Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.
Linda Schaub
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Linda Schaub
- Dare to be different! #Wordless Wednesday #Sunday Stills: Plant Life
- Blame it on the Bossa Nova … and Terri.
- No duck pond – no problem! #Wordless Wednesday #Feelin’ ducky in MY personal pond!
- Dad’s Day 2024.
- Pretty in Pink. #Wordless Wednesday #Springtime at the Botanical Gardens #Monthly Color Challenge: Pastels
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FIFTY FAVORITE PARK PHOTOS
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- Parker noshin’ nuts
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- Fox Squirrel
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- Black Squirrel
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- Parker, my Park cutie!
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- Pekin Duck
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- Mallard Hybrid Duck
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- Midnight munchin’ nuts
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- Mute Swan
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- Goslings
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- Mama Robin
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- Seagulls on ice floe
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- Great Blue Heron
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- Parker chowin’ down
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- Mallard Duck
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- Northern Cardinal
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- Great Blue Heron (“Harry”) fishing for shad
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- Parker: shameless begging
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- Viceroy Butterfly
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- Great Blue Heron
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- American Goldfinch
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- Seagull
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- Robin baby (not fledged yet)
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- Mallard Ducks
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- Robins almost ready to fledge
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- Parker angling for peanuts
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- Robin fledgling
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- Parker making a point that he wants peanuts
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- Parker smells peanuts
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- Parker with a peanut
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- Red-Winged Blackbird
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- Seagull
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- Red-Bellied Woodpecker
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- Pekin Duck
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- Starling
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- Canada Geese family
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- Canada Goose and goslings
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- Red-Winged Blackbird
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- Parker says candy is dandy.
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- Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
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- American Goldfinch
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- Hunny Bunny
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- Parker looking for peanuts
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- The pier just past sunrise
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- Mute Swan
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- Parker in the snow
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- Parker and a treat
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- Great Blue Heron
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- Me and my shadow (a/k/a Parker)
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- Fox Squirrel
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- Seagull
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- Canada Goose
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- Mallard Ducks
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- Mute Swan
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- Fox Squirrel – Parker
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- Northern Cardinal
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BADGES
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- 02-02-2018
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- 03-13-2018
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- 03-25-2018
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- 03-26-2018
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- Year #6!! 02/2019
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- 04-13-2019
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- 11-21-19
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WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
The great photography. Nice bluebird. Beautiful Swallows. Nice tree Nesting boxs.
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Glad you liked the photos Raj – that cobalt blue almost glows in the dark!
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Lovely! Neighbor Joyce is watching bluebirds at her house.
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I would love to see a bluebird Ann. I have never seen one. These swallows were at Lake Erie Metropark and volunteers built the nesting boxes and mounted them on the poles to lure bluebirds, but the swallows overtook those boxes.
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Lovely colours on a beautiful bird
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They are striking Brian, especially when the sun hits them just right and they are almost iridescent like a Starling.
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That’s a great cobalt blue, Linda! Those birds are beautiful!!
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I like that cobalt blue too! They are pretty TD, especially when the sun hits them just right as then they look iridescent!
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I love seeing those beautiful tree swallows return in early spring every year, but they are aggressive. They will displace the bluebirds every time they get the chance. A wildlife management area near me started putting up screening above the hole in the box to deter tree swallows from nesting in bluebird boxes.
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That’s interesting Laurie. These are nest boxes at Lake Erie Metropark and I took an interpretive walk there a few years ago and we were told that they had volunteers build the boxes, mount them on poles along the shoreline hoping to lure bluebirds, but there were never any bluebirds, only the tree swallows. There were many tree swallows on this day and there was one in the box, one on top, or both birds on top of the box. They weren’t flying around too much as it was windy.
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Tree swallows will chase bluebirds away from the boxes!
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I hate bullies of any kind!!
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Fantastic tree swallow pictures, Linda! A long time ago I got a picture of a tree swallow sticking its head out of a bluebird nesting box. I was so confused! How lovely their coloring, the cobalt blue is dazzling.
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Thank you Barbara. It was lucky for me as it was very windy, so the tree swallows stayed put on the top of the nest boxes. I took an interpretive walk at Lake Erie Metropark once and the guide said all the volunteers built, then staked all these nest boxes to lure bluebirds, only tree swallows took over the boxes. That sounds like it was a cute picture!
