Inside Birding

With the help of my husband Al, we recently completed my new bird room and aviary.
I love watching outside birds, but the pet birds are quite fascinating too!
I have some lovely birds, Lineolated Parakeets, Budgerigars and a few varieties of finches.
We turned the closet in this room into an inside flight room for the budgies.Added some fun perches and things, a few lovely house plants and the room came out quite nice.

With some new vinyl tile flooring, the room looks pretty spiffy.
I have one pair of budgies on the nest and another pair thinking about it. All the others are in the new aviary except for the few I have in my office upstairs.
I hope to have some baby birds available as pets this fall.

June Book Winner

The handy dandy Random number picker did it again! Thank you for your great comments - number four - Carol Wong has won this months book. Carol, I need your contact info!

My Garden Stinks

Today marks a momentous occasion for me. I harvested my first ever crop of garlic.I bought the bulbs last fall at the Boulder Farmers Market - purple ones that I can't remember the name of.
I also have white but it is not ready yet.

Here is my potato and bean bed.

Bell and Green Chili Peppers and Snapdragons

Tomatoes.

And lovely, lovely garlic.

Amen.

Monthly Bird Book Giveaway - June!

You thought I forgot, didn't you?? Well I didn't believe it or not. It has been a busy last month for me, but I'm home now, getting caught up on gardening, house work, family & job, so here we go.

This month I'm offering a book by a really famous guy. Bill Thompson III of Bird Watcher's Digest, Rain Crows etc. fame. His biggest claim to fame though, is his creative, witty and awesome spouse, Julie Zickefoose. They have great kids and a dog too.

I probably could have used this on my Loveland Birding Walk last month. If you were there, you know what I mean. I may be forever cured of calling out bird names.
I might tell you why someday - if you don't know, or weren't there.

Anyway.Identify Yourself - The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges by Bill Thompson III.

I really wanted to keep this book you know, but I didn't think it would be fair to write the question, answer the question, post my comment and win the book. You guys might think I rigged it or something.

So here goes:

Do you share your bird watching hobby or profession with others? Why? How?

Comments must be posted here on this blog, by Sunday, June 26, at 6:00 PM Mountain time. If you must sign in as anonymous - I need your name or a way to contact you.

Winner will be chosen by a random thing picker.

Kentucky Birding & Bad Photography

Well, maybe not horribly bad..
I'm here in Louisville, KY visiting my daughter Jessica and took some early mornings to get out and bird a bit.

The woods are dark in Kentucky and I am learning to operate my new camera - a Canon 60D, with a few lenses, the 400mm used here, which is a huge step up from my Panasonic DMC-FZ10 with a tele-conversion lens that served me well for nearly 8+ years.
One of my first lovely subjects - an Eastern Towhee willing to be relatively still in a bit more light.

This lovely Hooded Warbler gave me no such chance. Now or never, slow poke.There is a White-breasted Nuthatch somewhere in here, I swear. It was way high up in a tree. All these were taken in Mammoth Cave Park - where I was supposed to meet a birding group from the Kentucky Beckham Birding Club. My iPhone map app took me to some obscure entrance far far away.Back in Louisville, I practiced on easier subjects.
This Robin had so many worms in its mouth I almost.. well let's just leave it at that.
I've got a few books and even a video. I am going to really learn how to use this amazing blessing!

OH! I haven't forgotten about the June Bird Book Giveaway - it's coming soon I promise!

A Visit To Chasteen's Grove

Becca Reid and I took a scout trip to this lovely area a few days ago.
I'm hoping for an opportunity to lead our local birding group there on a walk soon.
We wound up having, let's say, a bit of wind.
Which slowed the bird activity, but certainly did not dull the scenery.
Oh! Look! A Northern Flicker!
We had several singing Lazuli Buntings also.
A totally dreamy place to bird.
We'll go there soon, I hope.