Backyard Glamour Shots

We sat in the backyard. Silently. Hardly moving. (That was after I told Randy to quit making noises to attract the cats.)

So ... if you think bird watching is a good time, are you officially old? Asking for a friend. 

From looking at a Kansas bird book, we think this might be a Nashville warbler. But we are willing to be educated by someone who knows more than we do.

OK, really, I'm asking for us.

Randy's bird house addiction is creating a new diversion. In recent years, he has added different birdhouses to the windmill tower in our back yard. Just this winter, he added two more. He selected a birdhouse and bird seed for his contribution to the men's Moore family grab bag gift at Christmas. And then he proceeded to select his own gift. Since no one stole the gift from him, he came home with the gift he arrived with. It was all part of his plan. (That's the red feeder below.) I carried it into the house. It was heavy. I made him carry it back out to the car.

Then, he bought another bird feeder that had been designed by a high school classmate. It's amazing what you learn about at your 50th class reunion. (That's the green spiral-shaped one in the photos.) 

We think this is a house finch.

That feeder was particularly popular on the day of our silent bird watch. Of course, it was the furthest away from our chairs. And ... I'm sure it was the superior design conjured up by Randy's classmate, Jim, and his wife, Rena. 

It's hard to see, but there are three birds on the feeder in this shot.

During the frigid, snowy weather, I'd watch out our back door. I loved the flashes of red against the white snow as the cardinals zipped here and there. But every time I opened the back door to see if I could get a photo, they'd fly quickly away. And, let's face it: I wasn't putting a lawn chair in the yard and sitting out in that weather. 

But, on these spring-like days, it's a regular bird banquet in our back yard. I was convinced that we wouldn't be able to set up our lawn chairs close enough that I could get good shots with my camera. But I was wrong. It took awhile, but I guess we eventually became "part of the woodwork" (so to speak), and the birds started arriving for suppertime.

 

I got excited when I saw the photos on my computer screen. It's always a little hard to tell what you have captured when you're just looking through the camera view finder. (Yes ... old. I admitted that earlier.)

I'd say that I could add them to my stash for the Stafford County Fair photography entries. But my bird photos never do well at the fair. We'll see how I'm feeling about trying again in July.

 

Female cardinal. We've had four pairs of cardinals in the backyard this winter. None of the bright red males flew in for their closeup.

 

 

I've gotten better cardinal shots throughout my county fair "career," so I know the cardinal shots I've gotten so far as not contenders. I don't think I've ever had a bird photo place in the county fair - no matter how good I thought it was.

 

However, one of the bird glamour shots will likely end up on a spring page of our family birthday calendar. 

 

It seemed not every visitor was a fan of my photography. One of our visitors feels similarly to me about getting their picture taken. 

 

I get it. I really do.

How Can You Not See God?

 

I don't have to travel 2,150 miles to find beauty. It is literally in my own backyard.

After a month's worth of blog posts from our trip that took us to Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana, it may seem that I can't find anything noteworthy in my own backyard. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the past 13-plus years, I've been taking photos and writing at Kim's County Line. 

The majority of those thousands of photos and millions of words have celebrated my little corner of the world on the Stafford/Reno County line in south central Kansas. This Friday, my photography will be featured at the Nora's Gathering at the Nora Larabee Memorial Library in Stafford.

The library will be open from 6 to 8 PM for viewing the photos, listening to piano music by Anita Meschberger and eating goodies from the Wheatland Cafe. Kids can make a Father's Day card. If you're local, ride your bike to the library for a chance to enter a prize drawing. (I will not be riding a bike 15 miles to town.)

The photo display will stay in place at the library all day on Monday, June 12, when Stafford hosts Bike Across Kansas. That day, come and enjoy the air-conditioning, view the photos and eat homemade pies and Johnny-Pop ice cream.

None of the photos I'm featuring in this particular blog post are in the library show. But a whole lot more are. (I had more than enough without adding these!) But they represent the philosophy I've taken as I've photographed our life here in south Central Kansas. Here's my artist statement for the show:

Seasons - Photos by Kim Fritzemeier

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

 

Those who don't live in Kansas may think we live in a so-called "flyover state." Kansas is just that place to travel through to get to the mountains, right? 

But it's my contention that beauty is all around us - whether it's as big as a Kansas sky at sunrise or as small as a butterfly sipping nectar from a flower.

While I've always been interested in photography, I've been more committed to capturing the beauty around me since beginning a blog called Kim's County Line in 2010. My tagline for the blog is "Camera Clicks and Commentary from a Kansas Farm Wife." It gives me the opportunity to share some of the photos I take while living and farming along with my husband, Randy, on the Stafford/Reno County Line. 

 

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

Dorothea Lange

As I worked on matting photos and preparing for the show, I've sometimes listened to Sirius radio's The Message.

One of the songs that has captured my attention lately is "How Can You Not See?" sung by Leanna Crawford.

After I heard it a few times, I looked up all the lyrics. It says, in part:

I see the sun rise in the morning
And a million stars at night
I hear the birds: They can't stop singing hallelujah
I see His goodness when I fall down
And His grace that picks me up
Every day, I can't stop singing hallelujah.

