On the 18th, I was out hanging up clothes on the line when I hear a big fluttering noise and then honking and look up to see a goose flying overhead. He was the traditional Canadian goose to look at him. Don't know what had disturbed him or how many more there were. But they must be here for the winter and earlier than usual. Or so I would think. When they are here, I hardly know except for occasional noise from the trees and once in a great while of them circling in the evening before they settled for the night.

The above photo was taken in our driveway just below the house back in 2003. I have gone out twice this year to find a single turkey roaming around but they don't venture up into the yard anymore. Too many doggies. Occasionally I will see a group of about a dozen moving through the pasture to our north.

It has now been ten days since I have heard a Whippoorwill calling at night. Their time has passed and that season is over. I still hear the occasional sound of their "radar" as they fly around in the dark of night.

I have photos of two unknown birds that I will soon post in this section to see if anyone knows what they might be. I had sent inquiries to online sites to get help in identifying them but got no response from either. 

I hear a song bird that I had thought was a Mockingbird since one of the unknowns could have been him. But one day I was here at my computer when a little wren perched on the window sill and started singing that song. So, it was not a Mockingbird.

We've had a pair of quail coming up to the water every afternoon for quite a while. They are so pretty. And since Wanda Lynch just loves quail, I named them Jay and Wanda. That was well before Wanda attacked a squirrel and finally chased him away from her water. What a sight that was.

At night, I still hear the "shuttering" sound of a bird. When I heard it last night, I was shinning my flashlight in that area and it kept moving closer for a while. But it stopped before coming within sight. Sure don't know what that was. Spooky at the very least. It's the kind of sound that makes me shiver and hurry back inside.

We have doves and we have owls but I can't tell the difference in the sounds that they make. I watched this morning as a flock of snowy egrets made a big circle overhead. They move along behind the cattle eating bugs that are stirred up. Hope they eat plenty of grasshoppers. My camera is not good enough to get a clear picture of them but while we had few last year, we have lots this year.

The crickets have been worse than any year yet, everywhere inside and getting noisy. We've had some of the white crickets but none loose in the house making noise as in many years. The click bugs finally made a showing and are now in great numbers. The only damage they cause is the brown stain they leave behind. If they are inside of clothing, the fabric is ruined.

I have had a bad time keeping the bees and wasps out of the hummingbird nectar. In one article about such problems, it mentioned that they prefer a yellow feeder. So I keep a yellow one out just for them and it does help. The main feeder is copper but has yellow flowers on the sides. I clean the feeders and do everything else suggested but still the insects chase the hummers now and then. Like the Cardinals, the hummingbirds are busy making a second crop of babies with this long hot season. Excellent. I looked to see a solid light color hummer flash a red throat at another bird to scare it away. I had only seen the red throat on the black bodied ones. Awesome.