A Full-time Life

BABCOCK RANCH TOUR

 

It's getting close to time to leave the Canal Cottage for the season.   So Saturday morning I probably should have been scrubbing stoves or cleaning  refrigerators or one of the million other last-minute things that have to be done to get ready.   But instead I went to Babcock Ranch.

 

 

About eighty percent (0ver 90,000 acres) of this  huge historical ranch is preserved as open space, nature reserves, and agricultural use.  It is owned by the State of Florida and Lee County.    (Part of the ranch was sold to a developer and contains the new planned development city of Babcock Ranch that I have blogged about before.)         We toured several habitats -- open lands, farmland, swamps, and lots of watery spaces.  

 

Barred Owl

Every habitat had its unique plant and animal life.  The above  in one of the swampy areas was my favorite sighting.  The barred owl was a first-time bird for me!   He (0r she) was calling it's mate -- I wish I'd taken a video to share that distinctive sound.  

 

Great Blue Heron 

 

Some of the (too) many feral hogs and one of  the (few) Florida cracker cows that make their home on the Ranch.   This now-rare breed of cattle was brought here by the Conquistadors.  They are hardy and well-adapted to the Florida climate.   The ranch is still a cattle operation, but according to the tour guide modern methods allow them to raise more familiar breeds nowadays.   (I assume  -- for better or worse -- that means fatter ones.)   They will still breed and raise a few of the Cracker Cows because of the historical value.

Feral hogs cause many problems to farms and parks and they are trapped or hunted.  (They were brought to Florida by DeSoto in 1539; they adapted well, and breed rapidly.  It is estimated there are currently over 500,000 in the State.)

 

 

Snowy Egret

 

 Soft-shelled Turtle

 

Osceola Turkeys 

Limpkin

 

More alligators than I've ever seen in one place -- one area was called Alligator Ridge and I counted over 15 in the water there. 

 

 

This smiling guy soon slithered  into the culvert and the pond. 

 

 

More pictures of the Barred Owl --

just because he was my favorite.

 

Thank you to the hosts of each of the following sharing opportunities, where I'm linking this week:    

NATURE NOTES; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MAGIC ON THE PLANET

 

 

 It is the wet and warm season in Southwest Florida.   Very wet and very warm on an afternoon walk at Six Mile Cypress Preserve last week.

 

 

 The magic of water was much in evidence. 

(And not a lot else.  It was too wet and hot for most birds and most people.)

 

 

So for another kind of magic,  in honor of the day this is being posted, from the archives here are pictures of some of Nature's Mothers:

 

Burrowing Owl Family, Cape Coral Florida

 

 

Wood Stork Family, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Fort Lauderdale

 

Great Blue Heron feeding baby, Wakodahatchee

 

Eagle Pasture, North Fort Myers 

And from "our very own" Eagle Nest down the street, the beautiful Harriet and two of her eaglets.

 

 

 

And finally:   Florida sky, water, and birding magic, from our  March trip to Ten Thousand Islands.   

 

 

 

 

LINKING to the following sharing opportunities:  Thank you to all of the hosts.

 

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

SAME BUT ALWAYS SOMETHING DIFFERENT

 It's quiet around home these days as nearly all of our fellow snowbird neighbors have flown North.   It's a good time to get things done.  With friends gone and activities over for the season, there aren't as many tempting interruptions.   And traffic outside of the resort where we live is so much lighter it's faster to get places and faster to accomplish whatever it was that you wanted to do.   The standard joke in this area, where much of the winter population are 'senior citizens,' is that the lines at the pharmacy counter are much shorter when the winter season ends.    

 

Our "street corner" ... the Canal going out to the Caloosahatchie River

We are snowbirds too of course, but our season is slightly different from most others.   This time of year, we pretend we live here year-round.   At my dental checkup the other day, the hygienist said how nice it was "now that they're gone" she has cut 20 minutes off of her commute time.  I just smiled.

 

 

I snapped these flowers and the panorama shot above with my I-phone.  I'm trying to become more familiar with what my smart phone can do.

 

Red-Bellied Woodpecker (top three and lower center).    Northern Flicker, lower left and right.

