Ever heard an owl?

I woke up in the middle of the night last night (or I should say really early this morning) and heard an owl. 

He would make several warbling sounds I can't quite describe, followed by "hoo, hoo, hoo." 

I started counting the seconds between the end of one group of sounds and beginning of another: one, one-thousand, two, one-thousand...and I'd get to five before he started up again. He was in quite a rhythm.

Eventually it seemed to stretch to six seconds between outbursts, then suddenly all was quiet.

Did he go to sleep or catch his prey? Hmm....

Happy early spring

Took a work break and went outside for a minute.


I call these photos "Yellow forsythia against a beautiful blue midday sky." Descriptive, eh?

The pix are straight out of the camera.

Sepia scenes

I snapped this photo of a female cardinal (I think) through a window at the Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center (in Connecticut) on a snowy New Year's Eve day. Since she didn't have much red, I thought a sepia tone would work here.

I also was fortunate to get a photo of a downy woodpecker that morning.

Visit Mary T, our meme hostess, to see many more sepia posts and join the fun.

I keep forgetting to charge batteries for camera

I call this "Sea gulls on ice." If you click on the photo you can see them sitting there.

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I snapped some pictures today at a wintry Osbornedale State Park in Derby, Ct., until the camera batteries died. I called Kid Two and asked him to put two more batteries in the charger, came home, put those in the camera and went back.

The gulls were no longer standing on the ice on the pond. Darn. That would have made a good photo if I could have gotten closer to them. Took some more pix then the camera told me again to change batteries. It’s a new camera that Santa brought...so it’s not the camera. It's yours truly not being prepared with fully charged batteries.

Happy January to all.

It's snow joke: it's New Year's Eve again

I went to do a story this morning at our town's nature center and as I was leaving I spotted this little guy "hanging out" as the snow fell around him.

I was happy to get this photo from quite a distance. I have no idea what kind of bird he is.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: I want to thank Rambling Woods for solving my mystery. This is a downy woodpecker.

* More on the historic Osborne homestead

I love to visit the beautiful Osborne Homestead Museum in Derby, Ct. I used two photos featuring holiday decorations in a dining room of the Colonial Revival home for Ruby Tuesday and thought I'd share a few more today.

This year's decorating theme was "Wonders of Nature." This fireplace is in the library. The Derby Garden Society's task was to adorn the room with decorations created out of pine cones.

This snow globe display is in the "milk room." The homestead was once part of a dairy farm, and the room was used as an office, if I recall correctly. The group that decorated this room had to follow a "Snow and Ice" theme.

And some more *snow and ice* decor.

Does this look like a house that would make you forget about any winter weather howling outside?

I know it would make me forget...

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This last photo features a ring-necked pheasant as part of a natural centerpiece of greens sitting on deer antlers on a second dining table, this one found in a dark-paneled room known as the studio.

I have more photos of this lovely home. Stay tuned...

Polly wants a ...

Last week I attended a parrot program. (Like the alliteration?)
It was a fun event at a local bookstore and I actually learned a lot about parrots. Turns out they are a lot like children!

Here's a link to the story. Hope you enjoy!

Timing is everything

I often see incredibly beautiful nature photos as I cruise around the blogosphere, including a lot of close-ups of birds and water fowl, and I admire each and every one of them.
Today I was fortunate enough to look out the front window in time to get three photos of a cardinal (I think) sitting on the side-view mirror of my car.

The tale of the tail ...


Whaddya think? Was she getting ready for a big date this afternoon? It's always good to check the mirror before heading out.

A review of a review

A review I read the other day got me thinking about the end of time. Heavy, huh?
Not just my end of time, the end for all of us who fall under the category of homo sapiens.
In his book, "The World Without Us," Alan Weisman apparently paints a picture of what the world would be like without humanity here. I say apparently because I haven't read the book, just a review.
He talks about how cities and their infrastuctures would quickly fall victim to nature - plants and animals, rain and more. A people-free world would flourish, Weisman says. I don't want to plagiarize and quote directly from the review I read, but it sounds fascinating.
If I had the inclination (time, energy) I would read this tome.

What comes to mind here is a simple phrase, plucked from a long-ago TV commercial for margarine: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."

Because we all know who gets "fooled" in the end.