Friday Sunset

A fiery sky at sunset this evening.

Palm trees on the right, in front of the streaks of red/orange.

Tall pine trees silhouetted against the sunset sky.

 

Saturday in the Backyard

Plenty of little tomatoes ripening on our tomato plant.

And more little green tomatoes coming along.

One of our two new parsley plants.

A tree branch from a neighbor’s yard overhanging our back fence. The leaves really are as big as they look.

The leaves from that kind of tree come in three different shapes, all growing on the same tree. Here’s an example of the three shapes on a single branch. There’s an ordinary plain leaf on the left, one with two lobes that’s sort of mitten-shaped in the middle, and a three-lobed leaf on the right.

Max, faster than a speeding bullet! He loves to run really fast in big loops around the yard.

Last for today is the moon next to a dying pine tree.

Chickadee on Friday

I heard agitated bird calls in the trees in the back, and I saw a mockingbird swooping in and out of one area in the trees. I went closer and spotted this tiny bird, less than 5 inches long. It seems to be perched on a leaf, which has no trouble supporting its weight.

It’s a Carolina Chickadee–very similar to the Black-capped Chickadee, but the Black-capped is a northern bird and the Carolina Chickadee lives in the southeast. As I watched I saw that the chickadee seemed upset with the mockingbird. It kept calling loudly when the mockingbird flew close, and the tiny chickadee flew at the much larger mockingbird several times.

The chickadee ended up chasing off the mockingbird. It sat on the fence looking around for a few minutes after the mockingbird left.

A little Ground-dove.

And new green pine cones growing on a tall pine tree.

Thursday Photos

Our volunteer tomato plant is covered with blossoms and quite a few tiny green tomatoes. This plant sprouted on its own in one of the tomato pots from last year, probably from a seed from a fallen tomato. I didn’t know if the plant would actually grow well enough to produce tomatoes, but it’s looking good right now!

Leaves on the fence, from a tree branch in my neighbor’s yard. This tree has large leaves in three shapes: a three-lobed leaf like the two at the bottom, a two-lobed mitten-shaped leaf like the one on the upper left (the “thumb” of the mitten isn’t very distinct here), and a plain leaf with no lobes like the one on the upper right. It’s an invasive tree that spreads by roots running underground–it sprouts in our yard now and then, moving in from neighbors’ yards, and I pull out roots and sprouts any time I spot it. I’ve never been able to identify it.

A dying pine tree, its dried up needles rusty orange.

Lily on our table this evening.

It was exactly one year ago today that we lost our sweet basset hound girl Lulu. Still think of her and miss her every day.

 

A Few for Wednesday

Just a few for today. This Mourning Dove was watching me carefully.

I had a rear view of a little bird on the fence.

My guess was Yellow-rumped Warbler, our most commonly seen warbler, and when the bird turned around I saw I was correct.

Looking up into a pine tree.

 

A New Bird on Saturday

I’ve had lots of bird photos lately–I’ve been seeing lots of birds! When I was walking with Max today I came across a bird I’d never seen before. It was a tiny bird, moving around quickly way up in a pine tree. When I got home I searched my bird books and learned that it was a Brown-headed Nuthatch.

It was quick, agile little bird, hanging upside down on branches at times.

Brown-headed Nuthatch looking up at the sky.

Pine tree trunk. From a distance the trunks generally look gray, but there are shades of brown and tan there too.

The moon this evening as clouds passed over it.

 

 

Stormy Thursday

Dark clouds and strong winds came through quickly this afternoon–the wind was strong enough to take down a tree branch about 4 feet long in our backyard. The branches and needles of the tall pine trees were bending and blowing in the wind.

One of our palm trees as the storm passed through. There are still some fall colors in some of the nearby trees.