Birds in my Backyard and Beyond: August 2012

Monday, August 27, 2012

Campground Birds

Back in the middle of July, my husband and I went camping. We stayed at Taylor`s Beach Campground in Howell, Michigan. We saw several birds at the campground....many at our site, and a few throughout the rest of the campground. Here are a few of the favourite pictures I managed to capture :)

Chickadee

Robin

Eastern Kingbird pair

A Blue Jay with a wary eye to the sky...it eventually flew off.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Cedar Waxwing...Juvenile, I believe as it was missing the red waxy tips on its wings.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Tufted Titmouse

Robin eating a grub...I have a whole sequence of this "capture".

Juvenile Robin

Not only was there a good variety of birds (saw others not included above, such as House Finch, Goldfinch, Cardinals....), there was a good variety of dragon flies! Here are a few pics of them...

I am very proud of this picture :)

There was also an absolutely adorable Eastern Fox Squirrel that hung out near our site...

It was itchy ;)

I have a couple more posts to put up from this trip, highlighting a couple life birds...those were so special (to me at least), they deserve their own post! I saw three life birds in total...one of which, Eastern Bluebird, I was unable to capture on "film"...when will I learn not to go outside without my camera??

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Howell Conference and Nature Center

My husband and I got to go on vacation, just the two of us, in July. One of the places we checked out was the Howell Conference and Nature Center. What a beautiful facility! We were thoroughly impressed with the grounds and the care of the animals they had. Here are some of my favourite pictures from our visit....keep in mind the animals are permanently injured and therefore in enclosures.