Friday, June 26, 2015

FRIDAY BIRDING FUN



Last Friday, Rob and I had booked the day off work to go on a little road trip. We were to attend an Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society meeting/potluck in Port Rowan. This meeting also gave us an opportunity to visit the Bird Studies Canada offices, and for Rob to meet some people he's been emailing with for years, regarding the various projects we participate in, like Project Feeder Watch.

We were pretty excited to visit the Bird Studies Canada building and meet Rob's email buddies. We were also given a tour, inside with Kerrie Wilcox and outside with Jody Allair . We even had a lifer bird, with a Forster's Tern during our walk!  I would have a hard time getting any work done if I worked there, too many birding distractions with all the amazing views from the offices.

Kerrie and Rob finally get to talk face to face after years of emailing!
 After a great visit we made our way to the meeting, but got side tracked by some Sandhill Cranes.

We don't see these birds very often.
We enjoyed some lively conversation and delicious food at the Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society meeting.

Bill shows off the new banner.
After lunch we headed off to a nearby area where both Hooded and Prothonotary Warblers nest. We saw both!

A Prothonotary Warbler busy catching bugs to feed young.
This was only the second time I had seen a Hooded Warbler.
It was also my first Canadian Hooded Warbler, as my lifer was in the USA.
Another shot of a Prothonotary Warbler, we saw four.

 We also saw a few other interesting critters while in the woods.


I'm fascinated with  Dragonflies. 
If I kiss him will he turn into a Prince?
We had a great day!


Thursday, June 18, 2015

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND



I do love my birthday!
Today I received a couple birthday cards in the mail from my nieces. See? Even my family members know I celebrate my birthday all month! And a co-worker treated me to a birthday lunch today as well!

Last weekend was back to back celebration dinners, and gifts. I still haven't had "my" birthday cake yet, I think we're taking care of that this weekend. We only get one go around on this planet, might as well celebrate it .

Birthday dinner with a few girlfriends Friday night.
We lingered over a 3 hour dinner at Villa's Restuarant.
Making a wish
Gifts from Rob, family and friends. I'm pretty spoiled!
Trying out my new "Butterfly Binoculars" from Rob!
Saturday night we went out to dinner with Jim and Lynda. It's become a bit of tradition to go to Lucy's Seafood Kitchen every June, where we celebrate both mine and Jim's birthday. His is June 30th. I meant to take a picture of Jim and I celebrating, but I only managed to take a picture of the oysters I ordered.

I enjoyed these all alone, as no one else likes them.
  Still more celebrating to come.......

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!


Crazy daisies for a crazy wife. - Rob
 I'm getting ready to put another official birth "day" to rest. It was pretty low key with Rob and I on different shifts, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a few surprises on my special day.

Woke up to these funky flowers.
Special surprise on my desk after lunch.
Work was extremely busy for everyone today because of a huge event tomorrow. I had to run some errands on my lunch, but came back to a special surprise left on my desk. A drawing from a co-worker/friend. You can read the back story on why this has special meaning to me by clicking here.

After work I treated myself to a little spa pampering before coming home. One more surprise was waiting for me in the kitchen. This would probably of scared most people, but it's a Rob thing to do. 

One of Rob's "Living Dead Dolls", hope he's holding a winning ticket!
Here's hoping 46 is a grand year!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

"Cheers!"
Here I am on the eve of my 46th birthday. Not much planned for tomorrow. Rob and I work different shifts, so I booked a spa appointment after work for something special. Don't think I won't be celebrating though, heck, I've already started!

It's become a bit of a running joke with my friends that I don't have a birth "day", but a birth "month"! I don't deny it, I love to celebrate my birthday all month long!

The celebrating started Friday night, when a girlfriend treated me to dinner after work. It's was the perfect start to the weekend and the month long birthday celebrations.

For the third year in a row, Andi (whose birthday is 3 days before mine) and I had a celebration dinner together. Saturday evening was extra special because her sister-in-law happened to be in town from Vienna on a stop over due to work, and was happy to be celebrating with us. It was a great evening, as you can see from the pics below. I should point out that Andi does all the work! I just show up with a few goodies and enjoy!

Enjoying a cold Keiths for Mom.
Dinner is served!
Dave, Andi's better half,  was in charge of the cake. He did a great job!
Special treat from Andi's brother and sister-in-law.
Rob got lots of snuggles from Dave & Andi's cat, Ashley.
Presents!
It was a lovely evening and I'm so glad we started this new tradition every June. I still have lots of celebrating to come over the course of the month, but it sure got off to a grand start!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

BACKYARD VACATION

My favorite backyard critter is at the back left of this photo, my hubby.
Rob and I recently had a two week "stay-cation". Other then a couple full birding days we spent the majority of our time in our favorite place, the backyard. With Meadow's pasing in April, both of us were pretty emotionally spent and didn't feel like being far from home. Time in the backyard was the perfect place to heal.

We made Meadow's Weigela Bush a memorial to her. It bloomed while we were off. 

This was our first vacation without Meadow, and she loved being in the backyard, so she was greatly missed, always will be. But, we had lots of company during our time out there and made some new friends.
 
Our backyard plays host to a variety of regular birds and critters, but there are always those few special ones that get named and you look forward to seeing. The following pics show who we spent a lot of time with during our time off. 

We have a raccoon, who pretty much like clock work, mid afternoon strolled into the yard to have a drink out of the bird bath, eat a peanut or two under the bird feeders, and then climb a tree to nap the rest of the afternoon away. We call her "Momma", and I'm sure we'll be seeing her little ones any day now.
What? Do I have something on my face?
Getting a drink or washing her hands.
Time to sleep!
Quite the position for such a deep sleep.
We noticed a Blue Jay around with no tail feathers, and he got named "Stubby". He quickly trained me to place peanuts in other spots for him when the peanut ring was running low on the bird feeder pole.
He could fly fine, even without his tail feathers.
"Angie, I'm going to need another peanut over here!"
Of course Pierre was around almost daily for food and affection from Rob.
Some of the many squirrels that make our backyard home are braver then others, and "Hoover" quickly learned who to make friends with. He liked to hang out under my chair when I was outside, when he wasn't busy chasing other squirrels away from the food source.

His tail was shorter than most, that's how I recognized him.
He stayed pretty close to us when we were outside.
Probably the most interesting daily visitor we had everyday was a Canadian Swallowtail. Now, I don't know if it's normal to have a backyard butterfly, but we had one, everyday, all day while on vacation!! I swear it even followed me to Loblaws one day, as it almost flew into me on the walk home! I half jokingly started calling it "Mom".

An all day, daily visitor while on vacation.
I've missed these guys this first week back to work. I've seen all of them a couple times after work for a few minutes. I know both Rob and I are looking forward to spending most of our summer weekends in the backyard we happily share with them.