Christmas with the Andrews

With the Snell family in Tampa, we hosted Christmas with my family this year.  We will remember it as a day with Russ...he wouldn't let us ignore him.

 

 

I put out my feeder last weekend

Got some decent pictures.  They allowed me to get near the back fence so some nice close-ups.


 

Three's Company

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal and Downy Woodpecker (on the feeder)

Downy Woodpecker

A lucky shot of a Downy Woodpecker and White-Breasted Nuthatch

I like this one.  Look at the Nuthatch...looking right at me.

American Goldfinch
Can't tell if a female or a male in winter colors.








 

Russ is happy to have snow again

The eagles are back

I saw two Bald Eagles sitting pretty low in the trees along Beaver Creek which feeds into the Des Moines River.  Here is one of the two.

 

Not the best shot buy my goal this winter is to get some clearer pics along the river.  This is the same eagle...just cropped to show it closer.

"Sawyer's" Drive

Meet "Sawyer", the newest addition to our home.  Steve and Amy's neighbors have one of these in their yard and Cindy has seen it.  Jake told his mom that we really should have one.  So Amy tracked down the last one "in the district" and delivered him last night.  Thank you Steve and Amy!  We thought Sawyer was a good name for him.

You can see Russ treated him like any other dog (checking under the hood).

Thanksgiving 2013

Not a bad day.  Colder but sunny.  Jake and I went out in the woods.  The hope again was to see some Bald Eagles along the river and we were also on the lookout for old railroad tracks sticking out of the ground.  My neighbor told me about them...just didn't say exactly where.  Tracks from an old coal mine.  We didn't find them this time...something to look forward to.  Jake got some video of our adventure.

Good food and good times once again.  Ended the night with our usual Royal Rummy.

Here's the crew...

 

I'll give Russ the last word on the day...

 

Fox on the run

Wednesday I was home and Russ was barking at something in the woods (nothing new) and I went to the window in time to see a Red Fox run by just behind our fence.  It was mid-morning so good light to see it.  I know they live in the woods but this was my first sighting and it was pretty cool.  I did not take these pictures but this is what I saw...

 

Fall colors 2013

Here are some pictures from our yard and around the neighborhood.

These first three pictures are the oak tree just beyond our fence. 

 

 

This was taken about two weeks after the top photo.

 

Here are the three trees out front...

 

 

 

 

 

This is taken from our backyard...

 



 

 

And these are from our neighborhood.  Note the last one.  It's a small maple that seems to be on fire.

 

 

Oh. Deer.

I stepped outside and I didn't seem to bother them too much.  Just kind of walked off into the woods.