Dressed for success

On one of our walks Baylee and I spotted this pair of male green winged teals feeding in pond. Upon looking them up in my trusty Sibley guide I noted that these drakes were in breeding plumage.

Heading down the trail a bit farther we happened upon a few more well dressed gentlemen who it seems had already had a bit of luck with the ladies.

A finely dressed hooded merganser with his crest raised



In this picture the merganser on the left has his crest lowered while the one on the right has his half way, the two of them were swimming around raising and lowering their crests and bobbing their heads up and down.

In the next few photos you can see them circling the girls they seem to be pursuing

If you listened carefully you could even hear a few cheesy pickup lines.

The whole while I'm taking pictures of the hooded mergansers I was accompanied by this little song sparrow who was foraging about two feet from my foot

Passing by base

Driving past one of our fine military installations one sunny day I noticed a herd of large ungulates walking toward the gate looking as though they were going to enter. Maybe they were just headed on base to stop by the exchange for some ice cream.




The herd numbering about fifty strong, they seemed not to mind that there was a gate and armed personnel waiting to check there ID's
As the largest of the herd, the one appearing to be the alpha slowly turned and trotted the other direction the rest of the herd followed suit

Looking back to see if there were any stragglers he noticed the teenagers of the herd still milling about wondering what all those two legged creatures were doing and why they were flashing

Tiffanie's move to Michigan

So one cold and breezy night I landed in Des Moines, IA. While my luggage simultaneously landed in Atlanta, Ga. Thankfully Tiffanie and her family were at the airport to cheer me up.

Wearing the attire of someone who left a climate in the mid 40's I was a bit cold as we walked from the car into the restaurant while a 2 degree wind tried to freeze my breath. Sitting down to dinner I met Tiffanie's mother, step father, her brother and his daughter, her sister with her husband and daughter, and her grandparents. After dinner we headed off to her fathers for the night. The next few days were spent packing, and meeting family. Then the night before we left my luggage did arrive. So a U Haul full of college text books, a parrot in the back seat and a tree in the trunk and we were off.

A short 10 or so hours later we arrived at Tiffanie's new apartment where my parents met to help us unpack. After introducing our parents to each others we did a rapid unpack and headed off to the Olive Garden for a really late dinner.

Here you see one hard working unpacking crew

Having fun cleaning TiHa's deer


Always having fun in the kitchen


Out to dinner with my parents at one of Grand Rapids greatest restaurants.

Graydons Crossing.

She's short but we love her.


Yup those two guys must be blood, they got the same cheesy grin.


Enjoying a nice walk through the woods as the snow fell

As with the Thanksgiving trip home we saw grandma and had bagel dogs.

For more on this grand adventure and more please see Tiffanies blog and check out the entry "A new year a new home" http://t1f.blogspot.com/

Snowy Days

It was told to me that we get very few snowy days here in Astoria. So on a nicer one of the few Baylee and I ventured out to see the sites.Found some cool old pier pilings