2017 In Review - Part Two

The second half of 2017.  Last week we visited the first half.  It was a busy year.

 July brought lots of summer parties and feasts

 And birds galore - the Great Blue Herons were especially active.

 Barns and boats on sunny summer days.

 Views from mountains and lots of birds

 My favorite tree with a cornfield in the background - and lots of flowers in August

 Barns, apples, mountains and spider webs kept the month interesting.

A cute little vacation cottage on Samish Island in August, china cabinet full of summer dishes and dinner on the deck with friends.

Great and Lesser Yellowlegs on Wiley Slough, Great Blue Herons, American Pelicans - not always seen in this area and lots of our state bird, the little Goldfinch.

 September sightings, Mt. Baker, Great Blue Heron and Tow Mater, seen on Portal Way in Custer, WA

 Disastrous wild fires at great distances from us left our sun red for weeks on end, until the smoke finally cleared.  In September we saw barns with ripe corn in vast fields, Northern Flickers, Stellar's Jays and flocks of Starlings along the power lines.

 Into October we go - my early christmas gift from our son and daughter -in-law was the crow teapot that I had wanted for years.  Jamie has the magic touch when searching for hard to find items.  The dolls dressed up in their Halloween outfits for the holiday and gnomes sat in pumpkin fields.

 My favorite house of all time was repainted this year - when I saw them prepping it I had great fear that it would be painted the obnoxious grey that every second house in Bellingham has been painted this year - but they stuck to the existing wonderful colors -it shines out among all the boring grey houses we are beginning to be drowned in this year.  Barns and the summer moon rounded out the month.

 Along with birds of all sorts - and the colors changing as the year moves on.

 November brought us a freak snowstorm - we had almost 8 inches at our house - and just blocks away there was almost no snow - even farther north there was no snow.  And our snow stayed around for a couple weeks before warmer temperatures finally melted it.  We had to keep cleaning off the hummingbird feeder and brought it in every night to keep it from freezing.  The hummingbirds visited almost constantly  during the day.  Anna's Hummingbirds overwinter in our area.

 My favorite tree with almost no leaves in November - the cornfield has been harvested, and our winter birds are back - including Plovers on the beach at Birch Bay, and American Wigeon in huge flocks.

 A very Christmasy December - parties, decorations and lots of good food.

 Birds abound in the winter - Anna's Hummingbirds flit about the feeders, an American Kestrel on the wire, Trumpeter Swans swarm the farmland fields in Skagit County all winter and a special treat - after four years we again saw the Leucistic Red Tail Hawk.  Leucistic means that some of the pigment is absent in the feathers in random patterns, not a true albino.  We saw it twice, four years ago and return to the general area often, but this is only the third time we have seen it.  One of my most thrilling sightings of a bird.

Lots of rain in December, yards and fields are often flooded, Snow Geese flock by the hundreds of thousands to Skagit Valley, the crabapples hang heavy on the trees, waiting for hungry birds and the sun breaks through the winter mist in the trees across the street from our house.

How was your second half of 2017? And here's hoping for good things in 2018.

Mosaic Monday