camera on this night of 6th and early morning on the 7th.

The little fawns are still hanging around in the backyard, but I think they're on their own now. Once the does come into their breeding season, they chase their babies away to be on their own. At least the little fawns that have visited regularly over the summer know where there's a safe place to eat and rest in our backyard. Now if we could just figure out a way to keep them from trying to cross the road!

The possum is still visiting the backyard at night too. Looks like this possum is getting in pretty good shape for the long winter!

Summer Birds & Winter Birds

The weather has been unusually moderate for the past couple weeks -- especially for the beginning of November. It's been cold (in the 20's) at night, but the days warm up nicely (todays highs were in the mid-60s!) The thing I've noticed while I'm outside on these nice days is that there are still several of the "summer" birds hanging around here......like this robin, enjoying the birdbath.

And this common grackle, also enjoying the birdbath!

There's even a few Red-Winged Blackbirds still hanging around. It's nice to hear their song this late in the season because once they're gone, I won't hear it again until next April.

And even though this nice weather enables me to not think about the dark, cold, snowy days to come, the little feathered friends showing up at my birdfeeders confirm that winter is not far off. Purple finches are really early (at least for my backyard) this year. Here's a female.

Pine Siskins are also starting to show up in larger numbers. I wonder if this is going to be another big Pine Siskin year? Last year I only saw them during spring migration. They're such fun, scrappy little birds and not the least bit intimidated by house finches.

Today the handsome male Purple Finch visited my feeder. I almost never have the males at my feeders, so this was a special treat. I hope he stays around for the entire winter (or at least long enough for me to document on my list when Project FeederWatch starts next weekend!)

Storm Aftermath

By now I'm sure most of you have heard about (or even experienced it for yourself) the wild weather system that passed through Minnesota earlier this week. Our house sits up on top of the hill and we catch a lot of wind. Some of my trees have gotten big enough to function as a windbreak -- especially northwest winds -- but most of the wind in this storm came from the west-southwest and I don't have any big trees close enough to the house to block winds from that direction. The finch feeder pole attached to my southwest facing, second story deck was no match for 50+ MPH gusts and this is the awful sight I woke up to last Thursday morning.

Don't you think this poor little goldfinch looks really sad at losing its favorite dining spot? I was really sad too.

So as soon as I got home from work on Thursday, I grabbed the cordless drill and some much longer screws and went to work getting the thistle seed feeding stations functional again. I even managed to find another good perching branch to attach to the pole. YAY!! Hungry and happy finches are back!

After getting the finch diner restored, I decided to walk around the yard and see if there was any other damage. I headed down to the weeping willow tree -- notorious for dropping limbs and branches in any wind event. In my little aspen grove I did spot 2 trees that had blown over (you can see one of them in the center of this picture), but I think they were both already dead, so now Mr. Johnson can rev up his chainsaw and cut us some more firewood.

I think Sophie's following some hot raccoon scent in this little grove.

Surprisingly there weren't too many branches down from the willow tree, but lots of leaves.

I piled up the branches I found and this should be a good start for our next backyard recreational fire.

A Weekend With My Sissy

I finally took the time to download and edit my photos from a couple weekends ago when my sissy and I were in Nisswa, Minnesota in the heart of Minnesota's lake resort area. My sissy had a 1-day Minnesota Dept. of Health nursing seminar on immunizations. So while she was indoors making the most of her registration fee, I got to spend my day enjoying the beauty of the Grandview Lodge -- the host location for this conference.

Here's the little cabin we got to call home for 1 night (with my sissy's "new" car parked out front).

This was such a cute little cabin. We were sad the conference rate only applied to the 1 night's stay (it doubled after that) because this was the view from our living room. I can see this would be a very cool place to spend a long weekend during spring bird migration. You can see over to the right that there's a big deck out front too (coming off a large screened-in porch).

This is another view of the living room. It was a little chilly in here, but we couldn't start the fireplace because one of the glass doors was broken. It was a pretty room to sit in though.

Kitchen/dining area. We figured most people probably didn't spend much time making their own meals, but you sure could if you wanted to because there were dishes, silverware, etc. in the cupboards. I love the knotty pine interior, but wondered whether you might eventually get tired of seeing that golden color all the time?

There were 3 bedrooms in this cabin! My sissy took the big bedroom (which also had its own bathroom.

I took one of the little bedrooms. The other bedroom was about the same size as this one and they both shared the other bathroom.

After breakfast I took a walk around the resort to see if I could spot any birds or wildlife. It was a really nice day and the fall colors were still very much in evidence.

I headed up to the main lodge to check out some trails that were shown on the map. This is the back side of the lodge (facing Gull Lake). I enjoyed my breakfast seated at the table right next to that biggest center window. They had wireless internet access here too.

This is the view of the main lodge building from the back. It's quite a beautiful building and on the National Register of Historic Places. My sissy said it reminded her of the resort from the Dirty Dancing movie. I was impressed with the landscaping. It looked like they tried to incorporate a lot of native Minnesota plants and flowers.

I just turned around on the path from where I took the above picture and snapped this shot of the walkway out to Gull Lake. Wouldn't this be a really gorgeous place for a wedding?

They had an indoor pool and these lounge chairs were all outside the building where the indoor pool was. It was hard for me to imagine how busy this place must be in the middle of summer when lots of families are enjoying their vacation time here.

There was a nice sandy beach all the way along the resort property also. What a pretty view don't you think?

There were also some lakeview cabins down here. These were designed to accomodate 2 separate groups -- 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs.

And this is the view from the front of these cabins. Wow! Pretty even in the fall!

Unfortunately, I really didn't see much for birds or wildlife. I did see this one obliging gray squirrel who sat still long enough for me to capture a photo before scurrying higher up to the other side of the tree to escape the paparazzi.

I also spotted this Great Horned Owl guarding the dock from pesty seagulls.

And one tiny ducky was riding the waves next to one of the other docks in an apparent effort to seek refuge from any duck hunters who might be nearby.

We were fortunate that the weather for this weekend was beautiful and clear for both of the days that we were out and about. Here are some photos of the beautiful blue skies and cloud formations.

Thanks Sissy for inviting me to come along on this trip! I had a great weekend!