In celebration of nature with wooden things for Thursday's challenge

The theme for today's Thursday Challenge is "wooden". This is an appropiate theme for me to show and display the wood working talents of my husband David. David has a talent for wood carving and several years ago made this crow box. The sliding top of the box has a crow resting on it on the open page of the book. The book is also appropriate for Dr. Dave as David is a rertired high school administer and in his latter years of teaching before retirement he taught classes at the university level..A few years ago being a bit short of closet space, David built this wardrobe shown above and he decorated one side of it with a hunting scene with a hunter on a horse accompanied with two hunting dogs and at the top two birds can be seen in flight.

This is a beautiful piece of furniture. The horses head shown above

two birds in flight I have added this picture to correct the hunting scene. Actually the hunter on horseback is a falconer and above can be seen a falcon in pursuit of the two birds in flight.
David also has used his carpentry skills outdoors in our dooryard by fully enclosing our yard and gardens with a fence. The fence has many gates which serve to keep the deer out and our grandchildren in.
Some parts of the fence only serve a decorative purpose such as this corner piece that we call the humming bird fence shown above.
This structure shown above we call the bower. I am using this structure as a place for pole beans to grow this summer. Without the intrusion of deer into out garden I am looking forward to a crop of unnibbled pole beans this summer. Also within the enclosure are tomato plants which we look forward to at harvesting time.. We were delighted last summer when one of our visiting grandsons excitedly discovered this secret garden room.
This is a pergola at the end of our bird watching area of our yard which we call Bird Alley. This structure attracts many birds which has Virgina Creeper and American Bittersweet growing over it.

And every garden needs a bridge such as this one shown above. It crosses over a 'pretend' little stream. The bed of the pretend stream is rock lined with rocks which we have gathered. And sometimes in the spring there is even water running in our little brook!

I hope you have enjoyed my show and tell post of wooden things created by my talented husband David. Hopefully some day I can show pictures of a little covered bridge crossing the ditch which runs alongside our property.

Thursday Challenge is a meme which offers a different theme each week. This week's theme is wooden. To join in on the fun you can find this meme at:http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

A young American Redstart for World Bird Wednesday

I have had a lot of difficulty in identifying this 1st spring male American Redstart. The distinctive upside down 'V' yellow shape on its wing really had me confused until this morning whenI found an illustration ( on p. 391) in my third edition copy of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, that showed that yellow 'v' on its wings that had been confusing me so much. I should have gone with my first hunch, for when I came home yesterday I told my husband I had found a juvenile American Redstart. The clue that brought Redstart to my mind was its yellow tail feather spread that it exhibited and I was able to capture in some of my pictures shown below. We have had juvenile Redstarts in Bird Alley other summers and when I had seen the bird 'fan' its tail feathers :that is what I had thought; that it was a Redstart. I believe my first hunch was right. These little birds are really quick in their busy flitting about and so I had just had aimed my camera at the general area in the bushes where I had seen the Redstart. I think I was lucky to get the images I have. The yellow tail spread shown above is characteristic of a first spring male American Redstart as it 'fanned' its tail feathers.
another feature of this Redstart that I hadn't known about until reading about it in my National Geographic field guide is that this little species is that the first spring male Redstart has black lores. This little guy bird sure does have 'sooty- looking eyes!
And a first spring male Redstart will have black spotting on its breast. This little bird has one dark spot.

So, did I see a first spring male Amerian Redstart? Yes! quite definitely!

Got pictures of birds you would like to share? Why not post them on Worldbird Wednesday? http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/To find out how, please scroll down the right hand side of this page until you come to the worldbird logo, click on it and follow the directions from there

Poppies for Ruby Tuesday

Our poppies were magnificent this year! And they all came into bloom at once. This doesn't always happen. Other years we would have a bloom here and there, which seemed to extend their period of beauty. But now most of the blossoms are gone and I can see many seed heads( which I really like) in our poppy bed, but no matter their beauty is captured here in these photos!













Got photos with red? Why not share them by posting them to
Ruby Tuesday. To find this delightful red focused meme, please click here.http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/

A Bobolink and A Flicker

Yesterday afternoon I told my husband I was taking a drive over to Sunpoke, a nearby rural area to find a Bobolink. In the past summers we often would find Bobolink here sitting on power lines overlooking meadows. I wasn't having any luck until I saw a shadowy looking bird on an overhead wire. I couldn't distinguish any of its markings from where I was sitting in my car but I took its picture anyway.After having downloaded this picture I decided to do some photo editing to see if I could' id' it! Imagine my surprise when I took away the shadows!And much to my surprise and delight I discovered I had taken a picture of a male Bobolink!
Also yesterday I noticed many Flickers 'flitting about, but most of them were too fast for me to capture a decent picture of one. This is all I was able to get but I love the setting of this Flicker perched on a end of a trimmed branch on this old tree. The yellow in the background at the bottom of the picture is of a field full of buttercups! So lovely!

