Goin' to the Dogs

Tipper is 14 weeks old and belongs to Sean. Per Sean, "Mom does all the puppy work." Sean is very proud of that fact. Tipper did not want to hold still for any photo.

Sydney is 11 years old and gets her name from the Sydney Olympics. Sydney would only stay still if she had a bone to chew on.

Poppins is spending two weeks in the North Country during hunting season. Believe me, Amie would never allow Poppins to go into the woods.

No, I have no intentions of getting my own dog.

Monarch Butterflies

When on a walk last month I saw fields upon fields with Monarch Butterflies.

I thought Monarchs were only out in the spring. After reading this article. I figured these are fourth generation Monarchs.

I agree with the article, "the most beautiful of all butterflies."

Dog Bed

Just like me, Mick made something for Poppins, a dog bed. Amie sent him an email with a photograph of the style she wanted. He purchased the legs, cut out of plywood the base and head board. He  stained everything and preset the screw holes so Amie could easily put it together.

There are two metal braces that hold the head board.

The bed was custom made to fit the dog bed. As you can see Poppins loves the bed.

Have you figured out that Poppins is very spoiled? Poppins has come a long way from the streets of LA.

Poppins

Poppins Pawprints is a mix of Jack Russell and Carin Terrier. Poppins belongs to Amie and was rescued off the downtown streets of LA by a women who works there. She watched him for several weeks getting thinner and thinner. She had to hire a vet to nurse him back to health, at a cost of $1,500. As a owner of four other dogs she put him up for adoption, listing him on Craig's List. Poppins was the first dog Amie saw online and decided right away that he was "the one."
Poppins, just under one year old, pictured on a sidewalk in Philly.

Can you figure out who is pictured on the below canvas?

 I made the below out of colored paper. Colored paper that I ran through a copy machine printing old book pages onto the paper. 

Once it was pieced together I sealed it with varnish. The canvas now sits on the mantel in Amie's apartment.

Turtle Nest

I'm so happy with myself that I didn't make the photo guess from Monday easy. It's a turtle nest found  along side of a railroad track. The eggs were soft shelled and so very neat to see. We looked for turtles but none where in site. There was a small stream running along the track. The nest was about nine inches deep and there were several eggs outside of the nest in addition to the two found inside.

 

Some facts found on the Internet:  Turtles lay their eggs on land. The females of most species lay eggs several times a year. The number of eggs deposited at a laying varies from one to more than 200, depending on the species and the individual. Eggs are round or oval and either soft- or hard-shelled. After laying the eggs, the female covers them with earth and leaves them.

Poppins

Amie has a dog, his name is Poppins Pawprints. He was rescued by a woman who watched him for several weeks run the streets of downtown Los Angeles. The woman already had three dogs and couldn't take another so she listed him on Craigslist. Poppins was the first dog Amie saw listed and knew right away he was the one.  

Poppins is well behaved and never barks. I guess when you spend several weeks as a puppy running the streets of downtown Los Angeles you behave for fear you may be sent back.

 Amie has a basket with clothes for Poppins. I watched her dress him & he actually seemed to like it. Amie bought his outfit thinking Eric would really like it.

I took about 100 photos of Poppins this one is my favorite.

Poppins enjoys going to the dog park and loves being able to run free.

You can friend Poppins Pawprints on facebook. Yes, he has his own facebook page. I'm sure he Amie would love to hear from you.

Red-headed Woodpecker

I didn't set out to take a photograph of this Red-headed Woodpecker, or any bird for that matter. I was out taking shots of a flower garden. For some reason birds just follow me. : ) Are you all getting tired of all my bird posts?  

I was only standing about 10 feet from this tree. The bird was not even concerned about me, or the owner of the flower garden standing so close.

I'm pretty sure the woodpecker is killing this tree. I think he is after the sap inside of the tree?? My second guess are insects???

You can see the sap running down the bark of the tree.

Can you believe I finally got a good bird photo?

Injured Bird

Keeping up with my bird theme. This is an American Goldfinch that flew into our family room window. It laid on the ground for about four hours. I got no closer than 10 feet to take the photo. I didn't want to give the poor bird a heart attack.

