A bandit visited us today! I’m sure he was after the peanuts and other goodies we leave out for the birds. There are plenty of raccoons in our area, but this is the first one we’ve seen… alive, anyway. 
I hope we see more of him (or her).
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I love wildlife. Fortunately, we have a backyard that is back against some woods. We get a variety of animals and I try to take as many photos of wildlife as possible, when they cooperate. I also enjoy taking a camera along on walks or hikes, just in case we happen upon some wildlife to add to my “collection”.
Our backyard has been visited by squirrels, pocket gophers, garter snakes, coyotes, deer, raccoons, rats, mice, a myriad of birds, and I’m sure many more critters we haven’t seen or heard.
In this section, I will be posting stories of personal encounters with wildlife and photos of wild animals. So stay tuned!
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Wow! It was busy at the feeders today. In about 10 minutes, I saw several different species. A Northern Flicker came by for some suet, accompanied by several Chestnut-backed Chickadee after seed and peanuts. A Spotted Towhee stopped by for some seed, as did two Black-headed Grosbeaks and several Goldfinches. A Steller’s Jay made off with two unshelled peanuts and there was a rare appearance by a male Evening Grosbeak. To round it out, some juvenile (or possibly female) Red-winged Blackbirds stopped by.
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Since childhood, I have been fascinated by birds. The different varieties of shapes, color, sizes, sounds, and behaviors never ceased to amaze me. The thrill of seeing a new species for the first time is something that never gets old in my book.
Fortunately, among our other shared interests, my husband is an avid birdwatcher as well. Our backyard is full of feeders and has a bird house and bird bath to attract some feathered friends. He experiments with different seed combinations and suet types to try to attract specific species of birds. We’ve been very lucky to see quite a variety of birds, from bush tits and chickadees to pileated woodpeckers and crows.
Occasionally, we’ll take a walk on a local trail and bring the camera along for our birdwatching excursion. I will be sharing some photos from those excursions on the photos page as soon as I can get them all together. We hope to someday have a bird cam in our backyard, but that’ll have to wait. In the meantime, I’ll soon be posting some links to some great bird webcams online.
I might be able to convince my husband to share some of his birdfeeding tips. He has closets full of different types of feeders and changes them out throughout the course of the year depending on what types of birds he wants to attract. The majority of his birdfeeding equipment is from Duncraft and he highly recommends them. In fact, he recently told me that they shipped out an extra part he requested for one of his feeders free of charge. We’ve always had good service and quality products from them.
Save up to 40-70% at Duncraft!
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Butterflies have always seemed to find me. If I’m having a bad day, if I have a big decision to make, if things look bleak, it never fails that a butterfly crosses my path and assures me everything will be ok. Butterflies symbolize hope to me. My home is full of butterfly art and collectibles. My yards have butterfly bushes to attract the local butterfly species. In other words, I love butterflies.
Stay tuned for some butterfly photos taken on the butterfly bushes outside my home!
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Growing up, I knew very little of my extended family. My grandfathers both passed away before I was born and my paternal grandmother died when I was 6. So, naturally, I was a bit curious about my genealogy. A few years after I first logged into the internet (waaaaaaaayy back in 1993), I discovered Ancestry.com, Rootsweb, and many other genealogical research sites.
I had very sketchy information about my family, so I asked my parents for a little more info. Armed with a few more names, dates, and places, I started searching. At first, it was very frustrating and I hit a lot of brick walls. However, slowly but surely I started finding bits and pieces of new information. I kept at it and within a few months I had a branch of my family tree stretching back to the 1600s.
It was fascinating reading about what some of my ancestors did: farmers, photographers, mayors, coal miners, and more. Hey, I even found royalty in my tree. Imagine, little ol’ me related to King James of Scotland. Cooooool.
I have researched all of this without ever leaving my house. It’s amazing. Someday I’d love to travel to Ireland and Scotland to do some research there, but for now, I have a wealth of information at my fingertips.
I’ve even helped some of my friends research their family trees. It can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you don’t have a lot of information to go on. But believe me, persistence pays off. One day you’ll find nothing, a few months down the road, you suddenly have a branch of 10,000 new family members!
Soon, I will be adding some tips and tricks for searching for your ancestors online.
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