Backyard Visitors--and Other Things

Guess I am becoming very lazy in my old age. I have really been neglecting my blog.But I've been doing other things that I really enjoy--like genealogy. I love doing genealogy, even when it's not my own. I have been working on my neighbor's lines. It absolutely blows my mind how much genealogical material is on the internet now. I love it!!

Anyway, that's not the reason, I'm writing this post. I have been bemoaning the fact that we haven't gotten any rain on our little piece of Paradise. Everyone else seems to be getting it but not us. I see the dark skies every afternoon and I hear the thunder but do we get any of it? Noooooo. Boo hiss. Remember my beautiful creek? This is what it looked like a couple of months ago.

Well take a look at what it looks like now.

Very depressing. The other day one of the ducks tried to get through the muck and mud to get up to where I feed them. Haven't seen a duck since. Even the turtles don't come around although you can see where they plowed their way through the mud--one time.
It has been so HOT down here, I haven't really enjoyed sitting out on the deck anyway, but it does cool off some in the evening so I go out and read for awhile. The other night, the trees were alive with the sound of music. (No, not the hills, the trees!) Cardinals, Doves, Grackles and Mocking Birds. I thought I only had a pair of Cardinals but I spotted at least 5. I thought I only had Ground Doves but I spotted at least 4 Ring Necked Doves too. Now the Grackles don't exactly sing or coo. In fact they can be downright annoying but I still enjoyed watching them. I had to grab my camera and take some pictures. Here is what I got.
Then last night I looked out the front door and this is what I saw. Unfortunately the colors didn't come out too great but it was still an amazing sight.
Then this morning, I looked out the front door just as the sun was coming up and spotted this gorgeous sky.
So, the water in the creek may be gone and the ducks and turtles don't come to visit anymore, but I do still have the birds and the beautiful Sanibel sunsets and sunrises. Guess I can't complain too much. But I still would like a little rain just for the heck of it.

Sights From My Deck

Ok, so maybe you guys get tired of seeing sights from my deck, but I never do. I have learned never to go out there without a camera now. Here are just a few of my recent sightings.

Of course there are the ever present Common Grackles. Loud, noisy, obnoxious but still kind of fun to watch.This little dove and his/her mate come and visit quite often. I usually find them hanging out on the deck when I come out. Then there is this guy. He is not my favorite visitor. I think this is a Black Racer. Non poisonous. But--I just do not like snakes--one bit!! The creek is FULL of minnows right now. Our creek or weir as it is properly called was made for mosquito control and they seed it with mosquito larvae eating minnows. I'm not sure if all of these are those kind of minnows but if they are then we shouldn't have a problem this summer! I have seen a couple of exotic looking salt water type minnows or fish or there too. And, I saw a couple of foot long fish the other day. Maybe I need to get a fishing pole. Last year we had tons of warblers, cardinals and buntings around but I hadn't seen any this year and was afraid that the Grackles had scared them off. Then my friend told me that I was putting out the wrong kind of seed so I put out seed to attract these guys and guess what--they came. Yay.

Beautiful little Painted Bunting.

I think this is a Palm Warbler--but I could be wrong.

Then of course, we have Donny and Marie who still haven't produced any offspring that I know of.

Then we have the Lone Ranger--or the Lone Duck. And of course the Lone Duck has a couple of buddies.

My bird feeders are actually over the water so the turtles have discovered that they REALLY like bird seed. Most of the turtles are covered with moss or yuck or whatever and take off swimming when I come close. But this beautiful Florida Red Belly Turtle whom I have named Sasha actually comes right up to me and begs. And of course my deck is a haven for all of my flowers--geraniums, hibiscus and of course my numerous orchids. This past week we had a monsoon type rain. Usually by this time of year the creek has pretty much dried up and you can actually walk or jump across to the other side. Not this year! During the rainstorm, I looked out the back door and found this lovely egret taking refuge in a tree right across from me. So I guess, now you can understand why I never get tired of my deck. In fact, I think I'm going to grab an adult beverage and my book and head out there right now!!

Mid Morning Visitors

I took my book, my coffee and my camera out on the deck this morning. These were my visitors.

Views from my Deck

As I'm sure I have mentioned many times, I LOVE my deck. It is what sold us on the place and even though we could move to a bigger place, there is no way I would give up this deck and it's location. This winter has been unusual. This is supposedly the dry season and the creek (or weir as it is officially called) pretty much dries up. This winter, we still have water up under the deck. We had a horrible rain storm Friday and got about 5.5 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Since our creek is part of a bigger system, they can control it so it doesn't flood. And on Friday, afternoon, they did open the floodgates and drain out some of the excess. Because of this, the water birds were out in an abundance yesterday and were having a feeding frenzy. It was difficult to get pictures but I did get a few. I'm sure that you can probably spot two little duckies making their way toward me. That would be Donny and Marie, a pair of Mottled Ducks who know a good thing when they see it. They found someone who is a pushover and who knows enough not to feed them bread. This someone actually went out and bought a fifty pound bag of duck chow so she would be prepared. So now, Donny and Marie visit several times a day! Yesterday, as the other birds were flying all over the place, these two spotted me and made a beeline through all the flapping wings to get their chow. That would be Donny (he's a little bit country) on the left and Marie (she's a little bit rock and roll) on the right. I'm waiting for the day they show up with a whole family of Osmonds--I mean Duckies. I do have other visitors too. I have a couple of bird feeders and I've had quite a few visitors. This pair of Mourning Doves can be seen hanging around quite often. They've been here the past two or three years as a matter of fact. A couple of years ago, I did a "soft release" for CROW of a Common Grackle. This means that they are ready for the wild but you give them a place where they can come back for food for a few days if they want to. He never came back for the food then but the past two springs, a Grackle does appear at my feeder and I would like to think it is the same guy "coming home to roost". I have also spotted a male and female cardinal and a gorgeous Painted Bunting. I haven't been able to get pictures of them this year but here they are last spring. I'm sure it's the same ones. I've had a beautiful Great Egret out back on several occasions and this gorgeous Little Blue Heron. As you can expect, I go out on the deck several times a day (with my camera) just to see who might be visiting. Chances are, it will be Donny and Marie but you never know who you might find.