I don't think I'll ever be able to take pictures of birds with the phone though.   I have enough trouble with the small camera I almost always carry.   This collage shows the Red-bellied Woodpecker that I saw on the ground under a live-oak tree (top three pictures and center bottom)  and two pictures of a Northern (red-shafted) Flicker that I took on the same day.  

I am used to  the red-bellied on trees or poles;  this season for the first time I've seen several foraging on the ground.  I often see Flickers on the ground.  At first glance, their markings are a little bit alike, but it's easy to see the difference when you compare the two.  The Flicker is a larger bird also.  

 

Hibiscis

 

Warning:  The snake phobic may wish to avert eyes while scrolling past the next collage.

 

 

Across the streets from the Canal, homes in our resort back on to wetlands areas that are tropical- jungle-like.   An RVer who stayed awhile had either a whimsical or an evil sense of humor.   They transformed a strangler fig behind  their space into a pretty good replica of a Burmese Python.    It will be interesting to see whether the resort management leaves their artistic endeavors for another season.  That space is for temporary visitors; someone else might not appreciate the view!   

Further warning:  One of these pictures  is not like the others.   The one in the lower left picture is a real (but no longer living) Burmese Python.  Someone had rather unkindly laid it out on a railing at a wildlife viewing spot near the Everglades. (That picture is from last February).    It was a good thing that somebody killed it because these snakes are  invasive and create serious problems in this part of Florida.  I just wished I hadn't almost put my hand on it.

Back to the pretty stuff:

 

 

Skies this week have been interesting.   It continues to rain hard at least for a short while almost every day (usually with lightning).   But  there are also always times when we can go outside.    It never rains all day long.    

The  picture below is from way earlier in the season.  It was forgotten on my phone and found when my practice photo at the top of this post (and about a million others I threw away) were downloaded.   

 

Pink Shell  Beach,  January 2019

An oldie but a goodie!

LINKING this week to the following:  Thank you to all of the hosts.

 

NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  MACRO MONDAY , THROUGH MY LENS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

THE WEEK THAT WAS

In the middle of another "cottage improvement" project, so we stayed close to home  this week.   The weather was perfect -- sunshine and warm (but not too warm).    We are grateful.  

 

Another week, another owl ....

because Saturday errands are fun when they include a stop to look at Burrowing Owls.

 

Willets (maybe); Pelicans, and Roseate Spoonbills

On Easter Sunday we enjoyed dinner with friends followed by a drive  through Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge.    Above are some of the birds we spotted.    Too bright and sunny for good pictures, but never too sunny for good memories.   I hadn't realized before that Roseate Spoonbills sometimes stand on just one leg -- like the flamingos some people mistake them for.   

 

Deep Lagoon Restaurant, Fort Myers

The  biggest shrimp in the world garnished our Easter cocktails.    (A fact that pleased some of us more than others!).  We all loved the food that followed and the water view as well as the lovely drive after dinner.

 

 

This Sunday morning we stayed even closer to home.    Squirrels and Red-bellied Woodpeckers were feasting on acorns under the live oak trees at Caloosahatchie Creeks Preserve next door.  The white flower is Bidens Alba, more commonly known as beggar tick or butterfly needles.  It's blooming all over this time of year.  We think of it as a weed, but it is edible and thought to have healing properties.  Here's part of what Wiki tells us:  

Bidens means two- toothed, describing the two projections found at the top of the seeds, and alba refers to the white ray florets.^[2] This plant is found in tropical and subtropical regions of North America, Asia, South America, and Africa,^[3] situated in gardens, road sides, farm fields and disturbed sites.^[4] B. alba is an annual or short-lived perennial, which is considered a weed in the United States.[2] However, B. alba leaves are edible and can be used as medicinal remedies.^[1]

Just think of the errands we wouldn't have to run if only we could skip the trip to the drugstore and just boil up a mess of leaves from the park next door.  (But that sounds like a lot of work ... and besides that,  those errands give us such a good excuse to stop by the owl burrows again.) 

 

LINKING THIS WEEK to the following sharing opportunities:

NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

Thank you to all of the hosts!! 

 

 

 

EASTER WEEK near home

 

Frangipani

Happy Easter  from Southwest Florida ....

 

Thursday morning and Thursday night -- from the Screen Porch

 

.... where it feels more like a warm and sunny Fourth of July.

