A beautiful Wednesday! For the Birds, post-

Blogger has forced users to use their new blogger plan. It has many issues, for the blogger, so I hope it is ok for a viewer! This post is from Wednesday afternoon on August 6, 2020. It was stunning and HOT and the little birds were intent on foraging for seeds. I tried to get pictures of them in their natural habitat, but it appears the preferred habitat was somewhere with black sunflower seeds! 

They were very ok with feeding from the palm of my hand and some even slid under my arm and hand that were draped on the bird feeder to get seeds still in the feeder! Since my arm was getting tired of being held in the air, the hanging feeder was a lovely place to drape the weak appendage! 

This one actually hopped all over my hand to find the right seed. The photos at the very bottom are a part of this set of pictures, but I couldn't figure out how to move them! 

This little guy was a MESS! I got a closer photo when it landed on the coated wire of the feeder, but it was too close and was really blurry. It is hard to focus a camera when the subject has wings and is liable to fly off in a second. I think the yellow all over the chest and beak was pollen. I'm not sure from where, but it was obvious this guy needed cleaning! 

I had one land on my shoulder the other day and this Wednesday one landed on my HEAD! Since they were being so tame, I wondered if they'd feed from my shoulder and this one did!!!! Their little claws didn't hurt at all, I was surprised. 

I will probably have more to share, it is so much fun to be able to feed these tiny friends from my hand!! Since they are getting so used to me, they are much braver. Even the voles aren't afraid of me and I opted to go inside when the one who lives in the wood pile ran over my sandal shod foot!! 

First snow!

Saturday afternoon the snow started to fall out north! Town already had gotten a bit, but we were still in the frozen ground mode at mum's. 

Sunday was lovely. Around 5pm I went out to take a few photos. The fog on the lake was startling and surreal. 

 The first snowfall is always so magical! Actually, almost every snowfall is magical! The lake seemed to be solid enough for the neighbor's labs to cross on, I reckon a few more weeks and it will  hold a human my size!

 Tracks of all kinds were scattered in the fresh snow. No moose, though.

 The birds were fliting and chirping and hopping to and from the feeders like crazy!!! There were lots of different kinds out there today-

Breakup is for the Birds!

The silver white winter of the previous post, only days ago, has changed into not spring, but a true breakup. When I took the photo below, I could hear what sounded like shots or thunder. I imagine the lake across the way is starting to weaken. Am pretty sure the noise wasn't ours. 

Easter/Thanksgiving, it doesn't matter. Bloom whenever you can! 

 I am in definite need of something other than tennies. It is getting a bit gicky out there. Breakup has not ever been one of my favorite times. The only good part is the lengthening of the day.

 I wanted just up over the ankle boots, but these will do. Cheap black boots from a store everyone ends up shopping at. I blinged them up with a silver permanent marker and stencils. They 'ran' when I added a spot of acrylic spray, but it isn't bad!

 BUT, the best part of being out on the evening of the 6th, was not using my new boots to get the paper (which came late due to the road closure on the Seward because of the loose crazy man who used to live in Kenai and was out shooting). It was the birds. I finally got chickadees to land in my palm to get their seed. (I think that animation from Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorites) NOTE: I did try to 'move' the photos, but blogspot wasn't letting me. So, you get them in a column!

 More boots in breakup! The morning dance across the muck by jumping lightly from snow patch to snow patch was impossible. The sugar snow patches crushed with each step I took.

 You can see there is even MORE water after today. It was a really warm day. I didn't use my jacket at all. I did have on long sleeves for most of it, though-

 While I was doing errands, mum said she saw a snowmachine on the lake. It is 'fun' to ride across the water to make the spray. The lake is still pretty solid, but not even the neighbor dogs have ventured across. I don't think I'd want to attempt snowmachining on the water!

 I finally ventured back inside to watch baseball a bit after 8. It did get pretty cold overnight, but the sun will warm things back up once again, releasing the Alaskan world from the ice and snow. For now!

Hurry!

The flowers are rushing to bloom! The lupine of a few weeks back already have seed pods ready to burst, the daisies here look great, but many are dying back, and the fireweed is reaching for the sky in pink spires. (note: the yellow is an arnica.) 

 Here, in front of my bedroom window, are two fireweed plants. We'll hope the snow is as high as the tallest one and not that itty bitty guy! (height of fireweed is supposed to tell us how much snow the next winter has)

This fireweed below is almost as tall as I am. I'm 5'2" and the tallest spire is almost to the top of my head! That would be a LOT of snow~

 Mum has a rose bush from Aunt Sally's yard. (some of you reading may remember Aunt Sally) Mum says it is a Sitka Rose. Whatever it was, the bees were falling all over themselves to harvest from it!

 The birds were also in a rush today. There were all kinds of winged creatures out. Babies learning to go solo and grown ones grooming themselves in the warm sunshine.

 Every breeze blew a drift of yellow leaves down from the trees. It was a tad disconcerting to know fall is so near.

 Here is my bathing chickadee! The little guy looks dead, but  he is very much alive. I am sharing several photos so you can see how alive this little one is. From where he landed on the picnic table to spread his wings to when he flew into a tree to finish preening.

Once he was finished, he flew off all clean and fluffy. It was fun to watch!