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I had to go all the way back to 2017 to find the picture(s)!
https://www.ingebrita.net/2017/06/blossoms-bluebird-baby-orbs/
I love your pictures because we can see the whole bird!
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But your post is so much cuter as the swallow is peeking out of the nesting box checking you out – I love this Barbara and I can see how you would be confused since they are supposed to be bluebird nesting boxes. Thank you for sending me the link – it made me smile. A fellow blogger said the swallow’s coloring reminded him of deck shoes and another blogger said it reminded her of a whale. You and Beverly had a nice hike and yes, sometimes it is nice to be free of the camera after a long hike and taking pictures. I felt like that today as I got back to the car and it was just nice to sit down. Today I saw the barn swallows, but they didn’t alight, so no pictures today – lots of people were fishing on the overlook.
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Great pictures! Such pretty birds.
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Glad you liked them Kate – I had a nice, up close and personal look at them as it was windy, so they pretty much stayed put while guarding their young inside.
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we have Swallows trying to set up camp here but the Sparrows are bullying them!
A friend got a ladder and removed their nest and placed a smaller hole over the entrance way.
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Sparrows are bullies for sure! Marge got several wren houses, put them on the top of her deck railing. Wrens moved in and started taking in nesting material. She was standing at her patio door watching and the Sparrows went in, removed the nesting materials and essentially evicted the wrens. I hope your friend’s “fix” worked Wayne. Sparrows have caused me issues here over the years, building their nests in between the blinds so a metal netting had to be put over the blind and they found another way in!
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He made the hole entrance smaller. So hopefully the Swallows can get through but not those nasty Sparrows!
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I hope that works Wayne … the Sparrows will infiltrate anything and my backyard is filled with them. I walk back there and there is a whoosh as they take flight from a tree. I was just reading about the evacuations from the Alberta and B.C. wildfires. Stay safe. I read that your lack of snow is helping to contribute to the problem. Our lack of snow and cold weather is contributing to an outbreak of ticks, earlier and in abundance as the weather was not cold enough to kill them.
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those fires are far north. mountain passes got a dump of snow last night.
Lets hope those Sparrows eat up all those nasty ticks early!
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That’s good Wayne. The story was on a weather site and they didn’t give a lot of information, but mostly mentioned the evacuations. Good that there was a dump of snow – that should help I would think. The ticks are nasty – we are told if we go on the grass, only go after it’s been cut and is short or wear your pants legs tucked into your socks to spot them.
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I had tree swallows in my bird boxes many years ago. For several years I think. They used to pop up and look out the box hole if I came too close. I thought they sort of looked like whales. And they’d fly behind me when I mowed in the evenings, catching the bugs that the mower scared up. It was fun. In the beginning I thought they were dive bombing me, but in reality they were just catching dinner. I haven’t had any in a long time. The wrens have taken over the boxes now.
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That’s pretty smart of them Dawn … and people use the label of “bird brain” for birds. Yes, they do look like whales with their coloring and another blogger said they looked like boat shoes. My neighbor went to a craft fair and got some wren boxes and put them on her deck railing and sparrows overtook them. These nesting boxes are along Cove Point at Lake Erie Metropark. I took an interpretive walk a few years ago and the guide said volunteers built many nest boxes, then mounted them on poles along the shoreline hoping to lure bluebirds, but the swallows moved in from the beginning. If there are not two sitting on top, one is sitting on top and the other is inside.
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Beautiful birds! Somehow they remind me of boat shoes; dark blue on top with a white rim around the sole 🙂
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Yes they are Dave and when the sun hits just right, they are iridescent. I can see that resemblance to boat shoes. 🙂
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what gorgeous swallows, Linda. The blue is so rich and cobalt! Tree swallow, I’m not sure what ours are, google called them violet-green swallows.
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Glad you liked them Terri – these swallows are pretty, almost iridescent when the sun hits them just right. At least they sit in one spot, especially when they have young in the nesting box, unlike the barn swallows that are always dipping and swooping. Our barn swallows have not arrived yet. I hope I can get them sitting on the branch near the overlook as their peach color will work with your September Peach challenge. 🙂
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Great that you are thinking ahead, Linda! We need to build a nesting box for next spring. The poor swallows are longing to use the little birdhouse but I don’t think they will.
