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.

AirBnB: No Vacancy

I'm sorry. We're not taking extra guests at the backyard AirBnB Outhouse Suite. It has reached full occupancy.

These guests are loud, too. They put up a constant racket. 

It's a wonder we haven't gotten noise complaints from other travelers.

We didn't advertise it as providing breakfast, but the visitors are sure asking for a meal handout. They look kind of angry when dinner is late.

We're not sure whether there were three or four bodies squeezed into the accommodations. The peep hole is a little too small to tell.

We believe our visitors are house wrens. This is the second summer they've taken a vacation stay on the County Line. I think we're going to have to do some renovations or remodeling before next year's visitors arrive. The accommodations are looking a little worse for the wear. You have to watch out for those rambunctious AirBnB guests.

The house wren is a very small bird of the wren family, Troglodytidae. It's the most widely distributed native bird in the Americas. Its name means "hole dweller" and is is a reference to the bird's tendency to disappear into crevices when hunting insects or to seek shelter.

I guess the parents were off trying to scrounge up a meal. They didn't dive-bomb us as we were eavesdropping and taking unsolicited photos of their family.

They aren't the only backyard visitors. Our Baltimore orioles are back. Randy is keeping them happy with cheap grape jelly in a high-class container made from a 2-liter pop bottle.

Who wouldn't want to check in to our backyard accommodations? They are pretty economically priced (unlike most vacation spots these days). 

 

A Bird in the Bush ... Or Outhouse?

 

We have some new guests at our backyard Airbnb. Thankfully, they don't seem to mind that their accommodations look like an outhouse.

Randy put up several new birdhouses this spring. He was really hoping the purple martin house - which kind of looks like a hotel - would attract some travelers who might want an extended vacation stay. So far, we are not getting "bookings" at our brand new facility. (He read about them online and proceeded as directed - away from trees and structures.)

So, if you have an "in" with the bird community, would you mind talking it up a bit? 

But some house wrens have taken a liking to our new one-bedroom apartments. And they are singing our praises - literally - even though we stuck them in the outhouse. The tiny little birds make up for their size with lots of trilling solos and duets.

The house wren is a very small bird of the wren family, Troglodytidae. It's the most widely distributed native bird in the Americas. Its name means "hole dweller" and is is a reference to the bird's tendency to disappear into crevices when hunting insects or to seek shelter.

I can attest to that tendency. It took several tries - and a lot of luck - to finally get a photo of the wren peaking out of its new digs. Both Randy and I were bound and determined to do it, though!

From Randy's cell phone

All About Birds says that wrens are "a plain brown bird with an effervescent voice with a rush-and-jumble song." We would concur. (I wish I'd thought of that description of its music.) I can even hear them when I'm in the basement through the office window. 

The bird's weight can be compared to the weight of two quarters. Hard to imagine, isn't it, that these tiny creatures can sing so exuberantly and flit from nest to branch so quickly?

Wrens aren't the only ones who make music. I play the piano for our church services most weeks. I try to tie the prelude, offertory and postlude music with the Scripture lessons that Pastor Benjamin is using. Ironically, last week, one of the passages was Matthew 10: 24-39. It includes:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. 

Matthew 10: 29-33 

It brought to mind the old hymn, "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." It had a revival when it was featured in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. I played a version for my prelude music last Sunday.

There are full recordings of the hymn on YouTube, if you're interested. 

What a message, right?! When life seems overwhelming at times, it's a good reminder to take a breath. If Jesus has the birds of the air, he's bound to have me covered, too. That's worth singing about (or playing the piano about).

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!

If You Build It, They Will Come

May 2021

"If you build it, they will come ..."

It's a dramatic moment in the classic movie, "Field of Dreams." We had our own "build it" moment last summer, when Kinley and Brooke visited the farm for a few days. One of our many activities included decorating bird houses.

Afterwards, Grandpa hung the birdhouses from the old windmill in the backyard. However, birds must have imagined a "No Vacancy" sign because none seemed interested in a stay on The County Line last summer.

Kinley's birdhouse met an untimely demise in one of this winter's windstorms. But Brooke's survived. And not long ago, Randy noticed that someone had taken us up on the offer of free lodging.

It doesn't appear that our visitor is the neatest housekeeper, since there are sticks and other paraphernalia sticking out of the sides and front.

We're not positive, but we think the visitor is a house wren.  (If someone knows for sure, please comment on their the blog or my Facebook page.)

I was taking photos of the birdhouse itself, when the occupant started flitting quickly among the trumpet vine that winds itself inside the windmill structure. The bird is small and has quite a singing voice. The Cornell Lab's All About Birds describes its singing as "rush-and-jumble song." It didn't seem very afraid of me.

Randy used the bird book that Jill and family gave him last year, but we still aren't sure about our ID. 

However, a bird watching website says that house wrens are common in Kansas. They have a short tail, thin bill, and dark barring on their wings and tail. Both males and females look the same.

The tails on our visitors seem longer than the photos showing the species. However, some of the information about house wrens seems to fit. Birdwatching HQ advices hanging a nest box in the backyard to attract the birds, since as they will readily use them to raise their young. The entrance hole’s diameter is not supposed to be any larger than 1 inch in diameter. By keeping the hole small, other birds can’t get inside to disturb the wren’s nest and babies. The website also says that house wrens are one of the only birds that will use a nest box hanging freely and not permanently attached to a tree or post.

We have added a bird bath in the back yard. So far, there haven't been many "swimmers" since the "pool" opened. 

The grape jelly buffet gets filled most days for our Baltimore oriole visitors.

Who wouldn't want to check in to our backyard accommodations?
 

Pheasants, Orioles and Blackbirds - Oh My!

 

I was surprised a couple of Julys ago, when neither of my bluebird photos won a ribbon at the Stafford County Fair ... not even a white ribbon.

As I thought about it, though, I realized that I see much better bird photos on Snapshot Kansas, a Facebook group where both professional and amateur photographers post their favorite shots. The fair judge didn't need to think about the photo like I did: I was considering how many photos I took just to get a few in focus. (And, those bluebird photos were especially rare because neither Randy or I had ever seen a bluebird in our area before. So seeing mountain bluebirds in our pasture and an eastern bluebird at the Stafford golf course was especially thrilling for us.)

Still,  my quest has continued for the elusive pheasant photo. On a trip to the Ninnescah pasture to check cattle last week, a stately rooster cooperated. It's always a challenge. I was shooting from the passenger seat through Randy's open window. I'd whisper and tell him to move the pickup s-l-o-w-l-y as the rooster strutted. 

I was mad at myself that I'd missed the tippy-top of the tail feathers in this one, but it's hard to hold the camera steady when the zoom is extended that far.  

But I can't complain with the results. I guess he wasn't in too big a hurry that lazy evening.

We weren't in too much of a hurry for a few snapshots at the bridge either.

My pheasant photos were the postlude to the day. 

A stop at the Peace Creek bridge on the Zenith Road had a red-winged blackbird enjoying the scenery, just like I was.

Peace Creek

I also got a photo of the first Baltimore oriole of the spring to visit our yard.

Randy put out grape jelly, and this guy showed up within 5 minutes. Unfortunately, that day, I only captured one in-focus photo. 

But I finally got a few more.

"Hey, guys! I know we bought the cheap brand of jelly, but we'd love to have you return to the buffet often!"

"Would you go for some Welch's?"