How can you not see God
In every little thing, in every little moment?
How can you not feel loved?
How can you not? How can you not?
'Cause He's in the middle of
Every little thing and every little moment
How can you not see God?
How can you not? How can you not?

I see the sunset and I wonder
If He paints it just for me
Nobody else could make a world so beautiful
How could I question His love when it's everywhere I go
Wherever I look, I find another miracle ...

There are miracles all around us. They may not come with tongues of fire or a holy wind like we just heard about at Pentecost. Instead, they arrive in the miracle of everyday things like irises and bird nests. It's just a matter of opening our eyes to see.

Give the song a listen, if you'd like. 

I'd love to have you come and view my photos at the Nora Larabee Memorial Library. The stained glass window featuring the library's namesake is at its most beautiful in the evening as the setting sun enhances the colors.

The library board and committees, along with library staff Gerry Ann Hildebrand, Denise Dickson and Sandy Gere, are working hard to make the library one of THE places to be in Stafford! Check it out. (Pun intended!) Click HERE for a link to a blog post with lots more photos and information about our amazing library!

Backyard Cardinals

 

The bird guides don't say anything about cardinals liking cat food.

But they do.

At least the ones in our backyard are big fans.

 

Even though the cats lurk nearby, the cardinals find plenty of opportunities to swoop in for tasty treats.

 

According to Cornell's Bird Lab, Northern Cardinals eat mainly seeds and fruit, supplemented with insects. Common fruits and seeds include dogwood, wild grape, buckwheat, grasses, sedges, mulberry, hackberry, blackberry, sumac, tulip-tree, and corn.

 

See? No cat food listed.

 

We've had four or five pairs who have provided a splash of color to our backyard landscape during the drab and dreary winter days.

 

However, the bird references were accurate about the cardinals' behavior.

 

They like to hop through low branches and forage on or near the ground. Cardinals commonly sing and preen from a high branch of a shrub. 

 

The distinctive crest can be raised and pointed when agitated or lowered and barely visible while resting. You typically see cardinals moving around in pairs during the breeding season, but in fall and winter they can form fairly large flocks of a dozen to several dozen birds. ...They fly somewhat reluctantly on their short, round wings, taking short trips between thickets while foraging. Pairs may stay together throughout winter, but up to 20 percent of pairs split up by the next season. 

From All About Birds, The Cornell Lab

They also like our backyard fence.

During one of my pandemic cleaning binges, I unearthed an old book that belonged to Randy. "Birds: A Child's First Book about Our Most Familiar Birds" was a Christmas gift back in 1959 from his Grandma Ritts. The book was published by Golden Press in 1958. It was written by Jane Werner Watson and beautifully illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.

Even though it claims to have our most familiar birds, it almost disappointed me. But I finally found a small illustration of a cardinal on the title page, along with a robin - another frequent flyer to our yard. 

 

The copyright page says:

In this first book, a sense of the joy and wonder of birds is created for every child through Eloise Wilkin's sensitive illustrations and Jane Werner Watson's informative text. The songbirds in the trees, the waders of the seashore and river, plovers and pigeons - over 25 birds have been simply described and vividly pictured in a way that every child will enjoy.

 

I'm sure children did enjoy it, though Randy doesn't have a lot of childhood memories of the book. But the vintage illustrations definitely captured my attention. 

 The book has joined some of my bird photography and knicknacks in my spring decor.

Jane Werner was one of the original editors of the Little Golden Books series, which were published by Western Publishing in conjunction with Simon and Schuster. She wrote some 150 books in the Little Golden Books series. According to Penguin Books, many of Werner's titles were illustrated by the great children’s illustrators of the mid-20th century. Some of her bestselling titles include The Fuzzy Duckling (illustrated by Martin and Alice Provensen), Animal Friends (illustrated by Garth Williams), and My Little Golden Book About God, The Christmas Story, and Wonders of Nature (all illustrated by Eloise Wilkin). 

 

Eloise Wilkin also was the illustrator of the bird book. Wikipedia says that many of the books she illustrated became classics of American children's literature. I certainly can agree with that. Jane Werner Watson called her friend Eloise Wilkin "the soul of Little Golden Books." 

Her watercolor and colored pencil illustrations are known for their glowing depiction of babies, toddlers, and their parents in idyllic rural and domestic settings.

Wilkin won a drawing contest for New York schoolchildren at age 11 and graduated from the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute. Soon after college graduation, Eloise and friend Joan Esley opened an art studio in Rochester, NY, but struggling to find work, the pair moved to New York City, where Century Company gave Eloise her first book to illustrate, The Shining Hours. Many of her early illustrations were for school books.

In 1944, Wilkin signed an exclusive contract with original Little Golden Books publisher Simon & Schuster, requiring her to illustrate three books each year^. She often used her children and grandchildren and their friends as models for her illustrations. A devout Christian, Wilkin frequently illustrated religious picture books including several compilations of prayers for children. I realized that one of our other vintage Little Golden Books, Prayers for Children, was also illustrated by Wilkin.

Want more? Here's a blog post that had some illustration from Prayers for Children.