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The day I was at Heritage Park to take photos of the goslings, the Botanical Gardens was all pink with Dogwood, Crabapple and Cherry blossoms. It was so beautiful. And a few pink flowers as well. So I know I can make a Wordless Wednesday in pink that week. I hope you can get swallows for next year Terri. Our Barn Swallows are back. I saw them flitting around the wooden overlook at Lake Erie Metropark this morning. Too many fisherman there so they didn’t “rest” on a branch so I could get a picture though for the peach challenge.
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Our bird houses were welcome to whoever could fit through the door. Most of the time around where I grew up it was a wren family. Those are certainly beautiful birds and they’d be welcome in any birdhouse of mine! 🙂
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I have never seen a bluebird Zazzy … we have them here though. My next door neighbor/friend Marge went to a craft fair one year and bought several bird houses with a hole that was sized for wrens, then lined them up on her deck railing. I looked forward to seeing the wrens and their young as I had never seen a wren. So the wrens moved in right away, took lots of nesting materials into the house(s) and then the sparrows came and literally evicted the wrens, throwing their nesting materials out of the hole, bringing in their own. Marge said she could not believe her eyes. We have a lot of sparrows here (too many as they have wreaked havoc with my outside blinds causing me to have wire put up to keep them out). The bluebird houses in this post were put up along Cove Point at Lake Erie Metropark. I took one of their interpretive walks once and the guide said that volunteers built, then mounted them on poles to encourage bluebirds, but only tree swallows came to nest.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tree swallow and here I was falling in love with them. They look a lot like indigo buntings except for the white belly.
I also love blue jays and they are quite mean with other birds at the feeders. But they will pick wasps right out of their nests and eat them which makes me happy.
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Our barn swallows are pretty too – they should be back soon and they are hard to take a photo of because they never sit still. However last year I was lucky because there is a wooden overlook and a dead twiggy tree and they sometimes stop and rest there. I did a whole post on them last year as they actually lined up on a hot, humid morning, so maybe they were worn out and I got a lot of photos of them. I have never seen an indigo bunting, but I have been following a group of photographers that post photos from the 13 Metroparks we have here in SE Michigan. They have photos of birds I’ve never seen, like bluebirds and indigo buntings. I was feeling lucky as I saw a female Baltimore oriole on Sunday. It was pulling pieces of fluff from a cattail, I’m thinking for nesting material. It was not a clear photo, but it was exciting to see it anyway. I didn’t know blue jays ate wasps. I like jays and twice this year I’ve heard a jay sound the alarm cry when a hawk was in the tree. It shrieked for a good 10-12 minutes until the hawk finally left.
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I think the jays are primarily going after the wasp eggs but while they do that they eat the wasp, too. I got trapped in my car once. At the time I lived in a two story duplex and the wasp nest was hanging above the front door and up a level. They were swarming the jay and I guess can’t sting through the feathers but I couldn’t get to my door.
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Wow – that would be scary. I brought a black wasp in on my hair or clothes I guess. I was sitting at the kitchen table and heard a buzzing noise. The fixture is directly overhead and I thought something was wrong with it … looked closer and it was a black wasp. Luckily I was able to trap it in a box and took it outside.
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Pretty! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tree swallow, but apparently they are only in this area during migration.
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I think they are pretty too Linda and our Barn Swallows are the same iridescent cobalt blue, but they have peach tones instead of white.
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A few weeks ago I saw a pair of swallows and a sparrow all checking out the life ring near our pond where the blue bird nested last year. It was the first time I saw the swallow close up and noticed it’s iridescent color. So pretty! I don’t think anyone is nesting in that ring right now, but the blue bird is in the life ring at the other end of the pond. You got some great pictures.
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Thank you Ruth! This was at Lake Erie Metropark and there are nesting boxes all along the shoreline that volunteers built and put on posts. But I understand they were built to lure bluebirds, but the swallows have taken them over. They are pretty – when the sun hits them just right, they are iridescent, like a Starling does sometimes.
