Always More Than First Meets the Eye...

Safe-looking

But what do I see among the lilies??

Stella sees and flushes the suspect out...

Thanks to Stella, my birds are once more safe

From big bad Trey-You.

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

2nd Post Today - Another Indigo View

Blue Bunting

Gold Finch
Red Cardinal

Beauteous!
(To see more, go here.)

~~~

xoabb
hoping for a return visit!

Look Who Finally Stopped By!

See that little blue spot?

(might need to embiggen the photo.)

28 years living in this home of ours

and this is the very first time we've

been visited by an indigo bunting!

 

Needless to say, I'm beyond thrilled!

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

The War Has Restarted With...Well...This...

I saw this beautiful yellow baby in my cherry tree....

And I knew...

My gold finches were coming home...

To me...and not to you, MPM! 

It's where they knew all along they belonged...

Yes right here, at TSannie's home.

(the niger is very very fresh here)

Last year's war...a thing of the past,

Of course, which I handily won!

Now on to this year!

Can you see the 22, and let me spell that out in case you can't see those numbers clearly, TWENTY TWO, gold finches in that photo (plus that one errant sparrow)? I'm feeling very very good about my chance at a decisive victory in our ongoing Gold Finch War! I just don't think you stand a chance, MPM! Your gold finch babies have all flown the coop and they've come my way. Obviously the food is, well, better. Weep, my friend, just weep! 

News video below! (I hear it's being picked up by the AP!)

George Lucas I am not. 

Apologies offered far and wide!

P. S. Because of the video we shot, it has become apparent that the spoken word, "MAYHEM"  scares the cr*p out of gold finches...just scan to the end of the above video for evidence.

~

Never say MAYHEM in the presence of Gold Finches.

~~~

xoabb

expecting gold finches galore to stay!

Good to Go! So Where Are You,

My little hummer friends?

No, I didn't add food coloring to the nectar. Just got lazy and bought ready-made nectar for now. The feeder's been hung for three hours now. And no hummers have come to sip yet. Don't those naughty hummers know I thrive on instant gratification??

That niger seed feeder on the left is from my bird-blogging friend Helen's on-line store, Backyard Boutique. It is the only feeder that has proven to be really and truly squirrel-proof. Every other feeder I've had this past season, even the one advertised as squirrel proof (read about it here) has been a food paradise for them. And those scallywag squirrels not only ate the suet out of two suet feeders, they actually stole them! Can't find them anywhere! I replaced the first one. After the second disappeared I officially declared the squirrels the victors of the season long War Over the Feeders and gave up. Sorry birds. I tried my best!

Please click on Helen's name to visit to her blog. 

Click on Backyard Boutique to visit to her wonderful store.

~~~

xoabb

expecting hummingbirds any minute now!

P. S. Had three hugely successful cooking flings yesterday...recipes to come!

Busted!

Busted Bird feeder...

Dear squirrel-proof bird feeder maker, 

It's not. 

Love, Annie

~

Another one bites the dust, and it's the 4th feeder this season. (Huge heavy sigh.) When I looked at my feeder yesterday morning I couldn't imagine why there were no birds on it - usually every station has a bird friend perched on it eating away. However, I was late as usual running behind schedule and had no time to investigate why this was happening. Got home from work. The bird feeder was not only empty of birds, it was gone! Have I ever told you how I feel about squirrels? I do not like them. Not only did the little buggers tear down the feeder and eat all the sunflower seeds, they also broke the little spring that made this a squirrel-proof bird feeder! 

So now I have a bird-proof bird feeder. I am cussing.  

~~~

xoabb

expect squirrel exasperation!

ABC Wednesday Round Four

It's a B!

Do join us!

Finch War Wednesday!

