A Willy Wonka door, kitten and the birds

Around the corner from my friend's house is a house about four of five years old. Every time I drive by I have to laugh. The front door always reminds me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It's the scene right before they enter the factory. There is a big long hallway that gets smaller and smaller to this tiny door. Well this is what this house reminds me of. I finally got a picture of the front of the house. What do you think? Does it remind you of Willy Wonka?



The other morning before I left for work, I looked out the back window and I saw Tiger in the tree right above the bird feeder. She looked so cute in the tree that I had to take he picture.


Bobbie has had humming birds for quite a while now. She would send me pictures of her hummers. I was kidding her that it didn't look like a hummer. It looked like a sparrow with a long bill. Well I finally have hummers visiting me. The one that I see the most is a tiny male. Here he is posing for me.

Here he is getting a well deserved feed.

I find these little birds fascinating. They only weigh a couple of ounces and they have more spunk then larger birds.

We had a nor'easter earlier in the week with some pretty strong wind gust. Some gusts were over 50 MPH. These tiny little birds still visited the feeder. Amazing.

Tuesday or Wednesday morning at work, I was out back having a cigarette. I was pacing back and forth. I had looked over at the school and I noticed something on their antenna. It took some time for me to realize that it was a bird. I went inside and got my camera. Here is a picture of him perched on the antenna. He was there most of the morning.

The next morning he was there again. The smaller birds kept swooping him. He was oblivious to this. I had zoomed in close to get another picture when he decided to fly toward me. I couldn't zoom out fast enough to get a picture, but I realized it was a Cooper's Hawk. He has taken up residence on this antenna.

Friday was a dreary wet morning. When I looked he wasn't on the antenna. I looked around and found him on the light post.

Here are closer pictures of him

(I hope the pictures enlarge so you can really see his markings.)

Today Bobbie and I were on the phone and went out to get the mail. I was on my front deck and looked up. I couldn't believe it, there was a Bald Eagle flying over head. This is the first time I have seen a Bald Eagle in the Villas and me without my camera. We have a - I don't really know what you would call it now. It was a golf course called Ponderlodge for many years. The owner didn't think that he had to pay any taxes and the State took it over. It has not been maintained since they have. It is now called Villas Wildlife Preserve. I had heard that there was a Eagles nest there, but to the best of my knowledge no one knows where it is. Well let me change that. I think the people at the bird observatory know, but don't want to tell anyone for fear that people will try and get to the nest and do some harm. I can't blame them.

Well all in all, today was a very good day. It was finally sunny. I saw a Bald Eagle and I got some gardening done. Can't beat that.