My Garden is dirty.............

The snow has all gone, the leaves are still coming down and everything is dirty and ugly. I have managed to sweep off the deck but I am not in the mood to rake wet soggy, slimy leaves. Even if I do there is nowhere to put them at this point. May as well wait till Spring.
So......I must put up with the mess. I am sure it will snow soon enough. We got a dusting but that is gone now too. I got these pictures before it melted
Mrs Cardinal is keeping her eye on me.

This is the front of the house after the last snow.

Just a dusting.

Well that is all gone now, but I took these pictures so may as well show them because it looks like crap now. In fact, if it stays this way and stops raining, then I am going out and raking haha.
I thought this was pretty, the small amount of snow frozen on the trees.

Pretty isn't it?


This little finch was sitting there for all the world looking like an English Robin. The Chickadee above was a little round ball.

It was so cold the birds were all fluffed up. Poor things. The wreath on my old sled looks seasonal. I think I will take it inside this year because I found it in the garage. I really like it

The Apple tree out front with its two kinds of apples looked festive.


we need to put a big red bow on the tree...........The Cardinals look awesome in the snow. On this day I saw 4 males and could not count the females but they usually go around in pairs.


The usual visitors were all hungry, it has to be horrible to be so small and so cold.

I would love to put a heater out there for them.

The little Titmouse is so cute

I am loving some of the pictures of my birds. I think I will have some printed up because I want some in my house. I am going to redecorate a little after I take the decorations down.

The little woodpecker is busy as can be, he comes quite often now. My Crow is not coming now the snow has gone but this was a nice picture I thought.

Well, I can't say I am hoping for snow anytime soon. This is unusual. Yes we have seen a couple of winters with no snow. Sometimes it comes in March after a winter without any. Usually though we are 6 foot under. I can deal with this. Maybe get a head start with Spring clean up.?

No Ducks............

We took a quick walk down by the river today. I was hoping to get pictures of ducks. No such luck. Not one duck in sight.
We took Bodicea for a walk, she was in shock and didn't know what to think about it. She has not been for a walk in years. Back when we had the other poodles she would go for walks in the fields, but that was long ago now. She seemed to sort of enjoy it. Was not really sure though.

Tristen had wanted to go for a walk, its still cold out so Gerry wanted it to be quick. SO I suggested taking Bodi, I knew he would like that.

Well later on I was watching the BlueJays in the back garden. I had put out some peanuts. The BlueJays really like them. I had put out shelled ones but they liked the ones in shells best. They took those first.


There were quite a few Jays around today. They usually come one or two at a time but they must have really liked the peanuts and told all their friends.

The squirrels are voracious they eat so much, why don't they hibernate or something? I have seen so many this year, they hang around and come in 4 or 5 at a time.

Here is Bella waiting for daddy to come home. The trellis is just handy for peeping through and looks so cute from the other side.

Boots the cat wants to be outside, but its too cold. She goes out, checks the territory and then comes inside. She makes sure she is in at night now. I confess I do wait for her some nights. Its way too cold for her out there but she does have thick fur and she does have some places to get out of it. Still, I cant think of her being outside.

The cat watches the birds, she will sit there on the deck. The other day I saw her make a go for one and yelled at her so she missed. I got her butt inside. The finches are the most likely to get caught but most of the birds seem to ignore her. She does not have claws up front but can still climb and still hunt. She does not go far from home.


The Crows come every day, but when the weather is good they find other things to do.


Well thats all thats going on around here the last few days. Oh, actually no its not, Gerry was able to cut up some trim and do the basement bedroom. Tristen helped.



Granddads little helper.

Finches.............

I have not seen any animals around yet. I have put out food for the Crows and I fully expected to see a few raccoons or possums come visiting. Maybe it's too early yet.
So for now I will write about the finches who come. As I said in a previous post there are several finches that come together. The Yellow ones........Seen here at my bird bath one summer

The yellow finch looks somewhat like a Canary. They do sing, not sure how well compared to the Canary. When they come in, they usually come with somewhat less brilliant companions.Finches are seed eaters. The females less brilliant than the males.


The House Finch has a rosy breast and head. Sometimes called Rosefinches. I am not too observant but they all look different. The markings are those of the finches with the speckled chests and some look like the yellow ones. I would presume that means males and females and juveniles all look slightly different.


The speckled ones are Siskins. Still finches but.........I am not sure if mine are Pine Siskins but I think so.


Then there are the sparrow like finches. The black striped headed ones (above and below)

They look a lot like English Sparrows. Just a little more exotic. Well they come and go, sometimes with the Finches and sometimes alone. Just like all the other little birds. They go around with others like them. This summer I saw some little birds that looked like Thrushes. They had the speckled chests but could have been the Siskins. They seemed more copper coloured with creamy speckled chests. This is the Thrush.

Anyway........thats the Finches for you.

Winter birds..........

Well today I found out that there are actually 3 female Cardinals around. I saw them all together. Only one male today. He was handsome though. I have no idea what girl he belonged to.

Today I had a whole flock of little finches. They are strange because the other day they were all yellow finches. Today I had a mixture of yellow, the red crowned ones and the speckled finches. I need to look up and see if they are all the same.




So those are the Finches. I will be looking them up because even though they all come around together, they can not be the same. Its like the little ones, the Chickadees, Nuthatches, Junco's and Downey's
I did have some luck today with the Nuthatches.


I must say that the BlueJays look very handsome in the snow.

I am greedy though I really want to see some different birds come in. There is such a wide variety of bird life in Northern Michigan but they seem to stay away from town. When we go to the Dunes we see the Indigo Bunting and the Oriols, now I don't expect to see field warblers or skylarks but come on. I have not seen Cedar Waxwings around for quite some time. They used to come years ago. I saw some out at the beach this summer. So, how do I coax them in????? Do they fly over looking for the food they like? I know the Crows do. So do the BlueJays. I see them scouting out the area. Today I called to the Crows and they came to the trees nearby. I was very happy about that but they don't like me parking the van in the drive. So thats today.............will things liven up or will I be posting these same guys all winter?

Cardinals............

We have two pairs of  Cardinals who live around here. They have been here two years. I think that the first couple probably are the parents of at least one of the other pair. They tollerate each other pretty well.

Above is one happy couple taken last winter. I actually think the female is prettier than the male.
She has a variety of colours in her plumage.
They certainly make a handsome couple. They wake me up on summer mornings. They seem to be the first to get up and sit on the bush under my bedroom window. They have a somewhat annoying call. They are seed eating birds. They also like berries.

The Cardinal, especially the male looks his best in Winter when the snow flys

Its pretty easy to get good pictures.



I wanted to get some of the pictures on here while I had a few nice ones.
Sharing with A southern Daydreamer Outdoor Wednesday
Also with WIldbird Wednesday