Lost gulls?

I'm always fascinated at the sea gulls I see hanging out in parking lots. We're four hours away from the ocean. Why do they do that? Are they lost? Can't they find food in parking lots closer to the ocean? I'm just wondering.

Clouds

Liberty School

Love that Nyjer seed

Downy Woodpecker

Old Manassas Courthouse

Signs of Spring

Mother Nature has been teasing us lately with temps in the 70s one day and then sleet and snow two days later. Yesterday I spotted this crocus nearly ready to bloom. Spring can't get here soon enough.

Red-winged Blackbird

Part of this past weekend was spent counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Of the 23 species I spotted, one was the Red-winged Blackbird, a first time visitor. I've seen this bird before, but never in our neighborhood. Needless to say, it added a little excitement to the count for me. The family of four must have just been passing through though as they were only spotted on Saturday.

Oh happy day

A favorite day of mine is always the day I see my first Robin of the year. Well, yesterday was that day! I watched it feeding in the yard all morning. It also showed up in time to be counted in the Great Backyard Bird Count. It won't be long until Spring now.

Great Backyard Bird Count

I'm participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. I hope our White-breasted Nuthatch shows up for the count.

Turkey Vulture

I often see one to many big black birds sitting on this water tower. Today I ran a quick errand at lunch time and took my camera with me knowing I'd pass the water tower. Just my luck, there was one sitting there.

Enjoying tonight's Snow Moon

Random acts of kindness

In September 2008, I contacted the Elks Home in Bedford, Virginia seeking information on Benjamin Gordon Smith, a past resident of the home. They provided me with a copy of his file which was full of genealogical information. I asked if they knew of any volunteers who could take a photo of Ben's grave but didn't receive a response to my question.

Ben was born in Apollo, Pennsylvania where he lived for many years. He never married and lived with his mother until she died in 1943. He eventually moved to Virgina and lived at the Elks Home until his death and was buried in their cemetery. Five years ago we traveled to Apollo and Warren, Ohio and visited his parents and siblings graves. It bothered me that he was alone in Bedford, far away from his family.

Fast forward to February 2011 and imagine my surprise when I received an email from the same woman yesterday with a photo of Ben's gravestone. It gave me great pleasure to connect his stone to other family members in www.findagrave.com, an online cemetery resource. He's not alone any more.

I'm thankful to this kind person for her random act of kindness. It made my day!

City Hall, Historic Manassas

Sunday's visit

Mourning Dove

Squirrels like cheese crackers

European Starling

The Starlings have found my fruit and nut feeders and emptied them every day this week. This morning I threw stale bread in the yard so they ate that and left the feeder half full. They aggrevate me, but like the Crow, I still think they're pretty.

A milestone!

Not that this photo has anything to do with the milestone, but a year ago today I started this blog. I had no particular reason for blogging other than thinking it would be a good place to post the random photos I'd been taking. At the time, I challenged myself to post every day and am happy to say I met that challenge. Somehow I ended up with 367 postings vs. 365 so must have screwed something up along the way but that's the way it goes. It's been fun and I've even learned a thing or two along the way. Hopefully I've also brought a smile to someone out there in cyberspace. So let's get started with year two and I hope you enjoy this look into my simple life.

A happy White-breasted Nuthatch

Frequent visitor

Up until this winter, I never saw a Red-belllied Woodpecker. Now I see it every weekend. It was probably there all along ... I just wasn't paying attention.

Cooper's Hawk

I looked out the window yesterday and saw this Cooper's Hawk sitting in my neighbor's tree. I grabbed the camera and was able to take this one photo before it flew off. It's not a great picture but I was happy to get it.

Teddy got a haircut

Snow finch

I hope this House Finch knows it's eating snow and not seed

Virginia's State Bird

Chickadee on dogwood

I finally got a photo of a Chickadee that I like

Morning moon

American Crow

I don't ever recall a crow making a visit to my feeders so was surprised when this one stopped by for a few minutes last week. It sat watching the smaller birds eat but left them and the feed alone. I think it's actually a very pretty bird.