Tag Archive | cardinals

Mama and Papa Cardinal

Mom and Pop Cardinal

Mom and Pop Cardinal

I’m sure they have a nest nearby. They were at the feeder constantly today all day long. They only stopped eating for a little bit while a blue jay ate there and a red-bellied woodpecker.

red bellied woodpecker tossing seeds (640x427)The red-bellied woodpecker is tossing seeds, like a finicky eater. Instead of just digging for what he wants, he throws the other seeds out of the tray. I think this one’s smaller than the other I had.

purple party bear (608x640)I finished up a Purple Party Bear that’s ready to ship along with 2 other bears, and another that belongs next door. 🙂

While I was working on the bear, the puppies were totally worn out.

Max and Tanner tired (640x427)What a life, eh?

And!!! I kept up with my word count. 🙂 <3

Have a great day!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Cardinals in Love

male cardinal feeding female (640x518)male cardinal feeding female (2) (640x527)male cardinal feeding female (3) (640x542)If that isn’t love, not sure what is. lol 🙂 <3

Have a wonderful, loving kind of day!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

When Thoughts Become Reality

Inventions, well, yes. Writing books, sure. But what I was thinking about is more psychic in nature. Oh, not really psychic, no woo-woo factor, but, well, maybe a little.

Have you ever thought something, like you’re suddenly thinking of a person and it’s been a long time since you talked to them, and… voila, they email or call you?

Or you think about something–like you should have received something in the mail weeks ago, and forgot all about it, but there it was, foremost on your mind, and it arrives?

So I wast thinking about how all I was seeing were sparrows and goldfinches and doves and that the cardinals had never returned.

And then they were there. A couple. They mate for life and are truly beautiful. But it seemed so odd that I should be wondering about them after, I don’t know, a couple of weeks had passed and no sign of them? And they’d only dropped in once or twice in the over a month that I’ve been here?

cardinals on the fence (640x427)I was thinking too about the woodpecker I’d missed capturing a picture of the day before. My camera wasn’t at hand. And he never returned. And I’d never seen him before. And then I was typing as fast as I could on the end of my book, which always happens at the end of my book, the scenes come to me fast and furiously, and I’m like, whoa, hold up, I can only type so fast, and just one at a time. and then here the woodpecker lands on the feeder.

I may never see him again. I many never remember the scene again. What do I do? I grab my camera. lol

redbellied woodpecker (538x640)I just had to capture the red-bellied woodpecker because I had to find out what he was.

And I was thinking how I hadn’t seen the little chickadee but maybe twice since I’d been here and it had been eons for him too. And then he came.

chickadee 015 (640x465)

All of them. In the same day. Thankfully not all at the same time like the scenes for the book were popping into my head.

And now I’ve been wondering if I’ll ever see the pretty bluebird again.

Maybe he’ll pop in for a picture or two soon.

Do you ever do that? Wonder about something and then out of the blue, it’s there? The call? The sighting? The connection?

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

 

Fun with Photographing Cardinals

cardinals 069 (640x427)female on chair mohawk (640x427)female on basket below peanuts (640x427)

The female was sitting on the seed plate, the sunflower seeds all gone. But she was sitting there as if waiting for me to bring out the seeds.

female at feeder (640x427)female on seed plate (640x427)

Then she went to the feeder.

To the chair.

Then discovered the new suet/peanut/sunflower seed feeder overhead. She was up there and gone so fast, I was only able to get one shot that wasn’t really clear. She hasn’t been back since, at least while I’ve been watching. The male was looking for the seeds on the patio. I put those down there for some of the birds that like to eat them off the patio. The other feeders, the finch one is empty because I don’t have any finches. And so none of the birds ate the seeds. I finally poured it out for them. The one below that similarly can remain filled for months and not be touched. So the like the simple plate with the seed on it. The reason it’s broken? The wild cat that roams the area knocked the table over and broke that and a decorative planter I had sitting on there. 🙁

And that’s my fun with photographing cardinals.

Back to writing…

Have a super day!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

 

My Cardinals are Back!

