Rondeau Ric

the Geoff witch project Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . Could he just do what I asked? Noooooo. Just take a picture out the car window for me, that's all. But, no, he had to do a self portrait. Now I'm having nightmares about a certain witch project.

Free ride Originally uploaded by glenn. . This photo was taken by a fellow Flickite, Glenn. It is such an amazing photo I thought it was worthy of being blogged.

Chipmunks are energetic, inquisitive and relentless creatures. Squirrels have nothing on theses guys when it comes to raiding the bird feeders. We have several suet feeders, 2 black oil sunflower feeders, 2 oriole and 3 hummingbird feeders and a peanut feeder. We hung a suet feeder from the eaves trough in order to see nuthatches and small woodpeckers up close and to keep grackles off of it. This chipmunk climbed the screen door but couldn’t get turned around in order to get at the feeder.

oxymoron Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . I’m not a linguist, English professor or a lawyer but if you have permission is it still trespassing? Seen at the local sewage lagoon, yes sewage lagoon. The bird watchers will understand.

a bird in the hand is worth.. Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . The park naturalist set up a banding station in our back yard. He left the nets up for a few minutes to make sure they would hold. This oriole immediately flew in. The naturalist is coming over this evening to do banding. More pictures to come?

We went to West Virginia for a birding festival near Fayetteville. The people, birds and landscape are amazing. On a trip to the bottom of the gorge we saw these kayakers running one of the smaller rapids.

On the way to work this morning I stopped at a favourite birding spot. The birds were in fine form. The wood thrushes were calling out there songs, a towhee was saying his name from an overhead branch while several orioles and grosbeaks tried to out do each other. Carolina wrens were chattering at each other and a few frogs were still calling from the vernal ponds. A flight of Canada geese honked as they passed overhead as a flicker did his call which seemed to go on forever. All this in the soft sunlight of morning at the edge of the woods. It is a great way to start the day.

Anne became a backyard birdwatcher one summer, and this is how the addiction progressed: Step 1. Take part in a beginner bird identification course. It was a late cool spring, no leaves to block the view and plenty of warblers down low. We thought birding was easy; they just sat there in full view for long periods of time. Lots of time to look up in field guide Step 2. There's a Robin and a Blue jay, but what's that one? Purchased a bird guide. Next step: Can you see if that one has spots on the chest? Purchased binoculars. One pair. Next step: Can I take a look: roll eye cups up or down depending on who had them last. Anne wears glasses I don't. Purchased second pair of binoculars. Next step: THEY can see much more detail with their binoculars than we can. Purchased more expensive binoculars. Next step: Can you tell what that bird is out on the mud flats? Purchased spotting scope and tripod. Next step: I can't find that bird in the field guide. Purchase 6 or 7 differen...