MentalP has a goldfinch sock in her yard and usually at least 4 a million goldfinches on it. Though I've been feeding the birds at my little corner of cocktail corner for years I'd never had a goldfinch. I covet goldfinches. And I am not ashamed to tell you that I was jealous....seeing red jealous of her dang goldfinches! Sooooo, without telling her how I really felt about her burgeoning goldfinch population, I got her to go with me to The Wild Bird Center because I wanted to be positively certain I had all it takes to get those goldfinches to come to me!

Well....it worked........in spades. Yep, it worked better than excellently!
Got my goldfinch equipment up and running on April 16th.....


Hello April 17th! Ahh there you are my little friend! Glad you're here!
Go on, fly back to Mental's yard and tell all your friends the vittles
are much better over here in TSannie's yard. And he did just that for me!

April 20th and we're picking up steam! More and more are showing up - and they're beginning to not only eat the niger seed, but the sunflower seeds as well! Mental called me and said she'd been trying all week day to get a photo of more than one goldfinch on her sock, but she couldn't. So very sad....
April 22nd - Goldfinches - at least mine - are PIGS!
The little buggers have almost eaten a full sock of seed! In two days!
(Mental must have been starving them! Hmph!)

April 27th - My beautiful goldfinches!
There are 9, count 'em 9 on my sock! Yipee!!!
Seconds before this photo was taken, there were 68 goldfinches
on that sock, but, unfortunately, I scared all but those 9 away
as I was trying to take a photo of them.
(And don't tell anyone, but I think there might be an imposter
among those 9. Did anyone say purple finch?? SHHH!")

"Hey!! Wait a minute! There's nuthin' left for me!"
"BAH - I'm headin' over to jules' house -
heard she just got a sock and it's FULL of niger!"
~~~
Poor poor Mental!
The war has been won this week.....by me!!!

~~~

xoabb

Golden, Too

Hurray!! They're here and it's about time! It took eight loooong & painful days (for me) for the goldfinches to discover their brand spankin' new sock feeder here at my corner of Cocktail Corner. Now they're coming in droves! Hope I haven't stolen any of Mental Mama's goldfinch friends, after all, she's the one who inspired me to go get the feeder in the first place. Her back yard is full of goldies and I've never had even a single one in my yard, though there are numerous feeders. Picky eaters!

I love this time of year with all the spring bloomage.
Daff's are one of my favorite.

This one got herself a tad dirty - I wonder how she managed that?

Can't remember the name* of this bush....
*winetipper just reminded me - it's an andromeda bush.

Forsythia - there isn't anything prettier. Or yellower.

~~~

xoabb

Uh oh....the ice is coming back.....

Uh oh......see the ice that formed overnight on the pond?
The temperature has been dropping all day.
I'm afraid that by tomorrow there'll be no open water for the ducks.
At least it's not raining as it did all day yesterday.

My husband, GB, goes through an enormous amount of bread when the ducks are here. I used to be able to get a bag with about 10 loaves of "duck bread" at the Pepperidge Farm Outlet, but they now require you to buy 10 trays of bread at a time. That's 150 loaves and even our ducks with their voracious appetites can't manage to eat all that! GB has gotten the ducks trained to the point that when the sliding door opens onto our deck overlooking the pond, they come swimming and flying right up to the edge. GB stands at the end of the deck and "frisbees" slices into the water. When it's warmer out, bread consumption goes up considerably because then the bluegill and occasional bass and catfish are active and fight the ducks for it. I cannot tell you the number of times I've gone to make a sandwich for myself only to discover
NO BREAD to be found.

Maybe we could use 150 loaves at a time!

Good Grief!! I just looked at the flat feeder - there must still
be at least 9 finches left on it and this is after I scared most of them
away while trying to motionlessly get to my
camera - HA - I'll have to work on that move!
I really must take the time to find out the difference
between a "house finch" and a "purple finch".
Anyone out there know?


Look! The sun just came out.......for the first time in days it seems.



Here's a glance of our peninsula and island.
It's shallow there - that's where the dam is as well - and
that part always freezes first.


Tomorrow I'll let you in on why I'm a graveyard digger.

~~~
xoabb