Yellow Rattle and Yellow Hawkweed for Mellow Yellow Monday

Yellow Rattle is a wildflower that I had not known as a child but I was delighted when I stumbled upon its discovery just a few years ago. Since my finding of it, I find it at the same place every year. It is a fascinating bloom.

Yellow Hawkweed This wildflower is a favourite of mine., especially the orange red variety. This wildflower is everywhere now along the roadsides and in meadows and fields.

Got pictures with yellow that you would like to share? Why not post them on Mellow Yellow Monday, a delightful meme that focuses on the colour yellow?Just clink here:http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/ to access this meme

Lupines growing everywhere! for Scenic Sunday

This is s view of the old railroad bridge framed in the forefront by a gully full of lupines.


At this time of year lupines are growing wild everywhere!
We even have them growing in our garden!

Scenic Sundayhttp://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/ is a meme where you can share the beauty your camera has captured for your enjoyment and for the enjoyment of others too. Please scroll along the right side of this page to the scenic Sunday icon and click to share with others and also to view what others have shared. Have a wonderful day!

A Moose and her calf for camera critters

This is what we had seen this morning along the Branch Road on our way to Oromocto. At first we just saw the huge cow moose cross the highway and it wasn't until as she entered the woods on the other side of the road that we saw the calf all alone on the road. We stopped our truck to wait and watch. Within a matter of seconds, the cow appeared on the highway again and walked over to her calf. The calf was a bit frisky and contrary and changed directions as the mother encouraged it to walk with her. Within a very short while the calf cooperated and theMoose pair crossed the highway and entered the woods. So, we assuming our passage was safe and clear continued on with out journey. This was a super wonderful sighting!

Camera Critters is a meme where all sorts of critter photos are posted. If you are curious or would like to post your own photos like I have then please go to:http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/

Yesterday's roadside Meanderings

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I have no problem identifying this Painted Turtle shown above. I took this picture from my car parked along the roadside just above this little pond in the picture.This butterfly above and the little skipper on this page has sent me scurrying for my field guides. I love the discovery aspect of trying to id some unknown beautiful winged creature creature that I have encountered throughout the day. I am guessing that the tiny butterfly shown above is a SPRING AZURE ( form marginata)
This COMMON RINGLET shown above was familiar to me. It is a favourite of mine of the late spring butterflies that I often find at this time of year.And I'm guessing that this little skipper shown above is a Peck's Skipper!

Wow, what infinite variety and fascinating beauty in nature there is to behold in the great outdoors. I just can't catch up on the posting all of the things I have seen lately.

Tomorrow a Snapping Turtle. pictures of a snapping turtle, seen after it had laid its eggs this morning and I watched it until it returned to the river from where it had come from. what a marvelous creature it was!

a dragonfly reflection for weekend reflections

This is perhaps not the sort of reflection that is expected for this meme , however I thought it was quite striking and unique. I think it might be a Stream Cruiser dragonfly. I found it attached to the blossom of s purple vetch along the roadside. I couldn't get a good, sharp , clear photo of it and thought it might be dead as it displayed no movement when I jiggled the stalk of the plant it was on. still, no movement, so I picked the flower, dragonfly and all. I had considered taking the dead dragonflyhome to take a good picture of it with my macro lens. I had laid the purple vetch blossom and the dragonfly on the hood of my car and then I saw a slight quivering and vibration in its wings. As I watched it moved its legs and wings and then flew away!!!! Wow! Surprise!!, so I got no maco photos of this beautiful creature.

Weekend Reflectionshttp://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com/:is a meme where you can view beautiful reflections captured by others. Just click on the logo on the right to see what others have captured with their cameras

Cliff Swallow Update

For those of you who are following the progress of the Cliff Swallow and its nest building, You well be happy to see in the photo above, a second Cliff Swallow!. ( to the lower left , you can see the top of the second swallow's head) Its appears that a mate has been found! Yea!. Also you can note that the nest construction has developed a bit further if you compare today's picture with that of the header. I will update daily as changes occur. It was wonderful to see the second bird in the nest this morning.