The rest of the flock continued right on eating not concerned.

I called Eric about the injured bird. I wanted to humanly end the birds suffering. I couldn't bring myself to do any of his suggestions. There are many cats in the neighborhood and I was afraid the bird would be taken away by a cat. I was so happy when I looked out just before dark to see the bird gone. I'm convinced it flew off and no cat was involved in the disappearance.

Bad Bird Photos

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird taken through a screen at Porter's house.

A Red-headed Woodpecker taken at Mom's house in Chittenango, standing inside her family room looking
out the open sliding glass door.

American Goldfinch taken through the window in our family room

About a month ago I saw a Baltimore Oriole in our backyard. I read in my Birds of New York Field Guide that they will come to oranges at feeders. 

I got online and read how to make an orange feeder. It's been up for four days but still no Baltimore Oriole.

Poppins Pawprints

Meet Poppins Pawprints.

 Poppins is Amie's shelter adopted dog. According to Amie, Poppins is well behaved, never barks & everyone he meets likes him, even non-dog-loving people. 

You know what they say about the dog & owner looking alike. I think know that is the reason Amie has on the Poppin colored headband.

You can "friend" Poppins on facebook.

Animal Shots

My son is training me well. He has me always on the lookout for animals along with their  tracks & droppings. I saw this deer track during my walk with Jim & Debbie.

I'm so trained that I knew this deer must have been hit by a car and then eaten to the bone by coyotes.

When I walked with Bonnie we saw no animals, not even a bird. Guess the weather was to bad. My favorite looking for animal signs in the woods remains this walk.

Feather a Nest

A got this idea from a craft show, they were selling filled for $18.00. I spent $3.00 for the suet feeder, bought at our grocery store.

Inside are pieces of yarn and stripes cut from a holey wool sock. I was thinking I could have also cut up an old sweater. You could even buy a cheap skein of yarn.

Per the craft show, the birds like to pick through for the pieces that are appealing to them.

I'm going to hang near our bird feeders come spring time. Come quick spring.

Start collecting your scraps over the winter and you can also feather a few nests for the birds in your neighborhood. I think I'm going to continue to collect and make a second one.

Canadian Geese

The Canadian Geese are migrating.

I couldn't get very close to the geese.

Every step I took into the field the geese walked the other way.

Eric's friend Brian got out of their car & yelled to scare them off.

Off they flew. It was a beautiful site & sound.

Birds

This was the view out my office window while I was happily eating my lunch one day last week.

I immediately stopped enjoying my lunch because I knew my bird feeders were hanging empty, for about two days. First thing I did was fill them up when I got home. Yes, I had my camera with me. I pretty much bring it with me where ever I go.

DownWind Outdoors

This poor little guy had a injured leg. The only animal at the farm, we think, that was hurt. Eric took a liking to him. Eric LOVES animals. He always has. You wouldn't know he has such a liking to animals by his new website and hunting endeavors.
Take a few minutes actually, several minutes are required to look over his website.
DownWind Outdoors
Don't worry about losing the link because I will continue to have it listed on the left sidebar of the blog. Make sure you "Sign the Guestbook" and turn your speakers on prior to going to
DownWind Outdoors.

Bird Feeder

I bought a new bird feeder and it's filled with peanuts. I bought it for the wood peckers that I've occasionally seen and always hear in the yard. Within two days I had two wood peckers at the feeder, one at a time. They won't share.

I wasn't able to photograph a wood pecker but I did get a blue jay.
With my camera not working properly it's very difficult to get any shots in focus. Especially shooting at a distance.

I do like how this shot looks, broken camera and all.

A bridge & butterflies.

Last week while driving home from the Adirondacks we stopped at a dirt pull off along the side of the road. While walking down the dirt path we came across about 60 yellow butterflies.

They started to fly away before I could get a picture of the entire group. We have no idea of the type or why they were all together in one area. It was the neatest thing to see.
Once I bent down to take a ground level photo they flew away.

Farther down the path was a suspension bridge.

I've driven by this pull off so many times and never knew all this was back there. I want to go back this fall.