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"Possibility and promise greet me each day as I walk out into my garden. My vigor is renewed when I breathe in the earthiness and feel the dirt between my fingers. My garden is a peaceful spot to refresh my soul." Meems






Welcome to my Central Florida Garden Blog where we garden combining Florida natives, Florida-Friendly plants, and tropicals.

Friday, December 28, 2007

feathered friends

So the Christmas rush is over and life is somewhat back to normal routine which means some time for blogging and catching up. It's been unseasonably (if there is such a thing) warm here this month with exception of a couple of cool fronts moving through quickly. The last two days we are experiencing unusually humid conditions as well. As this post is being typed it is 70 degrees and it is 10:30 --at night-- near record highs!

Photo taken while browsing through the garden with guests 12.26.07
In gardening terms this equates to growing grass, flowers AND weeds. Pots that need water, grass that requires mowing and edging, weeds that need pulling. Gardening never stops in sunny Florida. Perfect beach weather though --in case anyone is thinking of visiting.


Often I am distracted from daily routine by the compulsion to watch the bird activities in my garden. I took this photo through the screening on the lanai (thus the hazy tone). I get a kick out of the Mourning Doves that gather and generally park on this feeder filled with safflower seeds.

Carolina Wren --not a common visitor of feeders-- they typically like to forage in safer places.

This particular feeder hangs in front of a large glass window from my living room looking out onto my front walkway. The morning I captured these photos I was trying to get my Christmas tree decorated but had to keep stopping to snap the abundance of activity at this busy feeding post. Again, I took these photos through the glass from the inside looking out.


Female Cardinal keeping watch out for the Carolina Wren foraging and hopping around below.


Male Cardinal enjoying its fill of Safflower. All these photos -on this feeder- taken within minutes of each other.

Tufted Titmouse- proudly displaying its safflower breakfast.


Two Red-Shouldered Hawks perch high above just after one had swooped in for its prey on the bird feeder.
The day following Christmas my family was eating a leisurely breakfast on the back lanai when we heard a loud crashing noise and looked out to see a hawk swooping into the hanging bird feeders placed at the back of our property. We didn't happen to see if the hawk was successful in plucking one of the smaller feathered friends from its eating perch but we did witness the magnificence of the hawk in flight, joining another one on a high look-out oak limb. After this photo op one of them took flight and the other repositioned and posed for more photos on the limb pictured below.


Red-shouldered Hawk posing for several minutes in one place while I took more than my share of photos.


This photo just added tonight (12.29 )after a trip to Tarpon Springs today.
More Tarpon Springs photos to come.
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station,
through which God speaks to us every hour,
if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver

8 comments:

  1. When do you ever rest from all the gardening? Here we have nothing to do outside in the garden, and it is too cold and rainy anyway. No snow, but we'll get some more eventually.

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

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  2. Hi Carol: Even though life stays green here 365 days and the gardening continues it does slow down a bit because our nights cool off this time of year. So the demands are not as great all year long.

    Our biggest problem right now is drought. The lack of rain creates more work any season.

    Hope you have a great New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  3. As Carol says - you must never get a break - but what wonderful birds you have... the birds here are greedily eating anything I put on the bird table following all the very cold weather we had here prior to Christmas - soon to return I think! Bon courage - Miranda

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  4. I'm so behind in blogging and reading blogs and I'm trying to catch up now!

    What a great photo of the hawk! I've not seen one up that close. The cardinal (male) picture is stunning as well. I think it just might be my very favorite bird. Good thing we have lots of them here!

    Beautiful photos!

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  5. Hi Meems, you get a good selection of birds in your feeder; we don’t get much here other then doves and blue jays. Great pictures.
    Happy New Year to you and your family

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  6. miranda bell: hi and welcome - thanks for stopping by all the way from France. we have to love the internet for linking new friends from all over the world.

    kylee: I am behind as well - the holidays can do that to us. There is no mistaking the magnificence of the male cardinal especially for those of us who love all things red!

    Rusty: I would think you would get your fair share of tropical birds such as parakeets and parrots??? We even have Quakers up our way- not in my backyard-- but in groups living wild in the tops of large palms.

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  7. Hello Meems, wonderful to look through your posts, your garden looks great, I envy you, all those fantastic flowers in december!

    Hope you have a great New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  8. tyra: Happy New Year to you as well! Thanks for stopping back by.

    ReplyDelete

Have a blessed day,
Meems


September 2010

Back Garden: October 2010

Louise Philippe: Antique Rose

Tropical Pathway