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The shades of blue on this pair of swallow birds are beautiful! I still have yet to get a close up of a bird pic…I tend to scare them all away by the time I’m ready to take a photo.
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I like this bright blue too Esther. Well, these were the best of the bunch I took that day and believe me, I only got these photos because instead of their usual dipping and swooping to get insects, they were guarding their young in the nest boxes. In the photos with one Swallow, the other one was usually in the nest box. And I came home with a ton of duds where all I had was the nest box. 🙂
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Yea, I know what you mean about the duds!! I get plenty of those too. Despite those duds, you take and choose great photos to post on your blog. I tell myself to be happy and satisfied if I get one good photo, but the greed in me wants to have more picture perfect photos.
The bright blue with the white underbelly is great. Bird photos are not my thing…for those pictures, I would have to get the dslr, but that camera is so clunky!!
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I went through yesterday’s photos and I was feeling pretty good when I came home as I had one long post and some Wordless Wednesday posts … or so I thought, but then looked at them this morning as it was raining and I had a lot of duds and blurry birds. Lots of birds at this park, but the deer came out okay. Maybe because it was big and stood still? 🙂 You know how to use the phone camera to your advantage so that makes it easy and portable and that’s a good thing. Plus you have your pictures available to look at and/or post instantaneously, rather than going to the computer, then downloading the camera card shots to use later. A world of difference – instant gratification!
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Wow – stunning cobalt blues and white bellies! We rarely see the swallows in our yard, no houses to invade/conquer in our yard. You captured them well. Nice job double-dipping on the color of the month!
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They are really beautiful birds Shelley and in the sunlight they look iridescent. Thank you – I was lucky because they are usually mid-air swooping and diving to catch insects, but they were sitting on the nest boxes and pretty much staying put, so making it easier for me. I told Terri I already got my photos for the June Color Challenge (pastels). I won’t always be ahead of the game for Color Challenges, but this time I’m ready.
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After I had said I don’t think we see them in our yard, a couple flew through doing their mid-air swooping. A new hatch of bugs captured their interest here.
Yay – that’s awesome you’re ahead of the prompts again and ready for June. 😊
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Great – you can check them out dive bombing the bugs – hopefully not you. Yes, ahead of the game this time. 🙂
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These diminutive birds are so very beautiful! And it’s cool that they are such adroit fliers! 😊
Too much rain here lately!
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They sure are Tom and when the sun catches them right, they are iridescent! Yes, it s cool they can fly and swoop and dive, all while catching insects for them and their young. Same here Tom. Today was a beautiful day but we have storms rolling in after 10:00 p.m. and lasting all day Friday. Sigh.
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Nice photos of the swallows. They do have beautiful colors and I love to watch them swoop and dive. I would think they would also catch a lot of insects.
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Thank you Rebecca. They are pretty and I like how the sun makes them and the barn swallows look iridescent. I am amazed at how the swallows are always in motion trying to get insects. I was lucky to see these swallows and take photos as they were guarding the nest boxes so they rarely flew off them.
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That color of blue is astounding. Pretty bird, good photos.
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Yes Ally, they look like neon-glow-in-the-dark birds with those colors. Thank you. I was lucky as they didn’t move around much as they were guarding the nest boxes.
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Oh my, those swallows are stunning, Linda! Don’t think I’ve ever seen that species. But I don’t often frequent their habitat (open fields near marshes or fresh water), being a city-dweller! So glad you captured those stunning photos, to share their beauty with us.
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Thank you Nancy – they are beautiful birds, almost iridescent when the sunlight catches them just right. I was lucky to see them sitting there because they are always diving and dipping in mid-air to catch insects, but they are guarding their young ones inside the boxes, so I was there at the right place and right time!
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What stunning colors
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Kirstin, when the sun hits them just right, they look iridescent. I was lucky to get photos of them – usually they swoop and dive, but they were content to sit at the nest box and it was very windy so they stayed put.
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Wow that colouring is stunning! They are so beautiful!
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They are such a vibrant blue! I was lucky to see them up close Ari because they were guarding the nest boxes, as usually they are diving and swooping constantly and catching insects in mid-air and I come home with blurred birds.
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