Hummingbird Visit!

I glanced out our window today and saw something moving quickly in our honeyberry bushes, then saw a flash of red-orange. I thought the bees were in our bushes. When it flew out of the bushes and into our apple tree I realized it was a hummingbird!
We get them sometimes in May and August on their way through to warmer places.
Last summer I put out the hummingbird feeder and never saw one, so I was pretty excited to see this ruby-throated hummingbird!

Here he is cleaning his bill, moving it back and forth over the branch.
He sat there for quite awhile.
I took pictures through the window and between the railings on our deck,
so the focusing was a little tricky.
His throat was sometimes bright red, at other times, like in the picture below it was dark.

I hope it doesn't get too cold tonight because at about 7 degrees they go torpid and can't move until they warm up. As soon as I saw him I got out the feeder and started boiling sugar water.

According to my bird book, hummingbirds weigh about as much as a quarter.
They are capable of speeds up to about 100 km/hr!
They beat their wings 75 times a second. How is that possible?
Their migration across the Gulf of Mexico is a non-stop journey of 1030 kilometers!

I marvel more and more at the incredible variety in God's creation!
I find it more and more amazing that some people can study nature
and still not believe in a Creator.

Fun with Raindrops

This morning I noticed the trees were budding nicely so went out to take some spring pictures.
I got sidetracked on raindrop reflections.

Some of the drops showed reflections, others didn't.

I had to crop some of the pictures rather severely.
I guess I need a macro lense!

I love macro because you can see things that you can't see with the naked eye.

This was one that I cropped severely, but its fun to see a clear refection close up!

Butterfly House

This is a Blue Morpho Butterfly and it is huge - about 5 inches across when open.

When the wings are closed it is brown, but when it is open it is bright blue,

as in the picture below.

It was beautiful when flying because the blue showed,

and because it was so large.

Definately the one we enjoyed the most!

Here is the Blue Morpho with its wings open.

It was hard to photograph the blue side because usually as soon as it rested it closed its wings, but I managed to catch this one in a corner resting with open wings.

Gorgeous color!

I don't know the names of the other butterflies.

Pretty, but much smaller.

Most of the butterflies were a different variety
than I saw last summer at the Butterfly house, but this one was a repeat.
Its wings were longer and narrower than most others.


This butterfly was very busy, its wings going quickly and constantly,
so I set my camera to sports and took a bunch of pictures in a row,
and they came out not too badly considering how quickly the wings were going.

I loved its long tails!

Enjoying the Birds Again!

I took my slr camera with my new telephoto lense to the marsh

yesterday and got some nice red-winged blackbird shots.

Here's a kildeer doing its broken-wing act to detract me from a nest.

I've seen a couple of geese lying like this on a mound.

I'd say she has morning sickness!

Choosing to See

This is not how it should be
This is not how it could be,
But this is how it is
and our God is in control.

This is not how it will be
When we finally see,
We'll see with our own eyes
He was always in control.

This is not where we planned to be
when we started this journey,
but this is where we are
and our God is in control.

Though this first taste is bitter
there will be sweetness forever
when we finally taste and see
that our God is in control.

-From "Our God is in Control" by Steve Curtis Chapman and Mary Beth Chapman.
Quoted in the book "Choosing to See" by Mary Beth Chapman.

Robin and Cranberries

A couple of robins have been hanging around and I felt badly for them because of all the snow, so I set some dried cranberries out for them. You can see one half hidden in front of the robin.

He's playing it cool because he knows I'm watching him from the kitchen.

Then he quickly grabs it. And down it goes! He ate a couple more and then flew away.

Our tulips are up!

Aren't they gorgeous?

April Fools!!!

My tulips are still buried under this much snow!

However, there are signs of spring.

The geese are back,

(look closely or double click and you'll see the tongue of the goose on the left)

and the house sparrows are pairing up and in and out of our birdhouse.

Another 2 months should see our tulips in bloom!