 

Friday from the Screen Porch 

... unless it's pouring down rain.

 

Actually even when it is raining, it feels more like a (very) wet Fourth of July than mid-April.    The hard wind and heavy rain came the day after Thursday's perfect day.     We're used to rain in Oregon, but this was a downpour with lightning and thunder!   Our language needs more words for rain.    

It could have been  much worse, but our portion of Florida was spared this time from the worst of that storm.  North of here -- from Central Florida and up  -- many people were not so fortunate.      

 

Eastern Bluebird

The sun is out again now -- on Saturday morning -- and it is another beautiful warm Summer  Spring Day in SW Florida.    I saw the bluebird of happiness on a morning walk earlier in the week, and I hope she is an omen for the rest of our season here.   

 And from an errand-running day (last Wednesday) a "detour" (the complete opposite of a short-cut),  this dose of super- cute :
 

Burrowing Owls

Using the car as a blind, we took these pictures at two of Cape Coral's famous and protected owl burrows.  This is my favorite owl by far, because these guys keep the same kind of hours we do.  (Unlike most owls, they are not nocturnal).    No baby pictures this time -- these adults were guarding the family homesteads while the little ones stayed below.  ... Maybe another errand day will take us on another "short-cut" at a time when the kids come out to play.  

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:   Thank you to all of the hosts.

 

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

 

 

 

 

A WALK AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD

 

 

Here's the sun  rising over East Drive  (taken from our street across the Canal  just as I started a morning walk this week.)  Sunrise was at 7:02 a.m., so at least on this day, I did meet my hot-weather goal of getting up and about earlier in the morning. 

 

 

A friend who lives on another block in the Resort grows these orchids.  She has left for the season, but the orchids will live and probably thrive on their own all summer, which is the rainy season here.  

 

 

Quite a few of our fellow snow-birds will buy outdoor potted plants for their yards while they are here during the season.  They're not usually able to take them back "up North" with them, so these neighbors who live here all year will be happy to give them a good home!   

 

 

 

 

The street where the orchids and the sign are ends at a nature trail that leads to the County Nature Preserve next door to the resort.   This sign at the Park's entrance reminds hikers and walkers that the summer season has begun.  (We've had a few good rainstorms already, but the trails are fine -- at least the ones where I walked.)

 

Top left:  Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Center:  Pileated Wooodpecker;  the other three are Red-headed Woodpeckers.

I'm always hunting woodpeckers when I walk this time of year.   I've said before (too many times) that here in SW Florida we don't notice much seasonal change between late Winter and early Spring.   It's hot and the usual Spring flowers don't grow here.   But the birds know.  There are more birds  in the neighborhood and lots of the usual Spring bird activity going on.    

 

 

Here's one more sunrise picture from a few minutes later than the first one.   Just trying to remind myself to get up early more often.  That sun was bright and hot by ten in the morning.  But it's raining (and flooding) in the Pacific Northwest and we're grateful to be here where the rainstorms never last all day and the sunshine almost always does.   

 

 

 

 

LINKING this week to the following:  Thank you to all of the hosts.   

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SIGNS SIGNS;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

 

 

MANATEE PARK 2019

 

Spring flowers, Southwest Florida

 

Close to home nature this week.   We've been busy with end-of-the-season activities here in the RV resort.  (We will be here until the end of May, but most of our snowbird friends will be gone by mid-April. )  I walked Saturday at Manatee Park which is about a 10 minute drive from home.   

 

 

The flowers, the butterfly, and the ground dove below were in the Butterfly Garden at the Park.  The plants are all native to this area.

 

 Ground Dove

 

Manatee 

 

Yes, I was at   Manatee Park, but I actually didn't expect to see any at this time of year. This one was a surprise.   Because the water at this park is warmed by a nearby power plant, these big gentle creatures hang out here in the "cold" weather.    December and January are the best months to see them.  By this time of year, the water in the Caloosahatchie River is warmer and the manatees have mostly disbursed out in the wider waters  (we even glimpse them in our canal occasionally).  There's not much for them to eat in the water at this park, so they usually just stay there until the river warms up.

Manatees are aquatic mammals whose closest relative is the elephant.  They are vegetarians, subsisting on water plants.  It's really hard to get a good picture of them, because they don't emerge from the water much.  Just occasionally to take a quick breath (and to eat green stuff where there is any).  

