Late February gave us an old fashioned snowstorm

While late February gave us an old fashioned winter storm that resulted in this:

Heavy snowfall

The picnic table is almost buried!

It also seemed to bring in the birds who happily gobbled up the sunflower seeds!

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Now, Listen to Thea and have yourself a Great Day!!!
~Thea 🙂

While I’ve been gone

Going to to a photo Catch UP for the next few posts!

First up is picture of a deer in January up on the hill where you can see how thick it’s winter coat is to keep it warm.

The deer seemed to visit less frequently this past winter but since Spring we’ve seen allot of both Does and young bucks!

Wooly Deer in January Coat

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Sign up and enter your own photo for the Weekly Photo Challenge!
More info at the Daily Post here:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/introducing-weekly-photo-challenges

Now, Listen to Thea and have yourself a Great Day!!!
~Thea 🙂

Rare Bird Sighting Evening Grosbeak

Rare Sighting-Evening Grosbeak Male

 I was surprised to look out my window and see this large yellow, brown , black, white, bird at my feeders–and then there were TWO!

I hadn’t ever seen these birds before so I was very excited! I’ve read my Birds of Western NY Book over and over again and so I’m familiar with everything in that book and knew I was seeing something rare for my area.

Hurricane Sandy had just gone thru the area so I thought perhaps it was blown in!

The large bill reminded me of the Rose Breasted Grosbeak which we have frequently, so I just did a search under Grosbeak and sure enough I found my new birds!

These colorful creatures are called Evening Grosbeak and they are males by the looks of it!
Learn all about the Evening Grosbeak at:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Evening_Grosbeak/lifehistory

Yellow brow markings look like a W

Size comparison

Backside Coloring

Male Evening Grosbeak

See the bird in action in this video I captured:

http://thea-creations.smugmug.com/Wildlife/Evening-Grosbeak-Sighting/26260094_g2nx7b#!i=2186577731&k=5d4JL4P

Do you have any migratory birds that come to your feeders in winter where you live?

 

Now, Listen to Thea and have yourself a Great Day!!!
~Thea 🙂

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Winter Sow Now For A Colorful Spring Later

With Spring right around the corner this is a good time to get some winter sowing done!  Actually, I’ve left this to the last moment but still have enough time to get it done! I live in Western NY so I could have officially started winter sowing anytime after the new year started. That’s what makes winter sowing so great is that whether I winter sowed my first container on January 1st and my last container on Feb. 28th–they are both going to grow into beautiful plants!

Winter sowing is a technique of planting seeds in recycled containers and placing them outside in winter where they will start to grow naturally in the Spring. They will be more cold hardy, have stronger stems, save you money and get you a head start on filling your gardens with beautiful flowers!

Seed packets are usually so much cheaper than buying already grown & established plants. In fact you can usually get the seed packets at a discount at the end of the year to save even more money when you winter sow for the following Spring.

You can use almost any clear or white container –like a plastic milk gallon. Your container can be various sizes as long as it can hold 2-4 inches of potting soil in the bottom of the container and have enough room for the plants to grow until after the last frost when you can transplant it into your gardens. Some people use the minimum size container and minimum amount of potting soil but I myself prefer to use a larger container so that I know the plants will have enough room to grow and more soil so that they don’t get too root bound just in case you can’t plant them in your garden right away.

Don’t worry, it’s easy and I will show you step by step how to do it!

Swooped by a Sharp Shinned Hawk–Swoop there it is!

As you may have noticed by now I love all forms of wildlife! I have bird feeders all over my yard and enjoy watching the year round birds and the seasonal birds as they visit my feeders. I have a triple tube pole feeder with a seed catch tray underneath it mounted over a large burning bush which makes great cover protection from predator birds, located at the corner of my patio.
One day I was standing out on the patio enjoying the birds at the feeder when all of sudden they all screamed in unison and dove into the burning bush branches as a Sharp Shinned Hawk swooped past my head trying to get one of the birds who had been visiting the feeder. I yelled and waved my arms at the hawk who I don’t even think saw me till then. It took off away from the bush and flew right into the screened door on our sliding glass door and bounced down to the floor of the patio practically right at my feet! This had all happened so quickly I was rather freaked out and ran for the house. I grabbed my camera and got a few shots of the Sharp Shinned Hawk as it regained its composure and actually tried to fly into the burning bush one last time before it flew up into a tree to monitor from a distance.

I love my wildlife!
Thanks for Listening to Thea