Bird Watching

Phoebe

These last couple of days have been so hot and humid that I've been indoors most of the time but I've still been having fun watching the birds.  I enjoy (yes it's mean) using my fly swatter to kill the very large and mean horse flies when they land on my sliding glass doors.  I sit inside, wait for one to land and get comfortable and then go out and "whop"!!  Got it!!!  I NEVER say I'm bored. 

I noticed a few birds coming up to my sliding glass door, diving near it and then flying back to the big oak tree.  I finally figured out what they are doing.  When I kill a fly I leave it laying on the porch.  One of the birds came up and grabbed one of the dead flies off the deck and flew back to the tree.  It seems they are trying and succeeding  in catching the horse flies in flight or when they land at the patio door. 

More power to them! 

GEOCACHING WITH MY BUDDY MICKIE. 

Yesterday I spent the day geocaching with my buddy Mickie  in Michigan's "Thumb" 

Here are some of the scenes along the way. 

Bales of Straw

Michigan's first Wind Farm called "Harvest Wind Farm" outside of Elkton, MI


Did you know ?

Elkton, located near the center of Oliver Township, was first known as Oliver Center. The village was founded in 1886 by W.J. McGillivray, a blacksmith, who built the first house here. It was renamed Elkton to commemorate his killing a huge elk entangled in his wife's clothesline.

Mickie is posing for this Earthcache.
There is no actual container at this cache but instead geological information.
 This is at a Flowing Well near Elkton
but on this hot and humid day the well was dry as a bone and Mickie and I were both wishing for a nice cool drink of water. When I was a kid we had a flowing well on our farm and it was the best and coldest water.  

Forgotten Soule.
This little country cemetery is overgrown and long forgotten.  

Tiger Lilly
If you look closely on the lower right petal you can see a
yellow spider called a crab spider.
These spiders change colors to match the color of the flower they are on. 

Great Fire of 1881
This historical site had a cache nearby. One of the reasons
I love caching so much is all of the interesting places I get to visit.
Interesting information on the Red Cross.

Buck in Velvet

This handsome young fellow just wandered into my back yard a few minutes ago.  Two other does were with him.  UPDATE...two more does and a playful fawn joined the group.  They ate in the field and then went across the road to the woods.  So nice to see wildlife almost every day.