 

 

The Peace Pillar was erected to honor  Manatee Park volunteers .   I like the message so much and always walk this path when I'm here.  This is a collage I lifted from a previous year's post.  

 

 

There weren't many people at the Park (in the Winter, it gets really busy) but there was another kind of noise (and another interesting thing to observe).  A crew was replacing the  roof on the Chickee Hut, a well-recognized  feature of the park.  It's a replica of the kind of huts the Seminole Indians used.  It has a a raised floor, open sides and a thatched roof made from palm fronds.   One of the workers told me that the roof needed to be re-thatched every six or seven years.  This year they are also repairing the inside and the wooden part of the structure.

 

 

 

 This picture (also copied from a previous post) shows what the hut looks like in its finished state.  I don't know why I did it in black and white back then (and I couldn't find the original.)

 

 

I drove a few miles down the road to Hickey Creek Park to walk a little more.   I was the only person walking the trails here and I enjoyed the peace and the blue skies.  I'd gotten too late a start though and the heat and humidity kept it to a short walk (and there were no birds or animals about at all -- they were too smart to be out in the mid-day sun).   I need to start getting around earlier this time of year.

 

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities.  Thank you to all of the hosts:

 

NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SIGNS SIGNS;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS

 

Four couples of us towed our boats to Everglades City last week for our Spring overnight boating excursion.   We docked our boats and then used two of them to explore the waters.  (EC is only a little over an hour away by road, but it would have  been at least one overnight stop before we arrived at our destination if we had traveled all the way by boat.)  

Everglades City is at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, a chain of mangrove islets off the SW Florida coast.   And exploring at least part of this area was the goal for this trip.  We were grateful for good GPS and charts.  There are so many islets and they look so much alike it would be very easy to get turned around.   

 

 

I am pretty sure I'm right this time about these being terns.  (Again, thank you to all who corrected my bad-pun mistake last week when I mis-named a laughing gull.)   I think these are Royal Terns, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.  This is a highly cropped picture of a sandbar islet we passed.

 

There were Ospreys on most of the markers we passed.  Many with babies at various stages.  This part of the Ten Thousand Islands is  part of Everglades National Park.  

 

 

 

We beached our boat on this small sandbar.  It was the first time we've anchored our boat.   (But we couldn't get off because none of us wanted to jump off the front.  The water in back (where our boarding platform is) was about 7 feet deep -- we didn't want to swim or wade either!)

 

The largest of the Islands is Chokoloskee, which is connected to Everglades City by a causeway.   It is the only one that is currently inhabited (by about 400 hardy souls).  We had  an early dinner one day at the Havana Cafe there.  Tables on the screened porch were surrounded by orchids and other tropical plants.

 

We stayed at an RV Resort that has dock space available for boaters.   The picture on the top left is our boat and one of the others from our group taken from the restaurant across the channel and the other picture is vice-versa (the restaurant taken from our dock.)    We walked to this restaurant on one day of our stay.

 

 

Companionable friends, birds, good food,  and beautiful scenery (some that we could only see from the water)  ... the recipe for another good boating excursion. 

 

LINKING this week to the following:   Thank you to the hosts.   (Last week the new INLinx tool did not work for me for the first couple of days.   On Wednesday when I tried for the fourth time, it suddenly worked again.  Fingers crossed that it decides this week to let me in from the first of the week!)

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;  MOSAIC MONDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SIGNS SIGNS;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

 

ALIVE AND WELL

Back in the day, when I was under the mistaken impression that I was indispensable, a  head cold would barely slow  me down.   I'd throw down the cough syrup and go on with life.

Now that I am retired and know better,  I took full advantage of the first "sick days" I've had in quite a while.    I was so busy languishing last week that I couldn't even blog.    I can't imagine how I ever went to work and took care of our family under those sniffly circumstances.   

 

Sunrise  -- taken from our screen porch 
 

It might have something to do with the fact that I was younger back then, do you think?  I'll tell you what, though,  that languishing stuff got old pretty fast!   Glad to be back among the non-sneezy, and almost-non-coughing, living.  And even more grateful than ever for generally good health and beautiful weather.      Sometimes it takes a reminder.  

 

Mid-day on the  River. 

