Year End Little This and That

2017 seemed to fly by. Several people have posted pictures of their year and more. I was inspired to look back through the year to see what caught my eye and share it with you. 

January we had a smattering of snow. When we were out birding we came upon some Whoooping Cranes. They left their big foot prints in the snow. I love to find wildlife tracks in the snow. These are some unique tracks by endangered birds.

February I noticed in my garden that one of the older dogwoods was sporting some beautiful moss and lichen. These colors enliven our home. I just realized where I was inspired.

March warmed enough that the bees were out and about. It is always fun to see them inspecting the flowers so early in the season.

April was even warmer. Being outside cleaning out the flower beds I looked down and noticed what I thought was an elephants foot. Not really but do you see the elephant foot as a base of this tree?

Also in April the blackberries were flowering up a storm and more bees were taking advantage.

May brought us a dreaded chipmunk. It harrassed the birds at the feeders and the poor wrens in their box. He eventually settled out front someplace. I rarely saw him but I had a UPS driver tell me he saw him as he was delivering so he was still around later in the year.

June the wren box was about to explode.

Also in June as we were out birding we came upon a King Rail. King Rails are not plentiful around here so it was a particularly choice sighting. As you can probably tell by this photo they don't like to be seen. We hear them more than see them. 

July I just love this wild iris. It always makes me happy to see it and it is beginning to make a little colony.

August didn't bring us much rain. You could see the wear and tear on not just the garden but the visitors.  

September the grapes were over ripe. I didn't get any jelly made this year. This doesn't please me a bit. After I have had homemade grape jelly it is difficult to go back to store bought. In my defense we did some remodeling in the house during this time, I was busier than usual.

October is when I found this mushroom that I had never seen before. It was in an unlikely place. I believe this is an Amanita muscaria.

November held a wonderful surprise. It had been cold but we were having near record temps. On a sunny day a little bee came to one of the few blooms left in the garden. Of course this is a hover fly as Cheryl kindly corrected me. I don't want anyone to be misguided by my  bee brain. 

December brought some nice sightings. While we were doing a Christmas Bird Count we came upon a covey of Northern Bobwhite. They sat in the road pretending to be rocks so as we wouldn't notice. Notice we did. My Dearly Beloved took some great pictures of a few of them huddled together. We more often hear these birds singing their name sake song. It was a delight to see them out in the open.

Another even more unusual sighting we had in December was a first winter male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. It is the latest we have ever seen one and it was coming to suet just outside my home office window. What a way to end the season. There are only a hand full of sightings of this bird in Southern Indiana at this time of year.

I hope you have had some delights through the year. I and wish you many more this coming year.