June... My Favorite Month of the Year~

 

Some of the flowers in my garden these past several days, as well as some from down, and across the lane.
The flowers above are my Hardy Geraniums in Johnson's Blue.
  
Since I have not been feeling as energetic, as I usually do, I have been keeping a very low profile, making my way only to the Red-Shouldered Hawk nest site a few times a day, and as I come and go, I stop to smell the posies and grab a few images too...all free, just for the snapping of the camera...I like that~

I have always desired to have blue Hydrangeas, and even though I get the acidic thingy done properly, I still end up with mostly pink, that was until this year...finally...yeah~

 

OK Mona, if you see this post by any chance, here are some that I took in your garden the other day. 
Mona has some wonderful poises and I always like to see what is in bloom. 
I think that her Iris's look nice with my Geraniums~

 

 

 

 

I was over at my friend Teressa's home several years ago and fell in love with her Hardy Geraniums and off I went and ordered bunches and most of them come up each spring, much to my delight~

Crown Vetch...Oh my, only get this, if nothing else will grow. 
I saw it growing along the Interstate many years ago and thought to myself, I need some of that.  We did not know however, that it is very invasive and it thrives so well, that even Round Up will hardly kill it to the roots.  
We purchased 16 plants and it took me years, to kill out the last little root. 
If you have a large pasture, field, or such, they do look lovely, but not for me...
no thank you~

I am not sure what the above flower is, but I have just the one growing along my deer path~

Above is a lovely wildflower called Downy Wood Mint, which draws the bees and butterflies every spring~

Well...I never knew, and Mona just told me last evening, that she was thinking that the flowers shown above and below are Milkweed, and she is so right. 
I have planted seeds and I never get any to grow, believe it, or not. 
Monarch Butterflies need these wildflowers for their different stages of life cycle. 
I was not certain, that I had ever seen the flowers before, only the silky seed pods in the autumn, and I have photograhed these flowers many times, and only now, know what they are~

 

Lavender, my favorite flower, my favorite fragrance, and my favorite tea. 
Very difficult for me to grow, because of so little sun, and yet I adore my wee, small patch~

I always find beauty in spent flowers as well, as those just beginning to show their colours.  These Peonies are still lovely to me~

 

 

The above Mosaic was done by Mary at the Little Red House.
To view more like these...

Please visit other Mosaic Monday entries with Mary
at
Little Red House

Final Entry for a While of This Season's Nest~

The last day that all 3 young ones were on the nest together~

The older chick, a female flew first on May 26.  Then came the middle chick, a male fledged on May 28 and the youngest, also a male fledged on May 29~

This was the youngest and he has become my favorite, for he seems so small compared to the others, and always the last to get any food, unless it is brought directly to him.  Sometimes even then, he drops it and my heart aches, as he has to wait another long while, but he is learning, slowly, but surely~

 With so much heavy tree cover, it is very difficult to get any flight images, until they begin to fly further out away from the tree line.  I was able to get some fairly descent images as they learned some branch hopping and brief flight skills, during the past week~

 The image above is the middle chick out on the branch and the youngest the day before it flew for the first time~

The adult female, is taking a well deserved rest, and yet this particular day, she stayed busy not only keeping up with meals for she and her chicks, but she also was on the tirade because a young Great Horned Owl had made it's way near her area and she kept a very watchful eye on it all day long and she did an excellent job and keeping it away~
*I got no images of the Owl, and yet through the heavy tree line, I could make it out deep in the wood with my pair of binoculars, and you could tell that she was very miffed, as she went back and forth yelling at it all day long!

 
I always like when she takes notice of me...yes, it is just me again, I tell her~

I am so very pleased that a week off the nest, all 3 young ones are doing well.  

 The two images in mosaic above were taken on a foggy morning this past week, showing the empty nest~

 The middle chick is on the left, perched next to his brother on the right in image above, and then big brother decides to move a little higher up~

I had always heard that many times a hen will continue to feed her young even after they have fledged from the nest, but this has never been the case for past years here, until this season.  
The hen continues to bring most meals to the nest and it is in the age order that they eat, which is yet still another sad thing to have to hear the young one constantly hungry, while the older 2 get all of the good stuff~

 The middle chick peering down at me... ;')~

 The older female chick getting along really well~

The image above and below is the youngest little male chick and he is the only one that made it to ground level, following a long evening of severe storms.  He was soaked wet and had to make his way back up into the trees~

 

 He was keeping his protective eyelid closed a bit the following day, but it seems all alright now~

 

Sometimes, just like in human life, the mother has to play referee.  

In this case, the hen had taken a meal to the nest.  The middle chick did not seem hungry, but the older chick and younger one were.  The older chick grabbed the Blue Jay and was eating and eating and eating, the whole while the youngest chick was yelling, and yelling and yelling.  The hen had seen and heard enough and when she flew back to the nest, the older chick reluctantly, yet purposefully retreated to a branch and then the younger chick could have a bit too~

 

 The adult hen above and then below on left, making sure that her older chick retreated and gave younger brother a bit to eat too~

 

The older chick making her exit below~

I am also linking with World Bird Wednesday, please visit other birding photographers and enthusiasts from around the world at:

http://www.pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

This Season Nearly Complete, & All Is Well~

I will go ahead and let you all in on a little secret, but first, let me explain;')

Today, we had heavy duty storms and showers, which took out our electrical power the entire day. 
The first truck that came to fix the problem, blew 4 fuses, which sounded like dynamite exploding.  The gentleman could not find the problem, and called in 3 more trucks and while they were searching for the problem that had put several houses in the dark, they blew 2 more fuses;'(
Whatever was wrong was finally resolved and the power came back on about 4:15 this afternoon. 
That being said, all of the work I was going to do toward my blog today, must wait until Thursday. 
I won't post the images for the Red-shouldered Hawk chicks again, until next Tuesday.  I hope that you all are not getting bored with them, for this is the reason behind my blog and I await this 12 weeks every year and this has been a very successful season.  None of the young ones have even tumbled!
Now for the secret...no images until next week, but here is the scoop, you are hearing it now, for the first time...

All 3 young ones have fledged!!!

It was not all glowing, but it has all turned out as well as it could have as of this evening.  I shall share the images and the story next week, but I could not wait to share that they are thriving, having some struggles, yet this will make each of them stronger~




The oldest chick, a female is in the middle and she flew on Saturday~

The middle chick shows off for baby brother in the images above.  He fledged yesterday afternoon and I do not know if the youngest actually fledged, or was blown from the nest last evening, or early morning, but it is doing fine now~

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is the youngest of the 3~

 

 

 

 

I am also linking with World Bird Wednesday, please visit other birding photographers and enthusiasts from around the world at:

http://www.pineriverreview.blogspot.com/