jgrussell – my world

Two entirely different shots from two ends of the day.

First, this morning, I had to laugh at this little character:

Howdy, neighbor!

Then this evening, I don’t think anybody was laughing about this one…

You KNOW that had to hurt

I sure do love this little downy woodpecker. He really is about as cute as a bird can be, and as graceful.

Male downy woodpecker

Though we may lose all the blossoms with the cold rain- and wind-storms due in tomorrow, today… today at least the white dogwoods are in full bloom.

White dogwood in bloom

Sitting at the kitchen counter this morning, watching the birds, and a newcomer shows up to peck at the suet feeder. Didn’t stay long but was fun to watch!

Grey catbird

It’s good to be home and see that my little backyard buddies haven’t deserted me…

Male northern cardinal

Even as we took our last walk at Disney this morning, there were birds everywhere, including this one who — I swear — was posing for us:

Great blue heron

We were staying at Disney’s Saratoga Springs resort, which is dotted with little lakes and ponds. Perfect territory for water birds, and we sure saw our share, like this anhinga we saw as we walked to the restaurant for dinner…

Anhinga drying its wings

Lots of choices again for Thursday, but the highpoint of the day had to be the Spectromagic parade at Magic Kingdom…

Spectromagic: Parade of Lights

Our brother Bill gave us the best birthday present ever (Diana’s and my birthdays are six days apart): he gave us tickets for fabulouys seats at La Nouba, the show of Cirque de Soleil at Downtown Disney. It was wonderful… just wonderful. No photos allowed, so we had to celebrate afterwards with a balloon ride!

Up, up and away!

I had a lot of choices for a photo-of-the-day for Tuesday, a day we spent at Animal Kingdom… but I think after all is said and done this mandarin duck takes the cake.

Mandarin duck