Merry Christmas Wishes From Land in Tennessee.....

- Merry Christmas from the Cumberland Plateau of southeast Tennesseee....seasonably cool and cloudy today...but Santa snow may be on the way......Since records started being kept in the 1880s, there is only a 7% chance of a white Christmas in our part of Tennessee. The last was 1993, according to the archives. Several inches fell in much of Tennessee on Christmas of 1969...but a lot of crazy events occurred in '69. Remember Manson, first man on the moon, Chappaquiddick, Woodstock.....? This year we have a chance!

- A few Christmas wishes set to the photos in this post.....

1) May we all enjoy, and help someone else enjoy, the blessings of the season...like the seemingly content Northern Cardinal in the bottom photo and the Downy Woodpecker in the next photo.....

2) May we all offer love to those who may not agree with our ideas and values....and may we all adjust as necessary in order to preserve, survive and achieve. Pictured is the notorious Bluejay (on the ground with an acorn in the mouth), a species that, due to their aggressive and sometimes sinister behavior, most all songbirds choose to avoid whenever possible.

3) May we all have a firm foundation beneath our feet, and purpose in our step. Pictured is a Canada Goose, walking on rather thin ice on Lake George, that is not at all sure of the foundation beneath its webbed feet.

4) May events encourage us and allow us to travel hopefully. Pictured is a buck rub (taken yesterday) on an Eastern Red Cedar, near the mouth of Stone Creek. This rub is on a large tree, with comparison to a human leg provided. This evidence provided hope and assurance to me that large male deer, though seldom seen, can and do survive. Does and small bucks we see quite often, but the 'grandaddy bucks'.....rarely.

5) May we all be so intent on being productive in our lives that we do not focus on the behaviors of others. This Hairy Woodpecker (very similar to the Downy Woodpecker, but larger), is so focused on my suet cake, it seemed to be unaware of the photographer (me) behind a bush only a few feet away.

Best Wishes from all of us at Tennessee Land and Nature Properties.

It's All About the Birds.....

- Cold and clear today after recent snow....2-3" in most areas of The Cumberland Plateau, a bit more in other places, like my back yard.
- This change of weather and the snow cover certainly stimulated bird behavior....throughout the day yesterday. While most folks were slipping and sliding and wondering why a measurable snowfall had occurred so early this year, I spent most of the day with a camera, watching my feeding stations. I was rewarded in a big way. So, this one is all about the birds.

Photos......Bottom to Top......

1-2....A Pileated Woodpecker clinging to the bark of a Red Maple near my feeders. Adaptation: it is interesting to note that Woodpeckers have two clawed toes forward/two clawed toes aft.....unlike the perching birds, which have three forward/one aft. Second photo is a rare treat...two adult Pileated Woodpeckers....one seems to prefer suet, the other sunflower seeds.

3- A male Northern Cardinal staring down at an American Crow.
4- Foreground: Male Northern Cardinal ....Background right: Female Northern Cardinal.... Background left: Male Purple Finch

5- The Common Flicker, as taken through my window.......the black V on the upper breast and the red patch at the back of the neck are distinguishing field marks

6- Same bird as # 5, at one of my suet feeders.

7- Striking against the snow....the male Red-Headed Woodpecker. In the foreground is a male Goldfinch, now, in winter, much more drab than the summer plumage of brilliant yellow with black wings.

8- The Slate Colored Junco - seemingly content with its perch on a low limb of a young Norway Spruce....

9- To the left is one of the mainstays of bird feeders all across our area - The Tufted Titmouse. To the right is a male Eastern Towhee....it along with another male and female spent most of the day beneath the young Hemlocks/Spruces scratching in the leaves. Near the end of the day, thanks to the Towhees, there was a semi-circle of brown leaves around some of the trees. Background left is a Downy Woodpecker.

10- Let's give some credit to the smaller, more inconspicuous species that do not get as much notice in this journal....like this House Wren, which appears to be asleep. These energetic birds are fun to watch, and though hard to tell by this photo, they never stay in one place for very long. We also have two close relatives....Bewick's Wren and the Carolina Wren. The latter two, which are often difficult to tell apart, have more facial stripes than the House Wren, and the stripe just above the eye is more white and more broad. All three species nest in this area in the spring.

Enough for now. All this activity was through a 4-hour period...constant traffic to and from...a special day. Other species left out: White-Breasted Nuthatch, Mourning Dove, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird, Starling, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, and Song Sparrow.

Late Autumn - But Winter Has Arrived

- Two nights ago, leaving a restaurant on the edge of town.....the unmistakeable chortle of Sandhill Cranes came cascading down through the darkness. We stopped. All listened. One asked me..."What in the world is that sound?"...."Mother Nature in motion" I answered. "What?" The sound was continuous, over a period of several minutes. The night was cloudy, and cold, so our party did not allow the serenade to last too long. As we drove away, I explained in detail what we had heard. There must have been hundreds of the birds, in several groups, for the sounds to have lasted so long. They were headed southeast, most likely to the Hiwassee National Refuge on The Tennessee River, a staging area that has been documented previously in this journal. The Sandhills are a bit late arriving in our area this year, compared to the last several. I first heard a group of them, almost inaudible they were so high in the air, while on a hike, on November 30th.

- Seasonably cool...mid to upper 40s..... with a veil of cirrus/cirrostratus clouds filtering the sunlight most of the day.

- The first noticeable snow this year was on November 5th....only a trace on the leaves. Similar earlier this week. If the forecast holds, it appears the Cumberland Plateau may get a bit of snow on Saturday night and Sunday of the coming weekend. Good chili or beef stew weather.

- I am seeing a lot of hawks....have spotted the following this week: Broadwing, Cooper's, Sharp-Shinned, Sparrow, and Red-Tailed.....One of the Kestrels (Sparrow Hawk) was perched on a utility line, prey draped over the wire, held by talons. Despite the cold wind, the bird seemed to be enjoying the catch of the moment.....a mouse taken from a roadside field. Too much traffic for a photo. Red-Tails love to perch atop roadside utility poles while surveying the fields....a tip that could lead to a good photo opportunity of this very common Buteo.

- Enjoyed receiving nature/wildlife photos from several residents/landowners recently. A few of them are included....from top to bottom....

1) Decisions - decisions......to give up or try again?

2) What a pose....the posture of this animal seems almost artificial. This 8-point buck was attempting to obtain a snack from the wildlife feeder of Harold and Marcia Bibb, who submitted this photo as well as the next one....a great photo of deer at the feeder, taken recently on a cold frosty morning, as the sun first made an appearance over the eastern mountains. Thank you Harold and Marcia.

3) A noisy mountain stream.....one of the most soothing sounds in all of nature. Thank you Terry and Nancy Jennings (taken from their property).

4) A magnificent sunset...as taken from the front porch of Rick and Linda Meck of Stone Creek. Thank you Rick and Linda.