The Eagle Has Landed ... And Other Sky Watching

The eagle has landed. But he didn't stay long.

Our prolific July rains were good for fall crops. The downside? The rain generated a bumper crop of weeds. Randy swathed down some weeds in a pasture south of the farmstead last week. A few days later, he noticed the vultures were circling the makeshift "buffet," a collection of small animals that didn't scamper out of the way of the swather quickly enough.

But then he saw a different predator - a bald eagle. Thankfully, it stayed perched on a fence post long enough for me to arrive and snap a few photos.

Then, it soared away and its next perch was in a big old cottonwood tree too far away for my little camera to reach.

We don't often see eagles around the farmstead, and if they do pass through, it's usually during the fall or wintertime. A pair builds its nest at nearby Quivira National Wildlife Refuge each winter, but it, too, is too far away from a roadway for me to capture a photo.

Both Randy and I have kept our eyes to the sky to catch another glimpse of our majestic visitor. But we haven't been lucky enough to see him again. However, I keep thinking about that eagle and all that he sees as he's soaring through the air over our Kansas plains.

I found this quote:

Don't be a parrot in life.

Be an eagle.

A parrot talks way too much but can't fly high.

An eagle is silent and has the power to touch the sky.

--Author Unknown

It seems the world is mighty loud these days. For weeks, our landline rang from morning to night, touting one candidate and denigrating the next. On the occasions when I watched live TV rather than recorded programming, I rolled my eyes at the political ads. How stupid do these political action committees think we are, I wondered?

But, honestly, my Facebook feed some days is no better.

One person is convinced masks will save us all from Covid.

Another person is sure masks are at the center of a conspiracy to take away our freedoms and, by the way, all this craziness will all be over after the general election.

And vaccines? Oh my! That's a whole other can of worms!

One person wants kids back in school immediately.

Another thinks it will be a disaster.

The talk is endless. It's loud.

And some of us are just weary of the fighting.

We long for some listening - some indication there may be room to examine multi-faceted sides to issues.

So maybe I'll be like the eagle and "touch" the sky. These trips to nature seem to sooth the soul.

The summer skies have given us plenty of reasons to get outside - from daybreak to mid-day to dusk.

Last week, one of my email devotionals - New Every Morning - featured a book by Christopher Maricle, "Deeply Rooted: Knowing Self, Growing in God." Here was the message one day:

The entire spectrum of color is always present in the light all around us. Rain doesn't create rainbows. Rain reveals the colors that are already present in the atmosphere. This color spectrum is usually hidden from our sight and only revealed under special conditions. In the same way, we may have moments of insight and revelation that reveal to us - or at least suggest to us - the presence of the Divine that is often hidden but no less real.

--Christopher Maricle

There's just a hint of a rainbow at the bottom of the clouds.

It went on to ask:

How might you gain new insight into the presence of the Divine today?

Peace Creek lives up to its name!

Maybe the eagle has the answer in its silence and its soaring.

My sunrise tree

Prayer for the Week:

Give me the humility to know that I am a growing work in progress

and the grace and understanding to see the growth in those around me.

Ninnescah River at our Sylvia pasture

***

Note: I've taken these sky photos throughout the summer. They may have ended up on Instagram or in Facebook posts, but they hadn't been featured on the blog until today.

Birds of a Feather

I went along for the ride on Randy's excursion to the Stafford golf course Saturday evening. It was too wet to move our last group of cows and calves. We'd been watching the Kentucky Derby coverage for hours, and it was still a hour away. So I set the DVR and decided I could watch it on tape.

Little did I know that everyone would be watching the tape. Over and over and over again. (Maximum Security, who crossed the line first, was ultimately disqualified and Country House became the declared winner.)

It was a beautiful evening at the golf course. Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy. I could hear the windmill in the pasture to the south creaking its usual song, accompanied by bird calls.

Randy pointed out a bluebird as we drove from one hole to the next, but I missed it. He has eagle eyes - pun intended.

A lot of golfers were also enjoying the Stafford course Saturday night. As we waited for Randy's turn to tee off at another hole, he saw another bluebird. And this one stayed posed while I surreptitiously grabbed my camera and got him in my sights.

When mother nature made the bluebird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast.

John Burroughs

Naturalist and essayist

(I'm on a John Burroughs quote kick. I also used his words for my May basket and nest post.)

 

This was an Eastern bluebird. As Randy says, we've both seen more bluebirds this year than we have in our entire lifetimes. In February, a group of Mountain Bluebirds made a stop in the pasture to the south of our house.

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

Henry David Thoreau

The bluebird wasn't our only bird encounter this weekend. Randy also found an injured baby hawk in one of our farm sheds.

 Randy thinks one of its wings was battered and broken.

This was the same shed where we'd had the nest of robin's eggs a couple of springs ago.

The big old trees that surround our house provide plenty of real estate for birds, but I'm usually not lucky enough to capture them with my camera. So I just enjoy the serenade. These close encounters were a bonus!

Another bonus: We were finally able to move the final group of cattle to the Rattlesnake Pasture on Monday. More on that later, but - spoiler alert - mission accomplished!