Exciting Visitor to the Cottage Garden

March 8, 2014

Barred Owl

This morning I had my first close encounter with a Barred Owl.    It spent all morning resting on a broken branch of one of the red pines in our front yard.   I took a number of photos of it through the window because I assumed (incorrectly) that it would fly away if I went out.   An hour or so later, my husband and I ventured out and found we could get quite close to it, if we didn't make much noise.   It seemed to be resting there, taking small glances once in a while at the chickadees, woodpeckers and blue jays flitting around the peanut feeder, then closing its eyes again.   I took many more photos there, including this one. 

Later on we thought it had flown away, only to find it was completely hidden by its background.   The second shot kind of shows you the idea.   The open eyes are really the only giveaway, from a little further back.  

doing a little grooming, you can see how long
the feathers are here

Links:

a great owl website
more information on Wikipedia


...by the way, we haven't seen our resident red squirrel today.......maybe he's hiding....

Winter at Cottage Garden

March 4, 2014

Hello again everyone.   Thanks to those who have welcomed me back to blogging!     As I posted yesterday, I retired in October and am enjoying the time to myself immeasurably.   I am really looking forward to the end of the winter, and the beginning of gardening season.

By the way, I figured out why I couldn't post photos yesterday - the help section suggested I try a different web browser, like Google Chrome, and that did the trick.   

We have quite a bit of snow here in Garden Zone 4.   We are keeping our bird feeders full and have visitors to them all day long.    Chickadees along with both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers are the main guests at the feeders, but also the occasional Blue Jay, and of course the resident Red Squirrel.  

this is the end of our driveway!

downy Woodpecker

Red Squirrel
(yes, there is a baffle, and yes, he knows how to defeat it)

Neglected Blog and Relearning to Blog Again!

March 3, 2014


Boy, I have been away from this too long, as I can't even remember how to add photos.  Well I have uploaded photos to the blog, but can't seem to get them into the post.   And I can't believe the nasty spam in the comments sections. 


I will keep trying though. 


I guess Cottage Garden took a little bit longer of a break that I had intended.   I retired from my job, after thirty years, in October and am really looking forward to spring and having lots of time to work in my garden.


Hope to be posting some photos soon.   (Photos of snow, for now). 


Happy Gardening (or for the Canadians, happy seed-catalogue viewing.)


Diane