Early Birds

Well, hello everyone!  I know I am not being very "present" on here lately.  The holiday season is always a bit hairy for a lot of us, I think.  I hope everyone stateside had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I do have a wonderful bit of news...I CAN READ MY COMMENTS AGAIN!  Yay!   Whatever the glitch was with blogger that was keeping me from reading them, that has been happily resolved.  I didn't do anything.  One day, they were just back.  Loved all your comments on my Beautiful Bucks.  Here are a few early morning bird visitors on my deck  for Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday....

Beautiful Bucks

Some of the buck mule deer we have seen this fall...Linking with Eileen's Saturday's Critters:

This Old House

I saw this abandoned old house months ago and kept wanting to go back to it so I could take pictures.  We happened to be there almost a month ago as the sun was setting, and it couldn't be better for the shots I managed to get!   I plan to turn a couple of these into oil paintings, and may have one or two enlarged and framed as well!   Sharing with Mersad's Through My Lens and Tom's Tuesday Treasures....

Juncos and More

I loved all the comments I had on my last Wednesday post (which I also linked to Friday and Saturday linkups) so I am doing so again this week.  Today I am linking to Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday.  On Friday will be Tom's Willy Nilly Friday Five and on Saturday Eileen's Saturday's Critters. Though I am unable to see any of my comments on blogger, I have been posting a link to my blog post on my facebook page, and I can read all the comments there!   Love hearing what everyone has to say!

As for the Juvenile Scrub Jays, they tend to descend upon my suet feeder in gangs!   I sometimes count fifteen or more at once! They swoop in, eat it all, and leave! :-)   Not sure why.  Finneas is a beautiful cat (and sweet part of the time, but he does like to bite!) and I love sharing him too.  Anyway, keep visiting me and commenting!   I love hearing from you all!

1.  The juncos have been fairly frequent visitors lately:

2.  And towhees:

3.  Red-tail in a field with prey:

4.  More of the Juvenile Scrub Jays:

with Northern Flicker also

 5.  Mule Deer in a field at Palisades Cove:

Lake Billy Chinook

For Mersad's Through My Lens I am sharing some photos taken the day we drove out to Palisades Cove and Lake Billy Chinook near Culver, OR.  It sounds like an odd name, so I looked it up and here is some Wikipedia info (plus, apparently you can rent houseboats!) I'm happy that the lake honors an important Native American, of one of our local Indian tribes.

Lake Billy Chinook is a reservoir in Jefferson County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created by the Round Butte Dam in 1964, Lake Billy Chinook lies in a canyon at the confluence of the Crooked, Deschutes, and Metolius rivers near Culver and Madras. It was named for Billy Chinook, a Native American of the Wasco tribe who traveled alongside American explorers John C. Frémont and Kit Carson in their expeditions of 1843 and 1844.^[4] 

Culver Barns

Here are a few barns we saw the day we drove through Culver headed to Palisades Cove...joining with Tom's Barn Collective: