Not Too Good

Today turned out to be not so good. Early this afternoon, I went out to fill the bird feeder. When I got out there, I found a dead sparrow, I believe juvenile, on the ground under the feeder. It had severe trauma to the back of the head. Not the work of a cat, in my opinion. I went to work, and when I got home, I found three more dead juvenile sparrows, all near the bird feeder. They too had severe trauma to the back of the head. One had only the beak left. It really upset me to find all these precious babies dead. The only thing I can think of is larger birds killed them. I'm not sure why. I've never had birds killed in my yard before. I don't know what kind of bird would do something like this, but I'm sure it was over food. Didn't take any pictures again today.This, unfortunately, is a picture of a picture. I actually took it to email it to Lori. This was my back yard in Apopka, Florida. The dock was in my next door neighbor's yard, but you couldn't get out onto it because a big section from the land to about 15 or 20 feet into the water, had been burned. But it made for great pictures. I don't have the original picture or negative any more. This is a 20x30 hanging in my dining room. It was taken with a 35mm Vivitar about 17 years ago.

Same location, but with very large birds(not sure what kind) and a sea plane that had just taken off. The bad thing about living out here was the alligators! You could always hear them bellowing. They are very loud.

This is the Mississinewa River. I was standing under the Cumberland Bridge to take it. This river has really gotten very high with all this excessive rain we've had. In 1913 a flood washed the bridge away. They had to pull it back up in place with horses and raise the foundation. It's a beautiful bridge. Recently refurbished. Here is a link to a website showing the bridge.

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/indiana_covered_bridge_14_27_01.htm

This Swallowtail butterfly literally fell on the ground in front of me one day while we were cleaning out the garage. I was carrying flower pots full of soil up to my flower bed to dump. Something yellow dropped to the ground in front of me, just like a dead leaf. I stopped and looked at it. I watched it for a while to see if it would fly away or not. It never moved, so I went in to get the camera and got a few shots. Then I put my hand down by it. It crawled up onto my hand, then up my arm, up my throat, my face, and finally into my hair. It was the strangest feeling having that butterfly walk on my face. We moved it to the tree and it eventually flew away. It apparently had just recently hatched from it's coccoon. It's wings weren't completely dry.

Grandpa's apple blossoms are at the top of the page. I think that tree only had maybe a dozen apples on it last year because of the wacky weather. This year, so far, it has tons of "baby" apples on it. I can't remember how they taste, or what type they are.

If anybody has any idea about the bird attacks, please let me know. It driving me nuts not knowing.

Gonna get off here for tonight. Everybody have a good night and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.

Lisa