Birds of a feather....

I have been wanting to get out to the strip pits near sunset...so last night, I debated on going or not. I wasn't really in the mood to get out but I knew it was supposed to rain today so I forced myself got my mind/body in gear and headed out there late yesterday evening.
I had not gone even half a mile till I seen my first pheasant...he took off at a pace, too fast to get a good photo. But just little bit farther on I hit the jackpot! Except I did not get a photo of them all. Up near the road there were 6, yes SIX male ring-necked pheasants...and up the hill a bit farther were the two above.
I did not get a single picture of the group of six....they were kind of strung out and started taking off before I could get all the photos I wanted And at that none of the ones I took are very good. The only thing I wonder is where are the females...I saw several more pheasants after this bunch, but not one single female. And back during the spring and summer, I only saw one or two females...but lots and lots of males.

I know the females are harder to spot...they do not have the the beautiful colors of the male, but still you would think I would have seen one or two last night...specially with the snow on the ground.
No here we have the main reason I was wanting to go out there late in the evening...I wanted to see if any of the short-eared owls had returned. I am here to tell you they have returned and brought their relatives and neighbors, too. I have never seen so many as were out there.
I am showing three different short-eared owls....but I could not count how many I saw...I counted 5 in the sky at one time. It was not seeing one, it disappearing and seeing another...they were all within sight at the same time! They look like a bomber at certain angles in flight.

Notice the sign under the one above...apparently the owl is not reading the sign. Click the above photo and and look how intent the owl is looking at something down below. If I were a mouse, I would be afraid.
Aren't they a fine looking bird?

Feathered friends for supper....

These are just a few of the little feathered friends that have been stopping by for a bite to eat...I know the above is a woodpecker, but what type he is I don't know. I really need to study the little woodpeckers and the sparrows.
I am not sure if the above is a purple finch or a house finch...whichever it is, I like seeing them.
This here is the titmouse. Another visitor I am always glad to see.
And of course the nuthatch...we always have some of the above birds with a few more that I did not stand out there long enough to capture. We have the chickadees, the cardinals, red-bellied woodpecker...oh, and the juncos. Plus all the other sparrows. They have been flocking to our feeders...most all coming in in one big swoop, with a few stragglers following behind. I think there has to be at least 50 of them. I have never had them so thick.

Then, I have been having the wren regularly...I only see one at a time, so don't know if it is single or I just haven't looked at the right time to see the two of them. And, I had three big blue jays out there at the same time. We used to have lots of blue jays all through the summer...but the past few years, we only see one occasionally. I don't know what has changed for them to just not show up at all, and now to see them at the feeders was surprising.

One afternoon we came home...can't remember where we had been, but it was as if someone had dumped the feeder on the ground. I wondered had two or three blue jays landed on one side, but the next day the crows were out here so I sort of figured they were the culprit.

I only have two little squirrels that are coming, and I have not seen one of them attempt to get up to the food....plus even if they did, they are only a bit over half grown. Or else really small. They are not big as Mama Squirrel and she never did tip the feeder when she was getting into it.

Well, that is my bird report for now....maybe I will have success later with some of the other visitors we have.

Now showing in my part of the world...

Out at the strip pits I go to as often as I can, we saw these two whooping cranes....

Last week Mary at Faith, Fabric, and Photos went to Goose Pond which is south of me...probably just a little be farther east then me, and she came back with photos of some Whooping Cranes she shows HERE. When I heard about her trip, I immediately wanted to go out to the strip pits near here...just in case. I didn't really think there would be any there, but much to my surprise there were these two....

According to Cornell's All about Birds, the population of whooping cranes in 1987 was 100....about 250 in 1995 and in 2004 the population had reached 468.....only part of those were in the wild. You can read more about them here....

On the bird in front, I could definitely see something green when I looked through Roger's spotting scope...not thinking to look it up I told Mary and she told me they are radio transmitters used to track them.
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It is staying bitter cold here. I have my doubts of the temps even reaching 20º F today...the only thing I have done is let the cats in and out a time or two. Even they are mostly just laying around, taking it easy, and sleeping away the hours.

Bubbie was up this morn and wanting to start something with the other cats; he gets bored. He is also so rough, no one likes to play with him. Of the three cats, he needs the most attention, likes to play the most, and is probably into more stuff in general. Anyway, after a short stay outside, he calmed down and welcomed a nice nap in front of the TV.

I can laugh till I cry sometimes thinking about these cats and things they and the dogs have done. When my older daughter was going to college, she worked full time here in town at a Mini-Mart. She came home to eat a quick bite about 7:30. Her dog, Shelby, always had food available. But when did she eat...she would wait till my daughter was sitting down to eat. She would get a big mouthful of food, come and drop at her feet, and then CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH!!! CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH! Which in turn got on her and my nerves both...because we were usually taking that opportunity to talk a few minutes.

After that, fast forward a few years and she is out of college, has been out on her own for a while, moved back home for a short while. In that time I had acquired two of these cats from her, and when she came back home, she brought their mom and brother. This time around she has a good job, and has to really be awake and aware of what is going on around her.

Every other night or so, soon as she went to bed, two of the kitties would go in the kitchen which is right off her bedroom. They would proceed to start some sort of game which involved the cabinet doors. This time it was rattle, rattle, rattle. Rattle, Rattle, Rattle! Sometimes it would just be one reaching and pulling a door with their paw; other times one would manage to open the door enough to get inside, then they would play with each other through the door. They would have did this right on if I did not go set something in front of the doors till they could not reach them.

And I cannot tell how Puss Puss does Roger...you would have to hear and see him tell how she comes when he is sleeping and gets right in his face and her little whiskers tickling him so bad. It is just so funny...she does not do me that way. But then, Cougar does not bother him...and Bubbie has no mercy on either one of us. He used to never jump onto the bed itself...he jumped up there but it was always to land on my back or side...now he actually jumps on the bed part of the time so that is a big improvement.

There's other stories but I will save them for another day...