Bluebird Story (continued)

See that picture above????  There are 2 male Bluebirds hoping to mate with a beautiful female Bluebird....  You should remember this story (click HERE) since I blogged about it on March 3.  WELL-------to make a long story short,  all of this drama went on and on and on,  for about a month!!!!  Here is  MORE of the story!!!

The two males (after following Miss Female around for weeks) decided to 'fight' for her...  Excuse the blurry pictures ---but the light was terrible,  and I was photographing from my bedroom window through the window AND screen... BUT--I wanted to share them to show you the drama that some birds go through to establish their territory.

One Bluebird had the other one upside down!!!!  Wish you could have been here to see  (and HEAR) the noise going on in our backyard. (By the way,  they did not hurt one another ---except for the pride of the one who LOST!!!)

You can see Mama Bluebird looking on ---and believe me,  she was making as much noise as the two males were!!!!

WELL---one of the males WON.  Here is the happy couple!!! For those of you who have asked what the difference is in the male and female,  this picture shows you the difference. The male (a much more vivid blue color) is on the left,  and the female is on the right.

Here's a great picture of Mama Bluebird.

AND--here's Papa Bluebird.

When we got home from vacation,  I saw Papa Bluebird at the nestbox (Picture above).   SO--- we checked to see what is in the nestbox... Guess What???? George and I are going to be Bird-Grandparents of FOUR baby Bluebirds.. There are 4 little blue eggs in the nest.... HOW EXCITING!!!!!!

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On another note,  I am SO enjoying watching the EAGLES from the webcam at Decorah, Iowa.  As of yesterday,  two of the three eggs have hatched.. What cute little balls of fir!!!!!   The third egg should hatch soon.  I love seeing what good parents these Eagles are, and I love watching them feed their babies.  It's truly AWESOME --and ADDICTIVE!!!!! ha....

I keep the website streaming on my computer all day long --so that I can keep checking on them!!!!  The craziest thing was watching them eat a large rabbit --which they brought to the nest.  I'm not keen on seeing animals eat other animals --but it's their way of life.

Eagles are NOT clean birds ---and don't even know how to clean the eggshells out of the nest.  That is totally opposite from the Bluebirds,  which are extremely CLEAN.

IF you want to check out the Eagles,  click HERE.   You ought to see those fuzzy little baby eaglets.

Hugs,

P.S. Just letting everyone know that many counties in Tennessee had severe weather yesterday.  There was even damage near us.  BUT--luckily,  our area is fine (thanks be to God).  We did have high winds and TONS of rain...  May God be with those who lost their homes and loved ones due to this severe weather.

A Little Piece of Heaven!!!

This past week,  George and I enjoyed several days at our favorite mountain cabin in Arkansas,  at Mt. Nebo.  This was the first year we have gone this late in March--and we did have an entirely different experience from other years..  First of all,  the weather didn't cooperate at all,  since we had cold rain and lots of fog and clouds most of the week.  But,   as we always do,  we make the best of a 'different' situation ---and of course managed to have a wonderful week.

The disadvantage of this kind of weather was the lack of very many beautiful sunrises and sunsets (which we love when we are there)... The advantage was that we got some gorgeous FOG shots!!!!!! ha

Luckily,  we took this set of pictures (except for the first one) the very first afternoon we were there.   That was our only clear day all week.    I apologize to my long-time followers --since I have posted MANY Mt. Nebo pictures through the years (since this is our 7th trip there --since 2006).  You will know this special place WELL.....

Below is our mountain cabin --which sits on the top of the mountain, with a great view of the valley below.  This little cabin has one bedroom,  one bath,  a small kitchen and a living area with a GREAT fireplace (which we used constantly).

Above is a picture we took on our LAST morning there.. George put up the tripod and we sat outside in the drizzling RAIN to have our pictures made.... ha ha.....  We did like the view of the fog in the valley below though.

This  picture was taken from the front side looking at our cabin,  with the edge of the cliff in the back.  The bedroom is on this end of the cabin.

This shows the back side of the cabin.  There is a wonderful back porch and a patio area with grill and picnic table.

This picture was taken from the 'other' side of the cabin.   The kitchen is on the front and the living room area faces the back.  The cabins/houses are not close together --which makes for some great privacy!

You can see the porch and patio from here.  Because of the weather,  we didn't get to sit outside very much this trip,  but,  since I always take birdseed with me when we travel (like all good birders do--ha ha),  I made friends with LOTS of birds this past week.  I would sprinkle bird seed along the rock edges and on the concrete patio floor...    It didn't take long for all of the birds to come and visit!!!!!!

This  is a picture of the rocks on the edge of the mountain --with a view of some of the valley below.  The town below us is Dardanelle.   There are several hiking trips in this area.

While we were there, there were LOTS of Turkey Vultures in this area--and they would land on these rocks to rest.  I got a few pictures of the big birds which I will share in future posts.

Here is a view from our back porch. You can see the valley below.  This truly is a 'piece of Heaven' to George and me.  Whether it is sunny, cloudy, snowy, ICY (which it was one year while there),  rainy or foggy--we love it!!!!!!

Hope you had a wonderful week... I will begin to catch up with your blogs soon.

Hugs,