My Favorites Images From 2011 Blog Entries~

~ Happy New Year 2012 ~

My favorite blog images for 2011...

They are the images that I just cannot delete from my memory card.  They are the images that have reached into the very center of my being, for one reason, or another ~

Some of you may have already viewed these during the past year.  Many newcomers will view them for the first time.

From the Great Horned Owl that took 2 hawks in less than 5 hours on my property last January 21, all the way down to the last entry of the gorgeous Red-tailed Hawk...all of these seem like they were taken just yesterday.  How quickly a year passes.

Yellow Shafted Flicker~

Sunset over Land Between the Lakes, KY~

This Magnolia blossom became the cover on my recent book "Moments Like These"~

A tree frog that spent the winter hibernating in my turtle's tank, on release day~

Mute Swan above and Tulips below taken at Cave Hill Cemetery in KY~

Eastern Bluebird on Covered Bridge Road, Foxhollow Farm in Oldham County, KY~

Hyacinth in one of my shade gardens, can you see the spider at the water droplet?

Tree Swallow on Covered Bridge Road, Foxhollow Farm, Crestwood, KY~

As close as one would desire to a female Bald Eagle~

Iris on sunny side of our wooded acreage~

The little duckling kept running up to the wall and slamming itself into it.  Momma duck had to lure it away, before it got hurt~

Close encounter with a female Peregrine Falcon, Madison Indiana~

Male Whitetail Skimmer Dragonfly~

Red-winged Blackbird on Covered Bridge Road, Foxhollow Farm, Crestwood, KY~

Tulip following a morning rain at Cave Hill~

Great Horned Owl had just taken the first of 2 hawks...this was an immature Red-tailed Hawk~

Juvie Red-tailed Hawk on hunting perch and then snags a field mouse, downtown Louisville, KY~

Monarch Butterfly, Iowa, South Dakota border~

Question Mark Butterfly~

                     A favored Red-Shouldered Hawk.  I have followed this female since 1996~

Juvie Red-tailed Hawk~

                                                  Female Whitetail Skimmer Dragonfly~

Flowers from my neighbors garden~

Mr. and Mrs. Wood Duck.  This was my first ever viewing of them, so beautiful too~

Baby fawn shall always remain in my heart thoughts.  It ran and hid for several days and was injured.  I later buried it's little body~

Raven at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming~

My favorite songbird is the CedarWaxwing, here on a Honeysuckle bush~

Thankfully Hostas grow in the shade gardens on our property, aah but deer do love them too~

Frosty berry of a Euonymus~

Red-shouldered Hawk~

Icelandic Horse~

As the moon was setting, the glow of the sunrise shown on the barn~

An American Avocet visited a nearby pond en route to it's summer feeding and breeding area~

An innerbreed of a Harlan's Hawk and a dark morphed Red-tailed hawk at Glacier National Park, Montana~

Frosty Alpaca~

Young Red-tailed Hawk, Covered Bridge Road, Foxhollow Farm, Crestwood, KY~

 

Be sure to visit other World Bird Wednesday entries from around the world, and take the time to hush to hear the whisper~

Where Did You Come From...All Alone...~

The fifteen week old cat-kitten...Survhee Pipka, had to go to see the Vet and have her final round of kitten shots this morning, as well as have some of her temporary FAKE paw nail caps glued back on. I know, many do not approve of having cats de clawed, yet we do and we have them done when they are spayed at 5 months of age. We have had over 15 cats and many have lived into their teen years, and none have ever had a bad experience from being de clawed. Since Survhee is still a bit too young to get spayed, and de clawed, I have been having the Vet place Soft Paws, which are FAKE plastic caps over Survhee's own claws, which prevents her from climbing the house drapes.

I had dropped her off to have this done this morning and made a beeline over to Henry's Ark, to see what was happening. There it was...a lovely bird, one that I had most certainly never seen before, at least not in KY. I went to my "Field Guide to Birds of North America", and it shows that this beauty is pretty far from it's territory. In fact the book shows no data of it residing here at all. Could it be a lone migrating bird...I do not know, but I felt a rush getting to glimpse it and take a few fairly descent photographs of it, before I had to leave to go pick up the freshly manicured;) Survhee Pipka~



Have a great weekend and for those in the USA...Happy Labor Day weekend. Have fun, stay safe~

 

From Jeff Bouton, who is affiliated with Wildbirds magazine, shared with me...


Hey Mary, aren't they awesome birds? Shorebird migrations begin early in July and then continue through the fall. We get numbers of these birds wintering here in Florida as an example. So this is a migrant passing through. Looks like there have been at least 5 reported to ebird over the past month:

Jeff Bouton http://ebird.org/ebird/GuideMe?cmd=decisionPage&speciesCodes=ameavo&getLocations=states&states=US-KY&bYear=1900&eYear=2011&bMonth=1&eMonth=12&reportType=species&parentState=US-KY


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 Their awesome to see well, I love the light play on the sunset/sunrise sillhouette shot!