I’ve been seeing a lot of my birds come back after the hawk trouble I was having.  And my neighbor’s cat was prowling and so when I began to take two little puppies out all the time, the birds watched from the trees and shrubs. Then I saw the whole colony of cardinals feeding. Though I think they lost one of their brothers to the hawk when I was gone a while back.

But it was fun seeing them again. It was getting to be dusk, and I need to clean my windows, and I was afraid to get closer to the window to really be able to stabilize the camera, so my pictures weren’t all that great, but it was so much fun seeing all of them I had to try and get a few that might have turned out somewhat.

How many cardinals do you see?

How many cardinals do you see?

All male cardinals

All male cardinals

This really was an amazing sight to me because the hawk got one and then another bird, I found red feathers, so one day I saw a cardinal on top of the feeder that sits in the shrub. He was so wary. This time, all of them were flying down, feeding, sitting in a tree and I couldn’t believe it. I would have thought that me going out with the dogs constantly would have made it worse as far as the birds being skittish. But they must realize that we’re keeping the hawk and cat away. 🙂

The birds eat a lot of bugs, so I’m glad to have them.

Cardinal in the tree closer to the kitchen window

Cardinal in the tree closer to the kitchen window

Happy New Year!

Hopefully I’ll be back before that, but it’s been so hectic with working on housebreaking Tanner, the youngest pup at 8 weeks. Max was housebroken when I got him at 5 1/2 months. And With company.

I started putting away some Christmas decorations, only because it’s a chore with having two puppies underfoot. 🙂 So I figure it will take me a while.

And I need to do another new release blog for Jaguar Pride. And I’m still working on Phantom Fae every day, have word count, just need to finish the book. But I have a confession. My daughter and SIL got me PC game Dragon Age: Inquisition. I love the Dragon Age stories, and I’m having a ball. Got all my characters killed off over fighting a dragon, so need to figure out how to do that, but hey, here I’m writing about dragon shifters in the fae world, so this is research. Right???

My daughter, Jennifer, and Max, me, and Tanner

My daughter, Jennifer, and Max, me, and Tanner

We had to take a lot of pictures of both her dogs and Mike and Jenn and my dogs and Jenn and me. They were all moving, or we were moving to hold onto them. 🙂

My birds are back. The puppies are the best. I had a lovely Christmas with family, and it’s time to begin the new year with lots and lots more books to write and share with you. 🙂 <3

Have a super lovely Sunday!!!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears

http://www.celticbears.com

The Cardinal Feast

4 cardinals, 3 males, 1 female

4 cardinals, 3 males, 1 female

Do you see the cardinal in flight? When the one landed on the walk, the other took flight. He flew off so quickly, I didn’t think I’d caught him in the shot at all.

4 cardinals, 2 males, 2 females

4 cardinals, 2 males, 2 females

In another shot, I didn’t realize I’d captured 2 females. I was concentrating on the two males, and saw the 2 females. So it was fun seeing the 5 cardinals at the feeding station nearly, only not all at the same time.

To capture these, I have to move a stool in front of the window and have my camera ready to get above the screen and hedge. When I do this, they often see me and fly off. So I was really fortunate that I was able to capture any of them at all!

I kept thinking I needed a bird blind, but then–I got lucky without one! 🙂 <3

Still working away on Call of the Cougar. A 1,000 words away from my word goal, but a long way from the end. Still working on bear orders. Have about 30 in various states of progress. And about that number in orders to finish. 🙂

Remember about the giveaway at ROYAL REVIEWS  if you haven’t had a chance to comment:

Wolf books

 

Comment at Royal Reviews for chance to win! 🙂  http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/2014/09/shifters-galore-let-fun-begin-by-terry.html  This ends on Oct 1!

Do you have cardinals around? I didn’t realize I had so many until two males landed on the feeder at once and I knew another was much brighter red than them. I learned that the two in this picture that aren’t as bright red are the young males and they’ll keep changing until their feathers are all red. 🙂 And this was the first time I saw the two females at the same time. I thought maybe the one and the bright red male were Mom and Dad, because one pair of cardinals had two babies.

cardinal in her nest (640x547)

Momma on her nest. And both little babies heads were out when I came by the one time, but they ducked back into the nest so by the time I returned with the camera, I couldn’t see them. 🙂

I’m back to working on Cougar, bears, and wishing you a Happy TGIF!!!

