Tufted Titmouse Family Visiting My Backyard Feeders

Nothing more beautiful than a nice pair of tits.

Hello fellow birdwatchers!

Over the last month, since the first day of spring last month, I've been fortunate enough to capture some really great shots of various species of birds visiting my backyard bird feeders. Among them were at least five different specimens of the Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) that I've managed to photograph.

The species belongs to the tit and chickadee family of Paridae, a family of small passerine birds found in North America. The Tufted Titmouse is found in the eastern part of the United States and eastern Texas year round and its best identified by its bluish-gray and white coloring, dark eyes, and distinct crown of feathers on its head.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed these lovely little songbirds. They're a joy to photograph and are usually pretty tolerant and curious of human, unlike their fellow songbirds, the Chickadee, who tends to be harder to photograph sometimes.

I'll have more outstanding backyard bird photography coming up soon. Till then have a wonderful Dixie Day and y'all come back now, ya hear! 

Monday Meme: Peeping Tomcat

 

Loki Found A Snake!

Greetings & Salutations, Y'all!

Well, as the title of this post has pointed out, my backyard buddy, Loki (aka Mr. Kitteh) found a visitor to my backyard....and not one of the feathered variety that I usually post about.

Earlier this morning I was looking out of my kitchen window when I spotted Loki starring at something in the grass. That something turned out to be a nearly three-foot long juvenile Eastern Kingsnake (lampropeltis getula). I quickly collected my trusty Sony DSC-H300 camera and captured these two shots of the encounter: the first with Loki and the snake from the kitchen window, and the other a close-up of the Kingsnake from the backyard in all its lovely black and white glory.

Don't worry about either of them. Loki kept his distance and retreated to the back door once I poured some dry cat food for him. Neither the kitty nor the snake were harmed in the making of this blog post and both ended up going their own ways after the encounter.

The Eastern Kingsnake is actually quite common in my little corner of Dixie, with a range that spans from eastern Maryland down through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. They can also be found in the southern Appalachian regions.

The normal color pattern of the Kingsnake consists of a glossy black, blue black, or dark brown ground color, overlaid with a series of beautiful white, or yellow, chain-like rings. Variation is found in their patterns across geographic ranges. Kingsnakes from the coastal plains have wider bands, while those found in mountainous areas have thinner bands, or may be completely black.

As you can see in my photograph, this particular variety of Eastern Kingsnake has thinner bands consistent with the Piedmont region of the Carolinas where I live.

If you were to encounter one, don't worry. The Eastern Kingsnake is non-venomous and actually preys on venomous snakes common in the American Southland such as the Eastern Copperhead, Cottonmouth Water Moccasin, and even Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes. So if you ever run into one of these outstanding Colubridaes, its best to leave them alone and let them go about their business.

My thanks to Loki for his sharp kitty eyes and finding this lovely beauty to photograph and share with all of y'all.

Monday Meme: Littlefoot Then & Now

Happy Easter Sunday -- He Is Risen

"He is not here for he is risen”  ~Matthew 28:6 NIV.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  ~John 3:16-17 NIV

From my corner of Dixie to all of my readers worldwide -- especially to my fellow Christians and believers -- have a Happy Easter Sunday and never forget the reason for the season.

Night Sky Photography -- 04-01-2026 -- The Full Flower Moon & Artemis II

 

The April full moon is also known as the Full Flower Moon in North America, and is the first full moon following the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

I was able to capture the shot above in a clear sky. The visible features of the lunar surface and the Man in the Moon is clearly visible in the shot, as is Tycho Crater, one of the largest craters on the visible side of Luna facing our Earth.

Tonight's Full Flower Moon arrives just in time for the launch of NASA's Artemis II mission, which successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Merritt Island, Florida at approximately 6:35 p.m. EDT -- just under four hours before the full moon reached its peak illumination here in South Carolina at 10:15 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 1st.

The Artemis II mission is the first crewed U.S. mission to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December of 1972. Should all go according to plan, the four person crew of the Orion spacecraft (U.S. Astronauts Commander Reid Weisman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina H. Koch, and Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen) will leave Earth's orbit this weekend -- the first human beings to do so in 53 years -- and arrive in orbit around the Moon on Monday, April 6th. Godspeed astronauts!

Monday Meme: It's Monday....Again.