 

I stayed in the house for over a week!  Unheard of for me.    But by this past  Thursday I was well enough to go to the monthly lunch with the boat club.

March Full Moon.  Also from our screen porch. 

We've had beautiful weather ... morning, noon, and night ... and sick or well  we are thankful for it!   The rest of the pictures are from the archives, because that one short boat ride is the only place we've been other than the screen porch lately!  

 

"Tern"  right at Marker #19

(But it’s not a tern, it’s a Laughing Gull.  Thanks to those who let me know.  Even if it ruined my pun )). 

 

 

A stop at the Farm Market a week ago last Monday, just before I got sick.   Fresh food was good medicine.

 

Something to think about from Kissimmee Prairie

 

 

Cattle egrets in breeding plumage and White Pelican (oddly nowhere near the water) at Taylor Creek, a roadside stop on the way to Kissimmee Prairie.  

 

LINKING THIS WEEK to the following:  Thank you to the hosts.

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;  MOSAIC MONDAY;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SIGNS SIGNS;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

KISSIMMEE PRAIRIE PRESERVE

 

 

Florida really does have excellent State Parks and on our quest to  visit and enjoy as many of them as feasible, we took a long day trip last week to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve in Okeechobee County.    The Park's guide tells us that this Preserve protects the largest remaining expanse of Florida dry prairie, an ecosystem found only in south and central Florida.

 

 

On arrival at the Park headquarters, we were greeted by this lovely Eastern Meadowlark.     I don't remember having seen this bird, although we do see it's Western cousin occasionally in our travels.

 

 

 We saw the bird, we got the picture -- and we heard the concert!   It sang it's heart out for us.  What a nice welcome.

 

 

This ecosystem has huge flat open views of grasses and saw palmetto -- and big sky!   The grass is kept mostly at knee-high by frequent growing-season fires (now sometimes planned burns) and by the rainy wet season (summer).   This provides the best habitat for plants and wildlife.  Native species include white-tail deer and way more  birds than I was able to get photos of.   The preserve is home to the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, which is highly endangered.   We saw a lot of flitting little brown birds, but without an expert guide  I have no idea which ones they were.    Beautiful butterflies too. 

There are over a hundred miles of trails in this remote park.  On the one we  walked, we met nobody else at all except one volunteer who was off- loading boards to finish a trail bridge over a spot that floods in the rainy season.   The quiet was one of the best parts of the walk.   

 

 

The remote location and the flat prairie terrain make Kissimmee Prairie a perfect place for star-gazing.  (This information is sadly not known from personal experience, since the 150 miles we drove to get there precluded any chance of staying until after dark.    And our camper van is waiting for us in Oregon.)    It would be fun to say we'd camped in the Red Light District!  And (seriously)  great to observe the sky without any light pollution.  And of course to have more time to walk those trails and learn more about the birds.

 

 

So  Kissimmee Prairie Preserve definitely  belongs on our 'hope we get to visit again' list.    But also on our 'so grateful we were able to get there this time and we loved it'  list.   As we drove toward home, we continued to enjoy the very different scenery and ecosystem.  And even some wildlife, like this turkey vulture.  Black vultures are quite common around here, but we hardly ever see these red-headed ones.   

 

image from WRMI website

Outside the small town of Okeechobee we stopped to look at a huge installation of antennas and radio receivers with one just small sign identifying the area as WRMI (website here.)   We looked it up and learned that this station is a large short-wave radio station broadcasting and relaying signals to Cuba (which was its primary focus originally) and many other countries in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.   I wish I'd thought to snap our  own picture ... the one above is from the station's website.    It was quite impressive to see this  array of antennas almost literally in the middle of nowhere.   (And we talked about how interesting it is these days to have an encyclopedia in our pocket all the time.  Back in the day, this would have been information we'd have forgotten to look up by the time we were able to do so.)

 

 

 The sun began to set as we got closer to home and the first photo-op  stop we found was next to an orange grove with blossoms still on the trees.   A feast for the senses -- the perfume of the  blossoms and the color of the nearly ripe oranges echoing the sunset.  

 

 

The end of another beautiful day.

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities.  Thank you to all of the hosts.

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;  MOSAIC MONDAY;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SIGNS SIGNS;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING