A Snowbird in Paradise

I looked up from the computer yesterday afternoon to see a HAWK perched on the top of the birdfeeder shepherd's hook. I reached for the camera just as he opened those wings and flapped off.

He was a small hawk, only a little larger than the largest of the blackbirds. The dull brown with bits of white on the wing tips and tail are perfect camouflage. His back was to me but he turned his head and the hooked beak was unmistakable.

The absence of all other birds for a while after he left was unmistakable, too. What a cafeteria my garden must be for him!

The girls enjoy wandering around the garden but I am not getting much help this year. I will be having the younger DGD some days while her mother tutors and her sister is in the Performance Camp. It is really the older of the two who would be the most help, though. I still have some veggie seeds to plant, zinnias, and vegetable beds to weed.

The weeds in my garden path drive me to distraction! I just get it weeded and another variety pops up. I doused it with Preen but that only lasts so long and some weed varieties just don't care. So, I bought a propane weed torch! It is a "Man's Toy" but this woman likes it, too!

It works very well on cement, patio-block, my gravel path and along the fence line. There was a moment when I was hitting the weeds where the fence crosses from my neighbor's grass to weed cloth topped with hay topped with mulch. That hay catches fire real easily, doesn't it? Fortunately I had a hose handy.

I killed back the weeds that sprouted in the expansion strips in the cement between the sunroom and the pool. ALso, I hit the weeds along the back fence. Those were some tall weeds!

Now I just have to see how long the weeds are gone. I am sure I will have to hit the path once a month or so.

I think almost all of the containers are planted, now. At last count there were 24.

1. a half-whisky tub of a cherry tomato and 8 herbs
2, 3, 4. three railing planters of bright red geraniums, chartreuse sweet potato vine, and white licorice vine
5. a huge coffee cup planter of begonias...deep red
6, 7, 8. three tiers of geraniums, trailing vines, several varieties of nemesia
9, 10. two tiers of sage in the center pot and 2 different kinds of thyme in the lower planter
11. a huge pot by the doorwall of spikes, and left over filler plants and trailers
12. a long planter of purple bean plants (from my Indiana fellow gardener) hoping to climb my trellis
13, 14. two pots of caladiums from Florida IF the squirrel didn't ruin them
15. a terra cotta pot in a wrought iron holder of nemesia, petunia, licorice, and two geraniums left from last year. If they don't make it the rest will fill in.
16. a little wood slat wheelbarrow of coleus, geranium, trailing plants and a petunia
17. a twig garden cart planted with a little of everything
18. a large round green bowl with a little of everything sitting on an old chair in the corner of the garden
19. a watering can rescued from the trash planted with a tall pink Nemesia and frosty Euphorbia
20. a red basket fo coleus, licorice, nemesia, creeping jenny, spikes
21. a decorative pot (from FranRV) still to fill
22. another terra cotta pot to fill
23, 24. two small "strawberry pots" yet to fill. Now that I know from TV the best way to plant those I am anxious to try.





Bought from the nursery:
3 Black Heart ipomoea batatas (sweet potato vine)
3 Tri-Color ipomoea batatas
6 Margarita ipomoea batatas
White Licorice hellichrysum petiolare
Raspberry sunsatia
Magella Purple perilla nemesia
Flying Colors Coral diaseia (twinspur)
Goldilocks lysimachia nummularia (creeping jenny)
Diamond Frost euphorbia
Silver Dust dusty miller
mixed double Madness petunia
blue lobelia
Solstice Chocolate Regal pelargonium
Compact Pink Innocence nemesia fruticand (twinspur)
ALSO:
pre-planted containers of herbs, perennials, and vegetables which I took apart and replanted.

But, DARN! They look GOOD!

There is a single long island parallel to our 5 little one s, here at the North end of Lake Erie. That long island is a lovely community having its "special weekend" now. At one time, the South tip of the island held a thriving Naval Air Base. Now it is a municipal airport. Private airplanes, small cargo operations, and other endeavors utilize what is left of the old buildings. So, on this special weekend there is a lot of activity in the sky opposite my particular island. There is the morning Fly-by of the Air Force Jets. With the Red Bull Air Races up-river, the Fly-By is doing double duty. At noon a formation of World War II fighter planes flew the length of the river and turned right above us. I was too late for a picture then, but the camera is ready NOW. Who knows what else is going to come into view.


Later in the summer there is another happening at the airport...a "fly-in" of historic war planes known as "The Confederate Air Force". That weekend I need a sound recorder more than a camera. Having spent those WWII days at my grandmother's house within sight of the airbase, I heard fighters and cargo planes on an hourly basis. To hear those sounds again takes me right back to those days...happy for me, but difficult as war years always are. I try to explain things to my way-younger brother and my dear 50s Man, who is just enough younger than I am not to remember the War Years. There is no way to transfer the nostalgia from my memory to theirs.

It finally happened BOTH woodpeckers on the feeder at the same time.

Can you see her? That is a female Mallard swimming in my FOUNTAIN! Now, mind you, she has been swimming in the water standing in my pool cover, about 30' x 15'. Not to mention that she has all of Lake Erie less than a block away.

Once last year I saw a male Baltimore Oriole in my birdbath. I could hear their call once in a while so I knew they were around.

"Oranges!" it said on Wild Birds Unlimited. "They cannot resist oranges." I was determined to get them coming to the yard regularly so I got two oranges from my neighbor and hung two halves in the suet feeder. Another I hung further out in the yard just on a whimsical little dish on a chain. I didn't know what to do with the last half so I just put it on my deck railing about 5 feet away from the doorwall.

You can guess where I first saw the male...that's right...at the "extra" orange half. He was too fast for the camera but now I know they are around.

Today I snapped these photos. I suspect the first is the female and the second is a juvenile fledgling. The male is just SOOO bright I can't mistake him.

Coming home to Michigan late in April usually means an overgrown garden but, honestly, this year wasn't so bad. The problem has been the rain. I am not about to go out and garden in the rain.

This is the first year to have my lovely back deck/porch since it wasn't completed until last fall. How handy that is! I have a few adjustments for my son to make when he comes by, but it is quite a delight.

The birds practically sit on my lap. They come right on the deck while I am sitting there. Even while my granddaughters are there, if they are quiet. I was amazed that they sit on the birdfeeders while I am on the porch, but coming right on the porch was a complete surprised.

The first thing I cleaned up for summer was the pond and fountain.

This year there will be as many containers of annuals in the garden as I can manage. This twig-cart was a rescue from my daughter's lake house. With the addition of a cocoa mat from ACO and good potting soil it went from plastic and silk artificial plants to real.

The planter will get a liberal dose of Miracle Gro spray every couple of weeks, but there is enough in the potting soil for the next couple of weeks. The cart is much darker in the rain and I like that look, too. I am going to take photos of the planters throughout the summer as the contents grow.

Every year I mourn leaving the larger-than-life Florida animals and flowers. Then, once I am back North, there are always wonderful surprises.

One of my daughters left a ceramic bird seed dish and seed when she visited my house while I was gone. It isn't high-tech, but looked cute on the railing of my back porch/deck. The birds took right to the new feeder in spite of its close proximity to the house and my doorwall. First the common sparrows and doves then the following photo!


Last year my brother and sister-in-law gave me a finch feeder and thistle seed like they use. I finally got a pair of yellow finches along with some purple or red house finches and some sparrows who really TRIED to reach the seed by hanging upside down. They are nowhere near the acrobats that the Goldfinches are.

This year there have been more Goldfinches! I am delighted.



The birds aren't the only early spring visitors.


Of course, I have been scrapbooking the photos!