Friday 7 comments

Bad Pictures of Weird Things

We were heading up to Superior Wednesday morning and saw this turkey vulture sitting in a tree along the road with its wings spread out.  Most likely it was letting the sun dry it’s feathers.

buzzard

This was growing inside my blind and made the whole thing smell just like fresh mushrooms.P1120403

The spiders are busy weaving webs every night.  DSCN1350

Another mushroom picture.  This one was growing in the Brule Bog, which actually looks like a fairyland.  Lots of moss, mushrooms and the feeling little gnomes and trolls are watching your every move.  I have no idea what kind of mushroom it is, but I’m willing to bet it’s poisonous.  Don't know what kind this is

The bog floor

This picture has a little bit of everything in it.  Bad lighting, greenery, fall color and the last flowers of the year.

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And to show you how quickly things are changing, here are two pictures of my little blind.  The first one was taken on Sunday, Sept. 25.  The next one was taken on Friday, Sept. 30.  Sept 25 blind-1

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And this is all that’s left of the pond now that the beavers are gone.  It’s still a pretty view.  At this time last year, we we were rowing around out there in the little boat.  What a difference, eh?DSCN1394P1080428

8 comments

Changes

No, I’m not talking about Facebook, I’m talking about all the changes around here.  It seemed like it happened over night.  The deer lost their pretty red coats and are now wearing their winter coats.  The fawns have lost their spots too.

Aug 30-35

Sept 14 Little Doe with Spottie and Dottie-1

The summer birds are all gone and now the tough winter birds have taken over the feeders.  Blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers and an occasional goldfinch.

Our menu has changed from summer salads and meat cooked on the grill to soups, chili and all the other great comfort foods I cook when it starts to get cool.  And cool it has been!  We had a couple killing frosts and that took care of the pesky mosquitoes, gnats and flies.  DSCN1150

The landscape has gone from green to shades of yellow, orange, red and brown.  Oh yeah, it’s fall and I’m lovin it!DSCN1195

Many more colorful fall pictures will be coming next week.  The leaves are changing really fast and it’s just gorgeous out there!

Tuesday 4 comments

Another Marked Swan

A friend told Jim that this is the time of year swans molt their feathers and it's when the DNR or other wildlife people put collars on them.  We were driving past the pond where I saw the last one and we decided to pull in to see if it was still there.  Right away we could see one swan on the water and I wanted to see if it was Swan number 26C or if it was a different one.
  
Well, as you can see (if you click on it to zoom in) this one is 26N and it does look like it's getting a new set of feathers. And like the last one, I reported this one to the USGS Bird Banding Lab.

Thank you everyone for your nice comments about Molly.  She's such a good girl...most of the time!  
Monday 9 comments

Pictures of Molly

She’s getting old and likes to rest…a lot.  As I was going through some of the recent pictures of her, I couldn’t help notice she’s resting in almost all of them.  But when you turn 11, in dog years, that’s old!  While out for a walk one morning, she rested along the side of the road while I was taking pictures.molly

When we’re out driving around she lays with her head between our seats.  Many times, she nudges me with her nose because she needs her neck/head/ears scratched.

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She spends lots of time on the bed…but when it’s time for us to go to bed, photo 4

then she moves onto the couch.photo 2

But she’s a good girl and I don’t know what we’d do without her.

Last summer/early fall she gave us quite a scare .  Something mysterious happened and she became almost completely blind.  We don’t know what caused it and neither did our Vet.  But in February, something just as mysterious happened and she regained her sight.  Whatever it was, we all hope it doesn’t happen again.  Especially Molly!

Linked up to Tammy's Photography Spot "Behind The Camera".

Thursday 8 comments

Swan Sighting

Yesterday we stopped to take a walk near the pond by an old gravel pit.  Back in the day, this was one of Molly’s favorite swimming holes.  Now, she’s not too interested in water or bringing back sticks, but we still like walking there.  Anyway, as soon as the pond came into sight we could see a big ol’ swan swimming around in it.  As we got closer, I took some pictures and I had a feeling I’d seen this swan before.  Bet you’re wondering how does she know it’s the same one she’s seen before?  Well, you see this swan was wearing a yellow collar.  When we got back to the cabin I was so excited when I checked the pictures and sure enough, the number on the collar was 26C.  DSCN0955Back in the March of 2010 I saw this same swan and reported it to the USGS.  Here it is swimming around in the same pond.P1030521-1

At that time I reported it and received this Certificate of Appreciation.  The cool part about it is knowing the swan was born in 2004.  Cert of Appric-1

But to take this one step further the first time I saw this swan in 2009!  At that time it was in a river not too far away from the gravel pit pond.  It had a couple cygnets along with it as well as another banded swan.  I sure wish I would’ve reported both of them at the time.tundra swan, cygnets & wood duck-2

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to make my day!


Linked up to Tammy's Photography Spot "Behind The Camera".

 
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