Thursday, September 06, 2007

Diane, Beware!



There is a photo of a spider at the end, I would really like some help identifying it. So, Diane is forwarned. Above though, are some cute little black-capped chickadee 'tocks. Ohhh....so cute!

In the meantime, let me tell you about my naughty streak. I have been feeding the birds out of season. I know, there really is no season for feeding birds. However, here on the edge of Alaska it is not a good idea to have a feeder when the bears are awake. They LOVE the stuff. A few years ago our neighbor had a feeder out in April, with a drift of snow under it. I looked out the slider to see a two-year-old blackie hanging from it. YIKES! He got it and made short work of that feeder.



Last week a black-capped chickadee did a fly by of all the locations of the winter feeders. I could not wait for the freeze up and the snow, so I have been putting out a handful of seed and suet dough each morning and cleaning it up in the evenings.



We have had numerous black-capped chickadees, a few boreal chickadees, and today a red-breasted nuthatch. A new one in the yard! Isn't that nuthatch pretty? I will try to get a better picture of all our visitors.



Does anyone have any guesses who this guy is on my dianthus?

5 comments:

Zoey said...

And just so you know that says dragon.

Mary said...

Shivers. I just can't get close to spiders, especially a bad boy like that one!

Glad your chickadees are back!

Anonymous said...

O MY!! Look at that spider! I wish I had a book to help ID this for you! Never seen anything like this before and I sure hope we don't have them running around here where I live! I will keep my eye open for you when I am surfing the web looking at spider pictures. Hope your chickadee is doing alright! Speaking of feeders, even in NYS the bears love the feeders! That's why I only throw a small handful, enough for the birds to eat before it gets dark!

RuthieJ said...

Hi Trixie,
Well, I checked my new Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America and there is only 1 page with spider pictures and yours is not one of them (I'm so disappointed)

I suppose the bears are especially hungry this time of year as they "bulk up" for the long winter nap. I love those red-breasted nuthatches (almost as much as chickadees)

Anonymous said...

Ok--So I looked around on the net, trying to identify that icky spider.....to no avail...
well I have barely any ento training and I highly dislike spiders...so it is not suprising that I was unable to identify it...
later