Category: RTR

The birds have continued to enjoy our feeders in the pine tree outside the Kitchen window!

Here’s a male White-Breasted Nuthatch…

And a male Hairy Woodpecker, hangin’ around on the tree, deciding between the seeds and the suet! …

And this little one… I’m sure they’ve been around before, and we’ve had lots feeding here this Spring, but we never knew what kind they were. This is a female Pine Siskin! …

Here’s a male Downy Woodpecker! The main difference between the Downy Woodpecker and the Hairy Woodpecker is size… the Downy is quite a bit smaller.

And, a brand new bird for Redtail Rise!! Brian and I had never seen this little guy before! We’re just a wee bit north of his range, and he only visited twice. I was lucky to get a few photos on his second visit! This is a male Lazuli Bunting! …

Share-zies!! In the left photo a male Hairy Woodpecker and a male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak; in the right photo, a female Pine Siskin and a male Lazuli Bunting …

And in this collage… on the left this male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak was outside the Living Room bay window! And on the right, he’s in the pine tree outside the Kitchen window.

Now that we’re well into May, lots of birds are around!! Some have been here all Winter, and some are arriving back to stay until Fall. Some even just passed through, only spending a couple days here.

Here is the Dark-Eyed Junco …

And the White-Throated Sparrow …

Last week, this juvenile Cooper’s Hawk was in our front flower bed. When I startled him while closing the front window, he went to a nearby spruce tree, and was kind enough to hang around until I got my camera and snapped some photos of him! 😃

Here’s a male Tree Swallow, and in the right photo, under the crescent moon …

Male & female Tree Swallows up on a wire!

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks are back! The male gives the name, the female has quite a soft yellow on the breast. This is the first year we’ve known who she is!

A female Downy Woodpecker is checking out a male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak! Well, maybe she’s protecting her suet! 😃

The Blue Jays have been around all Winter …

Here’s a new one for us, although I suspect they’ve been around and we just didn’t notice them or know their name … a Chipping Sparrow! This one was sitting outside the Living Room bay window, and was content to stay around while I took his photo!

As the snow started melting off, we got to work in the yard and flower gardens. I just couldn’t look anymore at a yard filled with Winter’s caa-caa from 4 dogs… so out came the rake – around the house, as the snow disappeared.

Then it was… tackle the flower gardens, as they thaw out! First, the front of the house – cleaning up from last year! Before …

And after; much better! …

I checked on the asparagus we planted last year. It was a “two-year root”, but only put up one shoot for each plant. This Spring … wow! lots coming! This is the first time either of us has grown it, so we’ll see how it progresses and when we can eat it!

Linda & Al shared their bearded iris with us! Thanks Linda & Al! A few went into the Front Bed …

And a few went into the beds by the stone stairs …

Yet another snow storm! This is the 4th time in the last 5 weeks that we’ve had a dump of over 6″!!

It snowed most of the day yesterday (Good Friday), but it didn’t “stick”. Then the temperature dropped enough at supper time … and by the time we were up this morning there was 8″ of new snow and the sun was shining!

These photos were taken at about 10 am, and in the 2½ hours since they were taken… it has clouded over and snowed, then the sun peaked out with it snowing at the same time, then more cloud & snow, and now the sun is out again and we’re back to blue sky! It’s gonna be a mixed up kind of day!

And we are wondering … will Spring ever arrive????????

We’ve been enjoying the milder weather and new snow! We had 8″ of new snow on Saturday, the 1st and a glorious cross-country ski in the sun on Monday, the 3rd!

The dogs have to dig out their paws… frequently!

Out in the pasture…

Getting the doggies organized… well trying to, with two of them!

Sundance and Aengus…

Panorama from the NE corner of our Quarter…

In the woods…

After nearly two weeks of chinooks, a storm blew in from the north on Saturday (Feb 1st). We were supposed to get an inch or so of snow… well, they sure got THAT forecast wrong! In about four hours we got 8″ of snow!!

On Sunday, we got up to beautiful, blue skies!! Perfect for taking snow photos!! But, dang it, as I waited for it to warm up a smidge, the dang clouds came in! I was able to get a couple photos before I lost the sun completely.

I strapped on my snowshoes and off I went…

Still beautiful blue sky off to the east and northeast!!

It was the perfect snow to get caught up in the dogs’ paws! Sundance is almost 12 years old… other than some white around his eyes and muzzle, he’s still young-looking and is in great shape! He still loves to run!!

And then the sun was completely gone! Here are some photos in the woods…

And wouldn’t ya know it? The blue sky was back and the sun came out several hours later! Brian plowed us out, the ponies were fed and the dogs had a second run!

We’ve had a lovely week, full of chinook arches and temperatures above 0°C (32°F). Even a couple nights stayed above freezing! After a long, cold blast, it has been very welcome! It has been wonderful to get out to walk with the dogs this week!

Here are some photos from yesterday’s walk, at about 4:35 pm:

And the sun going down, just peaking out below the chinook arch, at about 4:55 pm

The arch passed over us sometime after we went to bed, and we woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning with lots of blue sky! Gotta love chinooks in the dead of Winter!!