Flowers and bees

Just a handful of flower and bee shots I took at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. I could have stayed there all day and taken pictures but it was reaching 96 degrees outside and I was hungry. Above are a few of my favorites.

If you can call this snow.

Views from my in-laws front porch in Atlanta. Early Christmas morning my sister in Birmingham called me all excited "It's snowing here." I knew it was headed for Atlanta (isn't everyone's worse fear being snowed in at the in-laws?). It started around lunchtime. We were hanging around the house with hubby's family doing Christmasy-type things.  The women hanging around the kitchen talking, the men on the couch watching sports. By the end of the day it was pretty outside and luckily it wasn't sticking to the roads so they weren't frozen. It snowed on Sunday as well but we were able to get out and head back to warm sunny Florida on Monday morning.

Atlanta birds in the cold - My World Tuesday

Woodpecker and friend sharing the feeder.

American robins were everywhere.

Not sure what the birds are with the stripe on their wings. I don't think they are red winged blackbirds. I didn't see any red. There were some grackles mixed in.

Sparrow was waiting to get to the feeder.

Female cardinal at the feeder.

People say there are robins in Florida in the winter but I have never seen one here. I've only seen them in Atlanta. I forget about them until I visit the in-laws. On my Christmas eve walk around my in-law's neighborhood I found a handful of birds in the cold. One house had a bird feeder that had quite a few visitors. I was glad I had brought my 300mm lens with me. I almost didn't thinking it would be too cold to be outside (for me and the birds) but both myself and birds were out a good bit.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site!  http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Also,check out more birds at World Bird Wednesday below.

Cedar Waxwings for Christmas.

Christmas Eve afternoon, I had to get out of the in-laws house for a walk. I bundled up prepared to freeze in the 35 degree temperature (although since the sun was out if felt more like 45).  My hubby's parents live in an older neighborhood in Atlanta so there are lots of old growth trees all around. At first I was thinking it would be too cold to see any birds there. About a half an hour away I noticed a big group of robins hanging around this one spot. Then as I walked along a back street I noticed someone had a feeder up and there woodpeckers and cardinals hanging around. I rushed back to get my camera. When I got back to the spot where the robins were, I was looking high up in the trees with my zoom lens (had my 70-300mm with me) and realized I was looking at cedar waxwings. My first cedar waxwings in person! I could see at least 5 of them way up in the top of the trees. They were flying around from tree to tree but staying close by. There was a couple that seemed to stay close together.  I watched them for about half an hour and then the sun was going down and I had to get back. The next day it started snowing and I never did make it back to that spot. More on my birding trip to the in-laws coming.

Merry Christmas from Atlanta

I'm spending Christmas weekend in Atlanta with the in-laws. I managed to sneak out for a few hours on Christmas eve to walk around the neighborhood and found a few birds hanging around in the cold. Lots of cardinals up here. I also saw my first cedar waxwing, but more on that after the holidays.

I want to thank everyone who stopped by this past year and hope you stop by again in the next year. I've got more pictures to come. Have a great Christmas!

The Climb Up Amicalola Falls

I think this was about a fourth of the way up the mountain. You can just barely see the top of the waterfall through the trees.

This is halfway up the mountain.

More from halfway up the mountain.

There wasn't too much water coming down. I think they had been having a short dry spell.

Looking down from the top.

Now for the trip back down.

Amicalola is a  Cherokee Indian word meaning “tumbling waters”. It is the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River. We parked just past the visitor's center. Our hike started with a half an hour trek up the trail. Then we had to climb 600 stairs winding through the mountain and crossing over the waterfall. I take the stairs at work everyday climbing 4 flights to get to my office. I thought I would be in shape but I was still exhausted. When you get to the top you see it's worth the trip. We stopped for a snack and hung out for a while and took pictures. Then we started back down the stairs. Of course, you can drive around the side and up to the top, but how much fun is that?  There's a lodge at the top if you want to spend the night and cabins around the park area.

Fall in the North Georgia mountains - My World Tuesday

Starting to hike up the mountain.

A partial view of the north Georgia mountains.

Everything was yellow, orange and red.

This was the only bird we saw. A vulture flying overhead. We didn't hear any either. It was so quiet up in the mountains.

Trees around the reflection pool at the bottom of the waterfall.

On our last day in Atlanta we decided to go hiking in the north Georgia mountains. We drove about an hour outside of Atlanta to Amicalola Falls. I've heard it's packed with people on the weekend during fall so it was nice to be able to go up on a Monday.  When we first got there around 10am, there was no one there which made it nice for all of the pictures.  As we were leaving a couple of hours later people were starting to come in the park. I was tired and hungry so we headed over to Dahlonega for lunch.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site! http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Walk around an Atlanta Park.

A large hand fed group of mallards greeted us at the lake.

I can't believe this waterfall is right in the heart of Atlanta (on the Emory campus).

There were tiny warblers everywhere.

The leaves were just turning.

Canadian geese trying to sleep.

Walking back to our car we saw this hawk go flying by. I ran after him and saw him perched in the woods.

We met some of my hubby's family in a park on the Emory University campus. It's a fairly large park with a lake in the middle. The weather was perfect, sunny and 70 degrees. There were a lot of ducks there that get fed on a daily basis so they came swimming up when they saw us walk towards the lake. We saw a handful of canadian geese that must be stopping over on their way south. And the hawks, there were tons of hawks everywhere. When we were driving through the city we saw hawks sitting on the lamp posts on Interstate 75. Guess that's why they named the basketball team after them.

Georgia birds and a chipmunk

Red bellied woodpecker  Yellow bellied sapsucker up in my in-laws' tree.

There were tons of these little birds high up in the trees. I think it's a type of warbler. It's almost impossible to get pictures of them. They don't stay still for a second.

Female cardinal.

Blue jay high up in the pine tree.

Chipmunk with a cheek full on my in-laws' back deck.

Hubby & I spent Halloween weekend in Atlanta with his family.  He was turning 50 and wanted to spend it with them. We got to Atlanta early Friday afternoon and as soon as I got out of the car I heard birds calling from everywhere. His parents have a large yard with old growth pine trees all around. After unloading the car, I spent an hour walking around the yard looking for birds with his mom. She said the woodpeckers have been annoying lately. They've been banging on the side of the house.  They're going to need to keep an eye on that so they don't get any real damage from them. My goal for this trip was to get a some shots of chipmunks. I only got the one above. I've never seen them in central Florida. My other goal was to get some shots of fall leaves. I have those to post later.

Small things that fly or jump - Atlanta

While there weren't a lot of birds at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, there was still a lot of wildlife there. Lots of bees and butterflies around. They had a pond that was full of frogs. Not just ordinary frogs. They were big beautiful bright green and yellow frogs. I've never seen them that pretty here in Florida. Watching the frog pond was worth the price of admission.