Today it snowed at the Stone House. I only know this because of Facebook. My friends and neighbors posted about the historic May snowfall in the Ozarks. Seems like tomatoes will be slim pickings this year. As for me, I’m not there. I’m on the road and starting a big adventure today, so I missed the historic snow. My pomegranates, however, did not. Hopefully they will handle this brief interruption to spring.
Reading all the posts about snow made me think about my Bluebirds of Happiness. It’s been about a month since they moved in. After the male approved the new digs, they set about to nest building. In my view he seemed to leave most of the nest building to the female. He stood watch while she made hundreds of trips back and forth with twigs and grass. He would look in from time to time, but I thought he was taking the easy route – just watching her do the heavy lifting….
In retrospect, I think I have been a little hard on Mr. Happiness. I haven’t dared to look into the bird houses, but it’s clear that there is a big need for protein these days. The Mrs. makes it out of the box occasionally, but Mr. Happiness is definitely carrying his weight. Mother and young are eating up a storm…
In one ten-minute period I saw him make 5 deliveries to the birdhouse. I never saw him eat anything himself – he would hit the ground, grab some grub, and take a quick look around from one of his favorite vantage points, before hitting the doorway of his home. I wonder how many mouths he has to feed. I wonder how long it will be before he can get back to sitting pretty and keeping watch…
the eff stop 
Lovely bird photos!
Thanks so much!
What an incredible bird, your photos do him–and his hard work–justice 🙂
Thanks – such a work ethic. I have read that in bluebirds the male will raise the young himself if something happens to their mother – a rare bird indeed.
That IS impressive.
Bluebirds might be my new favorite 😉
It’s funny, but whenever I see an amazing photo of a bird, I have started expecting to see your name as the photographer.
These ones are also so lovely 🙂
That’s so nice of you to say. I love my bluebirds, they are so endearing.
They are indeed 🙂
I have had my first attempt of taking photographs of the birds in our garden. I think it is so hard to get them in focus. They are so quick. I don’t know how you do it. I’ll try and adjust my settings.. Right now however, I’ll go out and celebrate our national day 😀
I spend a lot of time where the birds feed so they are not to cautious of me. I think the most important thing to get a good focus on a bird is to have good light. If it is grey or too bright they can blend into the background and your camera needs contrast to focus. Are you shooting through a window? Enjoy your holiday! 🙂
How can you tell? I always open the window and hang out of it. Now that I’m done with exams, I can hopefully spend more time actually outside.
Thank you for the advice, it sounds like a good one 🙂
I’ll try and see if it helps.
The holiday has been a great one. Although having just 4 days off, it feels as if it was a really long one. I guess that’s what it’s like when you get lots done.
I shot so many beautiful pictures by the cabin, but when I wanted to load them into my PC all the recent ones was gone. The old pictures on the memory card was still there. Do you have any idea what may have happened?
Is is possible that the photos are stored in your camera’s memory? Some cameras have that option – the other possibility is that they are on the memory card in another folder – look to see if there are others that your computer is not defaulting to – they have to be there.
Love the colour of those birds!
Thanks – the blue really is amazing.
Looks like you’ve got it all covered too.
Snow?!! Wow!! Our grass is finally green and it’s getting warmer. Lovely photos as usual Lorri – enjoy your travels and I wish you a safe trip back home when you’re done. 🙂
Thanks Diana. Such a weird weather year. I’m planning on seeng some snow on our travels though 🙂
Are you in Canada? 😉 haha
Nope. I’m in Chicago and going west to Oregon. I know we will see snow at Crater Lake.
Oregon is gorgeous – Portland is one of my all-time fave cities!
We’re going there too. I lived in Oregon for about 10 years.
OMG – you must have captured some awesome photos there!
Not too many. I was focussing on painting when I lived there. I will this time though!
Whos’ yer Daddy? Great pictures, as always, Lorri. Gotta love this guy.
Thanks Elyse – he’s a keeper 🙂
Lorri – can’t believe you are gone and missing all the excitement! It has snowed ALL DAY! Bob and I went to Springfield today and it rained, snowed and sleeted on us pretty much the whole time. And I have a yard full of very cold hummingbirds – I am keeping the feeders filled – can’t do anything else to protect them. Love these photos – he is a handsome fella – K
I know – crazy. I have three hummingbird feeders out so I think they will be ok. I have totally fallen in live with the bluebirds – such a hard working couple.
A bird’s work is never done! ;-D!
Russ
That is so true Russ 😄
NIce photos of the bluebird.
A pair of bluebirds recently built a nest in the paper holder underneath my mailbox.
Now I hear little voices chirping inside.
Luckily, we don’t get the paper, so they will not be bothered !
Nice! I can’t wait to see the little ones.
A wonderfully illustrated story, Lorrie. Such a pretty shade of blue on the birds.
Thanks Allan, they are wonderful to watch, and easy to spot because of those shiny blue feathers 🙂
Så nydelig:)
😄
They’re doing well, aren’t they? Mr Happiness is obviously a busy dad. Reminds me of our European blackbirds – the dad is a better parent than the mum once the chicks have fledged, he feeds them so much you’d think they’d burst! We’ve got that to look forward to (along with chaffinches, sparrows, dunnocks, bluetits and many others.)
I love your birdy photos. I wish we had bluebirds here.
They really seem to be thriving. This is the only species that I see the male working so hard. Impartial to bluebirds, we had a type in the desert where I grew up that was so beautiful, but not as friendly as these guys.
Hear the calling of so many baby birds that I can’t locate, I know they are nesting all around – chickadees, titmice, cardinals, finches, and buntings. Next month there should be young hummers out too! Springtime is the best!
It’s incredible how they work together. I’ve enjoyed watching the activity going on around here. No bluebirds though. This set is delightful!
I’ve read that the males will actually raise the young if something happens to the mother – they are real partners and are very particular about the houses they choose. They are wonderful to have around so close every day.
We’ve been fascinated by the Decorah eagles. Watching their nest building process was hilarious.
Is that a webcam? I watched on all season last year. It was fascinating.
Yeah, they’re currently out of range, but you can check it out here http://www.decoraheaglecamalerts.com/ or here http://www.raptorresource.org/
Cool. I made the trip south to watch some a few weeks ago, but never got close enough for a real shot.