Feeding the Chickadees

Wow, has it really been since July that I posted anything to my blog? I don't know where the time went but I promise to do better!

I've been having a blast lately feeding the Chestnut-Backed Chickadees that visit my feeders. Could anything be more perfect that a chickadee?

Chickadee and Red Berries in Winter

One thing that's always sure to lighten my mood is to feed the chickadees peanuts by hand. I've got quite the crew this year and they land one after the other, often taking their time choosing the perfect peanut. Sometimes they toss nuts onto the ground because they're not quite right in their eyes. Sometimes they even have the nerve to peck my hand. And yes, the final indignity happened just the other day...one of them left me a tiny Christmas gift. But I'd forgive a chickadee anything...I mean, look at them!

Chickadee in Winter

Well, I just wanted to drop in and wish you Happy Holidays this Christmas season and all the very best in 2012. I hope that the coming year is as magical as feeding chickadees peanuts from your hands!

Christmas Chickadee

Baby Coyotes

This time last year I was visiting a group of five baby coyotes a half-hour's drive from where I live. I visited them about half a dozen times and it was always big fun to watch them play...they're a lot like puppy dogs and never stop playing and/or biting each other. The pups had a den in some dense blackberry bushes, behind a fence bordering an empty parking lot. They'd often come out to frolic in the parking lot and although many people would walk right by and not even realize that they were there, there were also lots of people who got in the habit of keeping up with their goings-on.

Yesterday I went down to the same area where the I'd found the baby coyotes last year. Unfortunately I didn't see anything at all. They'd cleared away a lot of the blackberry bushes but there's still a lot left so they could possibly have a den in there.

If you'd like to see a short video of the baby coyotes playing, please click on the link. Meanwhile, here's a photograph of four of the little cuties on the run that I took last year.

 
If you'd like to see more pictures of this coyote family (although I never did see the parents), please have a look at Baby Coyote and Baby Coyotes on the main Fun Nature Photography website.