How Do They Do That?

This young Pileated Woodpecker  is sitting on our deck railing ---wondering how to get to that suet feeder  (which is hanging on a clothes line across the deck).

Mr. Pileated sees other birds flying up there at the feeders...  As he looks up,   I heard him ask Mr. Bluebird:  "How do you do that?"    Mr. Bluebird told him to use his wings and just fly up there and grab hold!!

Mr. Pileated knew that he was bigger than those other birds ---so he bent down --trying to make himself smaller.   "Wonder if this will work?"  he thought to himself.

"Okay---here goes!!!!"   (Mr Pileated tried to get to that suet SEVERAL times --but missed... He would fly away and then come back and try again....)

Guess what???? He made it!!!!!   But---he was struggling that first time or so trying to decide where to hang on,  and what to do!!!  I could hear him say:  "Now that I'm here,  how do I get to the FOOD????"

"Okay--it's getting easier!!!  This is pretty darn special... And that suet is GOOD!"

Mr. Pileated is such a gorgeous woodpecker ---and I just had to show you this picture of his gorgeous feathers.... He's a HE---but those look like a pretty little skirt!!!!! Bet he wouldn't appreciate me saying that though!!! ha ha

Finally,   I am showing you the funniest picture I have ever gotten of a Pileated Woodpecker... If this picture doesn't make you laugh,  WELL---nothing will!!!!!!  Isn't he hilarious?? (I think he is mad at me since I was laughing at him!!!)

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The birds and deer were both visible and active around here during Thanksgiving week.   Wonder if they smelled our turkey in the oven??????? YUM!!!!   I will share more pictures of our birds and deer in future posts.

Hugs,

Where are We?

Here we are... We are 6,684 feet above sea level.. The wind is blowing and it's about 45 degrees up there!!!!!   I'll give you a clue!!!!   We are not too far from Asheville,  North Carolina --and are not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway... I'm sure you can guess---IF you know this area,  or if you have already read George's blog!!!!

We are at Mount Mitchell,  the highest point east of the Mississippi River.  We took a trip during Thanksgiving week--and this was one of our stops.  A nice couple took our picture (above)  --after we hiked up to the overlook.  George and I had been to Mount Mitchell years ago--but they have really fixed it up now.   We had a great time.  Below are more pictures.

I asked George to stand next to the sign --showing where we were.   They have built this nice overlook --which wasn't here several years ago when we were here.  It was quite cold up on that mountain!!!

The views from the overlook were fabulous.  The mountain ranges seemed to go on forever---even though the clouds and the fog were all around us!!!  I also loved seeing all of the Evergreens near us.

You can see the road which we traveled in order to get most of the way up here.  We had to hike the last lap --but it wasn't too bad (pant pant)... ha..   I enjoyed seeing the clouds 'touch' the tops of those peaks in the distance!

As in some of our other recent photos,  the sun kept trying to pop through the clouds...  That made for some great photos --showing the sun and also the shadows.

Finally,   here is my favorite picture taken from Mount Mitchell.   I love seeing the sun's rays ---or sunbeams--shining down... Isn't this one marvelous?

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We certainly did.  I'll share much more from our trip last week over the next several blog posts.  Hope you saw the neat Hallmark movie on CBS last night.  It was AWESOME!

Hugs,