Back at OTOW

Bill and I are getting settled into our little home in Ocala after a long but pleasant drive from Colorado. We stopped to visit friends Mike and Mel along the way. I ALWAYS enjoy seeing them and spending time on their porch watching the amazing variety of birds they have at their feeders.

Back at OTOW, Bill is flying every day, I'm playing Mah Jongg and I finally finished the Bargello quilt top. Bocce begins next week and we are having some improvements done on the house: new counters in the kitchen and new -much larger - lanai on the back. I've been meeting with contractors, looking at floor tile, stainless steel sinks (who knew that 16 gauge stainless is better than 18 gauge stainless!), ceiling fans and blinds. It's great seeing our friends again; we've missed the active social scene here at OTOW. BUT, since we returned early, we got to experience Love Bug Season - the worst here in years. Love Bugs look like lightening bugs with out the lights and fly around in pairs hooked together at the tail - hence their name. They don't bite but their sheer numbers are mighty annoying! Fortunately, they don't stay very long and are now completely gone.

The birds won't eat the Love Bugs because they taste bad and they need to be washed off your car before they damage the paint. Needless to say the car washes love them! This is a Northern Mockingbird who sat in our tree in front of our house and sang the morning away.

Out back we have a daily visitor (he's there now) - a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

He likes the sun flower seeds. It's interesting how he uses his tail.

Polite as ever, he takes a seed and goes back to the top of the feeder post to eat it.

I also made myself a new purse. The last one had served me well (it was the first thing I made after getting a sewing machine). This one was inspired by a couple of my favorite patterns and material I purchased a couple of years ago in Denver. Now I can bird watch right in my living room!

Visiting House Wren

Every once in a while we see a House Wren in the yard - and yesterday was one of those rare occasions. I had to double check my ID and confirm it was a House and not a Bewick's because of the faint eyebrow extending just behind the eye.

He was enjoying the berries that grow in the lush bushes along our back fence.

This is an interesting creature. We saw half a dozen of these last night after dinner flitting from the 4 o'clocks to the honeysuckle. They never stopped and it was almost impossible to get a decent picture.

The camera setting stopped his wings so I could get a good look. This is a White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moth. Apparently the caterpillars feed on 4 o'clocks - and we have quite a few (except ours are more like 7 o'clocks!).

It only takes one terrible picture (and trust me - I cropped out the worst parts!) for me to take the camera away from my dear hubby, Bill. He was supposed to be getting pictures of the large flock of Bushtits that stopped by while I was painting the new door on the potting house - but he has a short attention span.

Why a door on the potting house after all these years? When we returned from Florida in May, we discovered that a large family of raccoons had been using the outbuilding as a common latrine. Apparently, raccoons defecate in communal sites and we found a huge pile. Their feces can be dangerous to people as they harbor roundworm eggs - but I didn't learn this until AFTER I cleaned up the mess. It took several applications of "Critter Ridder" and ammonia to convince them to "go" elsewhere. After en extreme cleaning and new floor boards, we added the door and I painted it red to match the flower in the stained glass window.

Bill never did get a decent picture of the Bushtits - or me.

The Annual Colorado Springs Balloon Classic

This year, instead of heading to Memorial Park for to see the Annual Balloon Classic, we decided to hike up the bluffs in Palmer Park for a panoramic view of lift-off. It was awesome!

We counted about 75 balloons in the air at one time.

The colors were fabulous with the early morning sun lighting up the city.

We watched as the sun came up.

 This is my favorite picture with downtown to the right, Cheyenne Mountain in the back and Memorial Park in the foreground.

The ReMax Balloon visited the city making me wonder if it was for sale.

What a beautiful day!

A Month of Family

Bill and I are still taking pictures but our main focus over the last month has been family. Daughter Pamela and grandson Gabriel visited from Maryland and Camron and Sidney have been visiting often. We hiked in the Upper Huerfano Valley with Bill's daughter Laura & hubby Tim, Pamela & Gabriel and Camron.

Bill took this beautiful picture.

We didn't see too many birds this year on the hike as we were concentrating more on the walk. Last year I barely got out of the parking area, but this year with my new hip I was able to get 3/4 of the way to the old mill site at timberline. We did stop often as the wildflowers were magnificent and we saw lots of butterflies.

The younger folks were way ahead of us when we saw this deer peeking at us through the trees.

The landscape is amazing as we walked by the river.

And the Columbines were blooming everywhere.

There were whole fields of yellow flowers.

The day was warm enough that at times I contemplated a dip in the water...

just like this American Dipper.

Aren't these just the cutest?

We also took Gabriel to Garden of the Gods where he spotted these Big Horn Sheep climbing in the hills.

Back at home, the hummingbirds are gathering and filling up with sweet juices before their incredible journey south.

This morning I counted almost a dozen of the little birds fighting for space on the feeders. We have both Broad-tailed and Rufus Hummingbirds but I couldn't get a decent picture of the Rufus as they were busy dive bombing the other birds to keep them away.

Yesterday, we hiked for a couple of hours in Palmer Park. I didn't have my camera so naturally we saw lots of great birds including tons of Nuthatches. But the most interesting sighting was a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers. Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers have similar markings and I often wondered if I got them mixed-up --- until yesterday. The Hairy Woodpeckers are huge compared to the diminutive Downys. I think that we've seen lots and lots of Downys and very few Hairys over the years.

Every Wednesday, from 4 to 12 ladies gather at my house for an afternoon of Mah Jongg. It's been great fun and has kept my game sharp so that I can get right back into the games when we return to Florida. This year, beginning in early October we will again be playing Tournament Bocce on Tuesdays & Thursdays. As you see, we are thinking about and planning our return to Ocala sometime in September.

Prairie

We've spent quite a bit of time this summer watching baseball. Not the boring professional stuff but the really fun 9 and 12 year old games starring Bill's grandkids. His grandson was part of the All-Star Team that played in the state finals in La Junta, Colorado. He had two games on Sunday - one at 9 AM and one at 4 PM. During the intermission, we drove around hoping to do a little birding out on the prairie.

There wasn't much water around, so we were surprised to find a Black-necked Stilt along side this small puddle which was once the Holbrook Reservoir.

We see Killdeer both in Colorado and Florida.

Bill got some great shots of the Black-necked Stilt in flight.

I finally got my camera away from Bill just in time to see this American Avocet.

Our actual destination was Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site along the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail. The adobe trading post was built around 1840.  

The fort is an amazing slice of Colorado history!

One of the permanent residents at the fort. One of the guides told us there were 4 babies but we couldn't locate them. Apparently the Peafowl couple are quite prolific and  park rangers are running out of local farms that will take the many offspring. Want a Peacock?

The Barn Swallows were busy building nests in the rafters. This beautiful female was gathering materials - minding her own business when.....

  Notice that she never dropped the nesting materials.

On our way back to the baseball field we passed a farm with some strange animals. I have no idea what these are.

Now I really didn't expect to see zebras in La Junta!

Back at home we have an interesting "problem."

This darling kitty is spending quite a bit of time in our yard. What you can't see is that he is right under one of our bird feeders. He lays in wait and tries to grab one of the birds - and unfortunately, is successful all too often. He has a partner in crime - another grey cat (all grey, no white chin or paws) who is very skittish and will not stick around for pictures. I assume they belong to someone and if I catch them I will tie a note on them asking their owners to keep them closer to home. Think I'll have any luck?