bluegerl and I have been discussing fireflies and I found this lovely video...

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I live quite a ways south of Nebraska but this is also pretty typical of the fireflies (or lightning bugs, as they're usually called here) flashing on a warm and muggy summer evening ( Read more... )

While I was driving my daughter to school this morning, I drove past a corner of our property I can't see from the house, and to my dismay and alarm, I saw a puff of smoke coming out from the trees. I slowed down to look, but the smoke dissipated and there were no flames anywhere that I could see. I dropped off my daughter, drove back, and still ( Read more... )

Went outside the other day and found Ms. Happy trundling along the driveway with a piece of bark in her mouth.  I followed her into the trees and she kept on going, proudly holding it up like it was the Best Thing Ever. There are bits and bobs of tree bark and branches everywhere on our property, so I wonder what it was that was Speshul about this ( Read more... )

After several days flying out to branches and often spending the entire night on the branch, the two oldest eaglets have fledged!   This doesn't mean they've left the nest for good, but it means they've flown away from the tree into the "wild blue"... or at least around in the sky above the tree and the farm and the hatchery.  I believe they'll ( Read more... )

Look what I found this morning when I pulled up the webcam!  D12, the oldest of the 3 chicks, has branched!  It's a bit of an optical illusion because of the camera angle, but that branch is about 5 feet below the nest and he's probably about 6 feet away from the nest (he's about 3 feet tall so I'm guesstimating), so branching isn't just a stroll ( Read more... )

( ... and a frog. )

Managed to get a quick couple shots of the two little ones this morning.  It's harder to do... the Mom tends to stay on top of them most of the time.  But here's Fuzzball 1 and Fuzzball 2, for lack of any other names at the moment:


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I've been keeping my eye on the Great Spirit Bluff peregrine falcon webcam and today there are two brand new little hatchlings!  Soooo cute!  I wasn't able to grab a screencap of the babies, but here's the mom, who's name is Michelle (apparently for the falcons RRP has no problem with anthropomorphizing):


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Or, in other words, more floral picspam!  Life is still a little big wonky for me, but you have to take time to smell the flowers!  (Or at least take pictures of them.)
( Lilacs and more... )

If you haven't been peeking now and then at the Decorah Eagle webcam but are still interested in the goings on of the Eagle household, you might be interested to know that the first hatch of the 3 eggs is expected any day between March 23-25... and the first "pip", which is when the hatchling starts breaking the egg, could come as early as today.  ( Read more... )