Do you remember?
Less then two weeks till Christmas, three parties down and three to go. The weather has turned, there is snow on the ground and more to come. The lakes are iced over and now I must wait. Wait and wait, wait until the ice is thick enough to go out on. I will wait for the Darwin fishermen (that's what you call someone that goes through the ice or thinning of the gene pool) to go out. If the ice will holds them and I test it and it is 4-5 inches thick, then game on. That could be next weekend for me.
With the onset of cold temps, the Woodpeckers have been busy at the suet feeders this week. I thought I would show you two of the five types that visit our backyard. This female Pileated Woodpecker is 17" in length, compared to this female Downy Woodpecker, that is only 6" in length. The Pileated is very odd looking, and at one time was called the "Oh my gash Woodpecker" due to its size.
A red Christmas it is! The dreaming is over, the house is red from top to bottom. The neighbors are seeing red. Keep watching for more photo's to come.
Look who is sharing the trail with us. Yep, for the third time this year, Kim and I have run into Coyotes. This time, just two miles from our house. No wonder the rabbit population is down in our area. He or she walked down the trail as if they owned the place, and in natures why they do. But once it went in to the tall grass, it blending right in.
Keeping with last weeks blog, I thought I would show some more examples of what to look for. Do you see the two Tree Sparrows along the side of the road. Click on the photos and you will see them. Hawks are the easy ones this time of year. Just look in the trees to large vertical objects, off smaller branches.
How do you see that? That was the questions that I use to ask my late brother Tom. We would be driving down the road, walking through some field and he would say " Did you see that!" and I would always say " See what?" Tom taught me to look for was does belong in what you are looking at. We all get tunnel vision, we drive the same way home, walk the same path or you spouse buys something new and just sets it out waiting for the 48 hour rule to kick in. Our brains get used to looking at the same thing over and over. This Sharped Tail Grouse blends in very nice in to the leafs. Or look into the stream, notice the Snapping turtle? So look around next time you are out or even in your own home. You never know what you will find. "Did you see that!"
The move south is in full swing in our area. The residents of the tundra and Boreal Forest are traveling to warmer climate. I found these family of Sand Hill Cranes on a back road of Wisconsin on their way to Texas.
These American Wigeons are heading to the Gulf Coast.
And this Fox Sparrow on its way to the Southeastern United States.
If you look up when ducks fly over head, keep your month closed.
I can not believe that today is October 25! this month is just flying by, and when did the trees turn color? just last week they looked green. Now the world is orange. Not the worst color in the world, and if you would ask Kim, she would say it is the only color. Orange hair, Orange truck, Orange clothes. 
Color? could this be the year with out the colors of Fall? I have had to look hard to find colors this year. But they are out there. As I started the fall clean up, that will last from now until the snow sticks, I noticed that some of the trees are dropping there leaves and they are still green. Must have been from the freezing temps and snow from last week.
How many times have you watched some event on TV, only to say " We should go there". Well that is what we did this past weekend. Kim and I went to the Barrett Jackson car auction in Las Vegas! We watched car after car being sold. Some from $10,000 t0 $400,000. From one of a kind to every day drivers. I was fun to watch in person and to see how many people it takes to put something like this on. Vegas was also a time for us just to hang low by the pool with a cocktail in hand.
