...said the Spider to the Fly

Here's a little drama... I saw this commotion outside my office window a while ago. Seems a dragonfly's GPS guided the hapless insect smack into this garden spider's web. It only took a minute for the spider to "pacify" the dragonfly, wrap it for transport, and cut it loose from it's moorings. Guess it's stored for winter by now.

We've gotten used to these large, but (supposedly) harmless, arachnids that haunt the eaves that surround our old farmhouse. It's live and let live!

Chunking Up for Winter

Hi folks...
Seems I haven't uploaded anything since the spring. My photo hobby usually runs hot and cool... I'll shoot like mad for a year or two and then go on to other interests. This time, I've discovered woodworking with mostly hand tools. I set up shop in our barn and spend most of my hobby time working on one skill/project or another.

Anyway... found this little critter doing his/her best to devour some winter fuel. The pic is a little dark but then, it was dark!

Hope to be shooting a little more this winter when it's just too darned cold to work with tools in the unheated shop.

The "Worth Your Life" Trail

It's been rather slim pickin's in the photography pasttime lately. That explains the lack of photos, I guess. A few weeks ago we had several freeze/thaw episodes which left our trails about as treacherous as I've ever experienced. Traversing a nice, flat skating rink would have been a piece of cake compared to these death slides! I wouldn't even think of trying them without my ice cleats on... and even then it was scary.

Morning Coffee with the Evening Grosbeaks

This platform feeder I built onto an old fence post has proven a winner from day one. Groups of jays, crows, blackbirds, siskins, finches, grosbeaks, chickadees, sparrows of all kinds, and, of course, SQUIRRELS, enjoy the free lunch from morning 'til night.

I'm going to try growing patches of sunflowers this year to see if I can cut down the expense of buying black oil sunflower seed for these critters. I hope they don't get too disappointed when I shut down my feathered restaurants for the summer and autumn. There's plenty to eat without me footing the bill, so to speak.

Here's a few more of our feathered friends

Yup... More of dem CDs

Some people might wonder why I stand around in bone-chilling temperatures waiting to take a picture of chickadees. Sometimes I wonder myself. But every once in a 100 pictures or so I get lucky. I think the psychological principle of "intermittent reinforcement" is hard at work encouraging me to try again and again.

Spear'd One!

Thank you to this pretty Chickadee for posing with a black oil seed impaled on its beak.