Birds, Blooms and More Blueberries!

I am continuing today

with more photos

of the garden blooms,

one of my favorite birds

and

Blueberries!!!

Coneflowers are fun to photograph because of their shape and texture!:

Their centers remind me of exploding fireworks:

They are great to snip off and bring into the house for a centerpiece:

We have several Flicker birds

in our neighborhood.

We hear them all the time..

but they are very shy here...

I have chased after them with my camera more than once,

only to have them fly away before I even get within zoom range.

One day,

I was weeding my garden and heard their familiar call....

and realized one must be

very

close...

Sure enough..at the end of my driveway, sitting

in the grass...

was a Flicker!!!

I ran into the house and grabbed my camera,

figuring it would be gone before I got back out...

But to my surprise, it was still there in the grass, forging for food and not noticing me.

One of the things that I love most

about them

is their little red patch on the back of their heads:

They have long yellow tail feathers, but unfortunately, I could not capture this in the photos:

I think this was a young Flicker....

so he hadn't learned to be afraid of humans yet.

But--he was GORGEOUS!:

One of my garden flowers:

And the rewards of going into the woods for a ride:

By the way, if you think my hand is rather masculine..

well,

I DO ALOT OF GARDENING, people!!!

Who has time for a manicure????

(Just kidding....

this is my HUSBAND's hand...but I had you going there for a moment, didn't I?)

*************************************************************

You DO REALIZE that you only have THREE DAYS LEFT

to enter into the August FREE PHOTO CONTEST,

don't you????

The theme is:

Sunrises or Sunsets

So, get going RIGHT now and send in your winning photo

to me by midnight, August 31st following THESE RULES!!!