SNOW?

I moved to Florida in 1988. For Christmas of 1989 temperatures got down to almost 0. I told my sister that day that if it snows I'd go back to Wisconsin so at least when I froze to death, I'd be with family. It didn't snow that time and has not threatened to snow in central Florida since, until yesterday. I understand that Winter Haven had "small hail" that some thought might have been snow but from the description, I'd say it was actually sleet. Glad I did not see it cause I might have had to move back up north. At least we have sun today. Temp has warmed up to 41 by 2:00. But this morning when I got up this is what my frog pond looked like, didn't find my thermometer until it was above freezing, so I don't know how cold it did get last night, but it was still 37 at noon.





Florida frogs are not smart enough to bury themselves to hibernate. I've found at least 5 frozen frogs and I don't think they'll be able to thaw out for a while. Some of them were found by predators. Who ever found them just took their heads and didn't bother with the rest of the body. I won't take pics of those because I think they are gross.

This could possibly be the culprit but he was fishing in the pond that was too big to freeze.

Winter Blahs

Well fall is really and truely here. We haven't had the A/C on for a full week (ok maybe more), but the gloomy weather is starting to get to me. I miss the sun. We've had rain off and on for about a week. Usually when fall/winter comes it rains one day and gets cold (below 60 at night) the next, maybe the cold will last for a couple days but the sun usually comes back out. Nope not this year. clouds, clouds and more clouds. But every time I feel like this I check out the weather in WI. Guess what, they are in the middle of a blizzard, the temp yesterday was 79 here, so shut up Sue and be happy. You aren't trying to drive in that crap, and you don't have to shovel it, and your heavy winter coat is sitting in the closet just taking up space.

And to those of you up there in it. I'm so sorry for you.


If you want to see what I'm missing click here.

Sounds of Spring

Frog choruses remind me of my childhood.
My grandparents moved from WI to AR in the mid 60’s after raising their family and welcoming many grandchildren to the world.
One spring Grandma said she missed the sounds of spring, the frogs waking up and singing in the swamp outside my mother’s front door, and the robins coming to wake us up in the morning. So I decided to go and make a recording of the frogs for her. We were trading tapes as letters around that time anyway. So I took my cassette recorder out to the swamp and recorded my letter to Grandma. Talking to her over the sounds of spring. I wanted to be sure it was getting everything so I played it back. I could hear nothing more than my voice talking. I was so disappointed that my grand idea had failed that I took the tape back into the house and finished the letter in there. I mailed it off.
When Grandma got the tape she called to ask me why I had stopped recording outside as it was the best tape she’d had in quite some time. I said that she couldn’t hear the frogs anyway so why bother, plus if I took it in the house I wouldn’t have to worry about if the batteries were dying. She assured me that yes she could hear the frogs and proceeded to play it for me over the phone. It was then that I realized I just couldn’t tell the taped frogs from the real ones.

Country life

I love living the in “boondocks.” I see things like the Eagles that I’ve shared here. One night when I came home from work there was a Bobcat standing on the hill. It ran when I drove in. But I did get to see him. I saw a barred owl another night when I drove in at dusk. It was sitting on the perimeter fence. I drove past it and it never moved. It only flew off after I had gone into the house to get my camera.

One evening when D and I were first working on the property we had set up a boom box while we were cleaning up around the pond. I believe we were still picking up irrigation hose from the grove at the time. We stopped to take a break and listen to the wildlife. We were talking about all the frogs and critters that were singing so nicely and that we really didn’t need the boom box. When we shut it off…everything went silent. Apparently the frogs and critters were just singing along.

Another time I had been working later than usual so I came in around 2 or 3 am. When I got out of the car I stopped to take the time to listen to the night. First the turtles would sound off. Their deep bass a rhythm for the melody. Then the bull frogs would sing the Tenor chorus. Next the Frog choir would sound in, singing the melody so sweetly and finally the peepers would sing the aria. Next they would all play their parts together until one or the other would make a mistake and practice would start all over again. I stood outside that night for almost an hour listening to the choir practice. I felt as though I were listening to their rehearsal for the big concert coming up. It took me back to the days that I was in the band. First the Tubas and the drums play the rhythm to get the beat. Next the Brass play the melody and finally the woodwinds fill in the sound. Each practicing their own part separately then all together as a group. Wonderful memories all.

Show Time

As I look at the picture of the Sand Hill Crane I am reminded of last spring. I was working in my craft room, long before I had any feeders out there; when I heard the cranes making a racket quite nearby. I looked out the window and there they were just beyond the pile of dirt. I know it was spring time because he was showing off and looking for love. While I was watching them I realized I wasn’t alone in enjoying the show. All four of my dogs (this was before Katie came to live with us) were lying on the pile of dirt not 20 feet from the cranes. Now Sam and Ruff absolutely love to make any bird they see fly. But they were all laying on the hill watching. When the Cranes had decided they were done they just calmly walked away. All four dogs laid their heads down and went to sleep. It was almost like they said, “Ok, shows over, nap time.”

New visitor

Can't believe it has been over a month since I updated this. I'll have to get better. Last Wednesday (April 29) I had a new visitor. D called me and told me to look out my window. Right there not 15 feet from the window was this guy. The sand hill crane is about 3 and a half feet tall or better.



He stayed around for quite a while. I got these pictures then we ate lunch. My batteries for my camera went dead about that time. I'll have to go to the store and get more. Anyway after lunch I was clearing the table and looked at the kitchen door and he was looking in the window. We decided about that time to share some of our corn bread with him. So I set it on the blocks behind him but as I walked out the door he decided he'd had enough and walked away. I haven't seen him back yet but I have faith that he'll come back.

Birds?

I was very excited to finally get a birdfeeder that I could watch from my craft room. So of course I fill it and wait...

It looked like this.

Then it was empty? But I still haven't seen any birds yet, what is going on? I refilled it and soon it was empty again. I had expected to see somthing like this...

Or maybe even this...

Imagine my surprise when I finally figured it out. This is what I found.

Here is a closer view.

Sneaky horse. . . wait is that D's hand holding the feeder for him? Now I know. At least I can see the others now and then.

About two weeks ago this immature Eagle had landed on the power pole above my car. He sat there for about 2 hours. As you can see his head is not the true white of an adult and his back actually has some lighter feathers on it. His tail has no white yet. So he is obviously quite young. Beautiful though and large. The pole he is sitting on is about 8 inches in diameter.

This one was sitting on the other power pole today. It had been up on the hill earlier. D and I had gone shopping, when we left it had a rabbit and took it to the top of the house. The younger one flew off as we got closer. Unfortunately I did not have my camera at that time. Then when we came home this one was sitting on the pole and the young one was on the ground. I still didn't have my camera so we parked the car as the young one flew off. I ran into the house and was able to get this picture before this one flew off as well. There were several other birds on the ground with the younger one. They were obviously not eagles but instead this is what they were . .

That's right turkeys! They didn't seem to care how close we got so I walked right up on them. I just love living in the country. I live about 10 miles outside of town, a state forest is backed up to the property. The wild life is great! Just gotta make sure that little Ralph doesn't get introduced to the eagles.

Correction these are Turkey Buzzards. See what do I know?