Have a great Friday! 🙂

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears

http://www.celticbears.com

Not Just Bird Watching!

IMG_4639 (640x427)

When I was a kid, I was taught to always do my homework before I could play. That work ethic was drummed into me and so it stuck with me all my life. So the last thing I did AFTER I did all the other things I HAD to do, was tried to coax the cardinals to come out and play. I went outside and was shocked that all their bird seed was gone.

We had 30 mph winds, so I was thinking that it just scattered. But what if the birds had eaten it? I poured some more on the patio, and then went back to working on the bears I needed to make for another shipment to Australia. (Now it suspiciously sounds like I hadn’t finished all my work before I went to play with the birds, but in truth, I had only planned to finish one bear and had done so, but after the break I was ready to finish the other. Just had to clarify there! 🙂 ) And when I went into the kitchen for a cup of hot tea, there they were! Both the male and female cardinals!

She was watching me from the tree as I took the pictures from the window.  Several were blurry, but this one turned out beautifully, which reminds me, just like with my writing, not everything will be perfect the first time. Sometimes I will have to rewrite something a few times before it works for me. 🙂

IMG_4644 (640x326) (640x326)

I’m still waiting for it to get light out so I can take the pictures of the finished bears, and I missed a couple of historical romance books for the raffle basket I’m taking to RT Convention and another author wanted to send hers also. And then two more authors wanted to add to the contemporary basket.

But here is the contemporary basket for one lucky raffle winner. I had to have these posted by Feb 1, so deadline drawing near!

contemporary (640x454)

I finished rereading Jaguar Pride, and will now set it aside and give it a rest for a couple of days, then reread it again.

So what’s next? Still have 3 more guest blogs to write, 4 interviews that I need the questions for, and need to get the bears ready to ship, still waiting on one sweater to arrive for one of the bears. And I’ve got 3 Rita books left to read.

I’ve started writing a ton of books, and I have another deadline coming up for another–June, but with the conferences, it will be here before I know it.

So it’s light out enough, and I’m off to take some pictures–not just fun pictures (even though taking all pictures are fun for me), but pictures of the bears and the updated historical romance basket giveaway!

Are you an “eat dessert first” kind of person, or do you do your chores, and then get to play?

Have a super great day!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male!”
www.terryspear.com

Going to the Birds!!

I finished a first “official” edit of Jaguar Pride, but will make several passes through before I send it to my beta readers. I have a scene I need to add, and a couple of loose ends I need to cover. But I needed to take a break from it and start fresh with it tomorrow.

Which means? I started on the 13 guest blogs and interviews for the Silence of the Wolf blog tour in March. Before long, it will be time to turn them in. (5 down, 8 to go) I also read 4 of the 8 Rita books I needed to judge and they are due in March. So it all takes time.

But… I had to take a break, so see what I did on my break?

I took pictures! I read about another author who had bird feeders out and so she got a new camera and took some fun pictures of the birds and squirrels, and I thought how cool! And another friend tells me how she’s always refilling her bird feeders in snow-buried Minnesota, so I thought I would get some bird feeders too. Only nothing’s feeding at them.  I realize from this I’m rather impatient. LOL

Still, the winds were so high, they scattered finch seed from the feeder on the patio, and I had white crowned sparrows feeding. And my male cardinal came down also.

white crowned sparrow2

The female cardinal usually hides, but this evening, she was out with the male, and they were dying to come down and eat some of the sunflower and other seeds I put out for them today. Here is the cardinal in a pear tree. 🙂

cardinal pear tree

And here is the female. He joined her when I came out to take a picture of them, but I missed capturing them together.

IMG_4618 (640x427)

So do you have feeders out and if so, what kinds of birds are you getting?

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male!”
www.terryspear.com