A Visit to a Nature Paradise (For Me)...

Very dear old friends invited us out to their house last night for a barbeque. They live out in the country on a rather large piece of land that has coyotes and beavers in residence (their pond keeps getting larger and larger). Now I have never seen these critters when out there, but can see what they have done! I might add that the chipmunks were amazingly abundant -- more so than I have seen elsewhere.


Of course I forgot my camera as I had wanted to get pictures of their miniature horse and goats while I was there. (The goats have found a new home as the miniature horse was not at all fond of the baby.) He seems to be just as happy by himself spoiled rotten by Nola (you could have eaten off the stall floor, it was so clean). I was really sorry that I forgot my camera when I saw their bird feeders and a virtual bird sanctuary in visiting colorful birds!! I borrowed my friend Peg's camera and did what I could (it was getting late and I was not familiar with her camera).

I took this picture of a male Baltimore oriole through a screen at night so forgive the blurriness! What a stunningly beautiful bird it was. They were there constantly feeding on grape jelly in a feeder!!

There was a hummingbird feeder next to this feeder that constantly had hummingbirds at it. These were right outside the living room window.


This was a rose breasted grosbeak -- you can barely see the bright red patch on his chest. They were there constantly also. I saw nuthatches and chickadees and lots of woodpeckers (I think hairy but could have been yellow bellied sapsuckers). There were also some sparrow like birds I couldn't identify. They also have nesting bluebirds -- the eggs haven't hatched yet.

These next two were really beautiful wildflowers, neither of which I could identify although my friend Peg though the second might be yarrow.

I will be returning to try to get some decent pictures hopefully this week but in the meantime...my dear sister will give me credit for these birds as I did get pictures, albeit not good ones! (Her husband claims that if I don't have a picture, I didn't see it!)

We had a wonderful time and played Mexican Train well into the evening -- late for us oldsters who had an hour drive home as well!