First Friday of 2015........

I have found that it is best for me not to try to identify my birds for you.  I seem to get it all wrong.  I know that this is a hairy woodpecker because of its size.  I know that this guy is new to the feeder as I have never seen the large red topnotch before today.  I am thinking that it was the female hairy that I took photos of yesterday. There is a big difference between the hairy and the downy.

 I did explain that the book says the hairy is the size of a robin.  I need to clarify that as over across the seas the robin is a small round bird.  Our American robins are big and they really are from the thrush family. The were misnamed by the early settlers of this country.  I actually took this photo with my new camera with a lot of trial and error.

I was trying to get a shot of this feral cat that was watching the birds when the woodpecker flew in for seeds stuck in the suet.  We leave food out for cat but she leaves quickly if she sees either of us in plain sight.  She had two kittens this year and one of them did come to the cat feeder at the door during the evenings this summer.

The angel lights that we incorporate in our garland are oldies but goodies.  The were bought at the Younker's store at downtown Des Moines.  We would always go to the store and eat after Christmas in their Tea Room and then look around in the store.  It is a high end store so we usually just looked at all the sales.  These angels were in their close out sale of Christmas items.  They have held up well except for the little plastic wings keep falling off.

The downtown Younker's burned this fall and is now just an empty hole in the ground.  The section where the grand tea room  was did not burn and hopefully the investors will try to bring that back.  One of my students at school has grandparents and parents who own the lease contract to replace the building.

No snow on my weather rock today.  The rock is getting a lot of action by having the squirrel's knock it off to the ground as they rob seed from the bird feeder on the railing.  We keep getting warnings but they just can't predict snow this year accurately this winter.  Maybe Saturday evening we will have snow.  The do predict the cold correctly and it will be back very soon.

My snowman on the birdhouse decoration only looks good during the winter.  It too gets knocked off a lot onto the ground by the not so much starving squirrels. 

The first sign of spring is the arrival of seed catalogs.  I have my very first one and it arrived the day after Christmas.  I rarely buy from them but I do follow one company on the net.  I am sure all the other companies explore that following and send me the catalogs.

No plans today so far.  It is good to get some rest from this busy world.  I hope everyone is well and thanks for stopping by today.