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Castle Gardens of Hartland, WI

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Castle Gardens of Hartland, WI

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05/16/2021

First Butterfly of the Year 2021! Female Black Swallowtail. Road trip to Ottawa State Forest Southern Unit.

05/14/2021

I love flowers in the spring. Some of the cherries blooming around my location that I was able to walk to with my crutches. I had a lot of fun playing around with different edits.

Hope you like!

05/07/2021

Happy to see this little fella visit while I am recuperating from my surgery.

Male House Finch eating grape jelly. Hartland, WI 5/7/2021

02/21/2021

I have been waiting for some time to get a photo of our nightly visitor. This is our opossum who graced us with his presence yesterday afternoon. He comes to the bird feeders and scrapes what he can from the ground. He has never tried to climb up or destroy the feeders, so I am inclined to leave him be. After I grabbed these couple of photos, he returned to his scavenging uninterrupted.

I think this big feller is a male. I read that males can get up to 18 lbs. and this guy is very large when stretched out. I guess we will call him Oppie.

02/05/2021

This is just one of my suet-loving friends.

I don't have a recipe for making suet, but I have started making my own. Below is my guide for creating your own winter suet.

I call this winter suet because it is high in fat and high in proteins, both very important when keeping warm through the winter months. This suet should not be used in the warmer summer months because it will heat up and become liquid.

Winter Suet

Fat components: Bacon Grease, Lard, Plain Vegetable Shortening, Tallow, Peanutbutter

Seeds: Cheap multi bird seed, Black sunflower Seed, unsalted shelled peanuts

Fillers: Oatmeal, Cornmeal

Fruit: Dried berries, raisins, cranberries

Directions:

Prepare molds by spraying with a nonstick vegetable spray. I like using coffee cups. I will fill the coffee cup 1/3 of the way and place a looped ribbon with the knot side down. I will then fill the rest of the cup up packing and tapping the mold as I go. If you have square smaller suet holders, sandwich containers with lids work great. Just leave them in the freezer until you are ready to take the next one out.

Next, heat your fats until they become liquid. I will often use the bacon grease from Sunday morning and add a bit of vegetable shortening and peanut butter. Choose those fats that most appeal to you, but I do highly recommend adding a cup or a few big scoops of a chunky peanut butter. Birds love it! Once melted, remove from heat.

Add seeds, peanuts, fruit, cornmeal, and oatmeal to your liking. You want your mixture to be a movable mass. Liquid but barely. Mix well coating every seed and berry with the fat mixture.

Pour into prepared molds and freeze three to four hours or until solid.

To remove from molds, run the back sides of the mold under hot tap water for 30 sec to 2 mins. Pry gently or pull gently on hanger if you included one. Repeat until your suet slides easily from the mold.

I hang several in the bushes where the birds naturally find a close perch and other times, I use a suet holder. I have seen Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, chickadees, juncos, sparrows, and red and white nuthatches all take turns at my suet.

You really can't screw this up and it doesn't have to be expensive, nor does it have to be a big project or massively time consuming. Just remember, if you think you screwed it up, the birds will still probably eat it and be happy! So have some fun with it and get creative.

02/04/2021

Hoar frost photos from this morning in Hartland.

01/24/2021

In rural Wisconsin, we call this street photography.

1/23/21. Hartland, WI

01/22/2021

Juvenile Coopers Hawk today after he took another bird from a nearby feeder. I watched him plucking it while he perched high up in the canopy. Afterwards, he dropped into the sun to warm and digest his dinner.

01/19/2021

The birds were feeding heavily yesterday at the feeders and we just looked out the window to see a large flash of brown streak by. It was this guy attempting to pluck a bird for a meal. Unfortunately this time, he didn't succeed. He did hang out in the branches above for a few minutes and I was able to grab a few (dozen) photos.

I am going to guess that this is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.

01/15/2021

Three mallard ducks on the Bark River today in Hartland, WI.

01/11/2021

I am on a mission to photograph as many species of Wisconsin Birds. I am a bit limited on my mobility right now and I have a ton of photos to go thru and edit yet.

I have been using the Merlin Bird App by the Cornell University to keep track of the different types of birds that I have identified.

This is bird number 38, Red-Tailed Hawk. Did a little scouting trip to Wehr Nature Center in Franklin on my birthday. I can't walk too far, especially on uneven ground, like hiking trails, so I stuck to a short walk around the Nature Center building. This guy was hanging out right above the center preening and catching a snooze.

01/05/2021

Female Downy Woodpecker. Hartland, WI 1-4-21

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Hartland, WI
53029

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