Fall Decorating!

School's back in session and with the start of September I got to change all our summer decorations to the fall ones!

The wreath on the door went from something very similar to this (forgot to take my own picture!) but instead of using a pre-made wreath like the one on Camilla Fabri's blog, I made mine by stabbing cocktail umbrellas into pipe insulation (cause it's WAY CHEAPER than an actual wreath, and for any DIY decorators, you get enough insulation to make 2 wreaths!)

Now my door looks like this

The wreath is one I decorated myself, the owl was a gift from Rick's mom. He's so cute!

I also, sadly, had to change out the petunias, which were gorgeous all summer, but were quickly turning brown from the bottom up, and planted Mums in their place so our porch wouldn't look so dead.

Our porch from the sidewalk. We've got the prettiest porch on our building by far! No one else around here decorates! We've got a Nyjer feeder, a Sunflower feeder, a Hummingbird feeder and the green bowl on the railing is a heated bird bath (right now it's not plugged in). 

mum #1

mum #2

mum #3 (and the mini hummingbird feeder)

And the table centerpiece got changed from the beach memory jars to a pumpkin jar!

 

 And my pretty leaf candy dishes (from the dollar section at Target!) get to make a re-appearance!

Hummingbird

This is one of our little female Ruby-throated hummingbirds at the "big" feeder. These pictures, unfortunately, are taken through the screen door, which I try to keep clean, but it still robs me of detail. I'd leave it open, but the birds seem to be able to tell and won't come to the porch.

Barn Swallows

Rick and I took our day off for Labor Day to go out and do some hiking!

Monarch 

Barn Swallows

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

At the feeder

The house finch, as they have since we put out the feeder in January, eat breakfast with us every morning. We were very excited to notice that we've got a Juvenile male visiting us now who has lost almost all his fluffy feathers! He still has a few funny looking stragglers though :) He's also a little thinner than the two mature males who've been with us all year. 

Our (young) male House Finch

female House Finch

Our Hummingbird feeders have also been busy as they prepare to migrate south. We had four or five females outside yesterday, but today saw only two, so we think they're starting to leave for the season.

female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

We have two hummingbird feeders. This tiny one (that holds about 1/4c) and a larger one with 4 feeders (that holds about 2c) but the birds seem to prefer the tiny one. We aren't sure if they like the feeder itself better, or if they like the fact that it's in the flower pot?

DIY Cat Privacy Screen

My parents have three cats, and whenever they go out of town, Rick and I are roped into watching this trio of nocturnal monsters. For the most part, these cats hide/sleep under the bed for about 20/24 hours. The 4 hours they are awake, if we don't wear them out first, are 1-5am. 

NOT COOL CATS.

So pre-bedtime includes intense bouts of playing and us just randomly waking them whenever we see them trying to curl and sleep somewhere.

Raphael: aka Binky (left) and Darth Lucifer: aka Dinky (right) - Feb.

Sabe' - Feb.

Last February, we watched them and the only place we could find to concievably place a litter box is in the storage closet at the end of the hall. That means, whenever you walked in our door you stared straight down the hall at the cat box.

Yuck!

I hated it.

Litter box Feb. - The back wall is shiny because it's covered in plastic in case they kicked out litter (or worse) I didn't want it to smell up my closet walls.

So this time around, I decided I didn't want to look at the cat box anymore! So I made a "privacy screen" to go in front of it out of the box my textbooks came in and some cute wrapping paper!

I only used three sides of the box and left the top and bottom attached to give me extra height and a "base" to balance with. My third side is pressed flat against the door and taped there (because the cats will rub against anything and I didn't want them knocking it over) I also didn't completely cover that side in paper because I knew it wasn't going to be visible.

Turns out, you can BUY cat box privacy screens. Who knew? But those are $20+ and I would have had to wait while it shipped. I made this one with materials on hand for free.

Cat box privacy screen!

Lake Red Rock and Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Rick and I took advantage of some cool nights and spent the weekend camping near Lake Red Rock, but due to bugs and the fact that we had to share all the trails with Horses - read as:

HORSES RUIN HIKING.
We had to go elsewhere to do our birdwatching.

Dog people are required to clean up after their animal, Even when said animal does its business on the SIDE of the trail. Horse people however, are allowed to let THEIR animal crap right in the middle of the trail and are never required to pick up after it. As a birdwatcher, this ruins the trail. When you want to see birds, you have to look UP, you can't however, look up and watch what you're about to step in at the same time. 

So we spent the majority of our time at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, where there are no horses to poop all over the hiking trails.

We had a great time!

White Pelicans gather for the fall migration at lake Red Rock

A Lesser Yellowlegs wades in Lake Red Rock

A Bison statue at the Prairie City Casey's

 Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Momma and Baby Elk!

Grasshopper Sparrow

A chipmunk pretends to be part of this stick in hopes we won't notice him

Tiger Swallowtail

A Dickcissel posts up on a pretty prairie plant

Eastern Black Swallowtail

Some kind of Sulpher, I can't tell if it's an Orange Sulpher or a Common Sulpher

Eastern Black Swallowtail

Eastern Black Swallowtail

A tricky Viceroy mimics a Monarch 

Bull Elk

Rick and a giant badger head in the visitor center 

Hickory Grove Lake and Big Wall Lake

I had a couple days off while the kids were at the State Fair with their Grandma, so Rick and I took Rocinante out for some fun on the water!

Green Heron at Hickory Grove, he has a SUPER TINY fish!

Painted Turtle at Hickory Grove

Killdeer at Hickory Grove 

Wood Ducks at Hickory Grove

Orange Spotted Purple at Hickory Grove

Yellow Headed Blackbird at Big Wall

Marsh Wren at Big Wall

Marsh Wren at Big Wall

Water Lily at Big Wall - the marsh was full of them!

We also saw an American Coot and a American Bittern - we flushed him 3 times! But he was so fast and didn't stay in the air more than a few seconds before dropping back into the weeds, so I never managed to get his picture.