Friday’s Feathered Friends- Common Yellowthroat

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Looking through my posts I see that I haven’t shared an image of this cheerful Yellow Warbler since 2013 when I saw one for the first time.

In truth I rarely see one. The most common Warbler we have here is the Yellow-rump Warbler which I see just about every time I go birding.

When He-Man and I were in Santa Barbara last month we took a wander around Goleta Beach heading north into the University of Santa Barbara Campus up to Beach Point then around the Lagoon. It was while on the trail on the west side of the lagoon I heard and saw this Common Yellowthroat.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

It was a treat to see, and he wasn’t skittish. He sat there while snapped a few images then he continued on with his morning song.

I might be much slower getting to your blogs over the next several days. Janet from https://wordpress.com/reader/users/sustainabilitea is arriving today for a visit so if the weather is good I’ll be sharing my little corner of the world with her. We have rain forecasted this week-end though. I hope it’s not a lot so we can get outdoors.

I hope you have a lovely week-end and fair weather!

more to come…

Thursday Doors- Jensen Mansion

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

This week I’m sharing a house with a pretty door that I’ve wanted to photograph for ages. While shopping in downtown Gardnerville, NV a few weeks back I finally turned down Ezell Street to make a few photos of the Jensen Mansion.

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This mansion was built by Arendt Jensen back in 1910. In the year 1887 when he was just 28 he arrived in Gardnerville, NV. There were just two houses in town.

There’s a plaque on the tree out front telling us a little about him and the house.

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The Plaque says,” Arendt Jensen had this beautiful mansion constructed for his family in 1910. Mr. Jensen owned a general merchandise store in Gardnerville that became very prosperous. He later established the first bank in Carson Valley. The Douglas County Farmer’s Bank.

An advertisement in the Record Courier newspaper in 1906 stated at the “A. Jensen store you can buy anything at prices that are right.”

Meticulously restored, the Jensen Mansion has been a bed and breakfast in the recent past. The home and grounds also appeared in the movie “The Wizard” staring Fred Savage, and Beau Bridges. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.”

I found this website while doing a bit more research about the man and house. https://www.clairitage.com/2017/12/29/gardnerville-jensen-mansion/

There’s some interesting information on the Clairitage site. There’s a photo of the brick Mercantile building that Jensen built there, and the 3 arched building is still in town. The 3 arched building is a huge antique store that I love to poke around in. My last stop in I scored a lovely duck decoy that now lives in my bedroom. 😊 Okay let’s get back on topic. The door!

Here’s a somewhat closer look at the front door.

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I like the privacy lace curtains over the door, and the pineapples at the gate.

The side patio and large front patio, and the widow’s walk are all nice too.

I think it’s a private residence again so I wasn’t able to walk around the grounds or get a peek inside. Maybe one day.

This post is part of the weekly challenge Thursday Doors hosted by Dan Antion over at:

https://nofacilities.com/2025/04/17/mt-washington-pittsburgh-doors/

Hop on over there to see more doors from around the world or join the craze and add a door or two of your own. 😊

more to come…

Whatever Weds. April Fool’s Fun

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Yesterday in my Nextdoor feed was this message from the State of Nevada.

State of Nevada

Local Agency

Public Information Officer Hailey Foster·

23 hr ago

Introducing the Silver State Standard: The Nevada DMV mandates that all vehicles must be painted silver by January 1, 2026 according to the Statewide Vehicle Color Standardization Act. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/ut7jukn6

Clicking on the link opens a page that says, ” Statewide Vehicle Color Standardization Act

Please ensure your vehicles are painted silver to adhere to the state’s mandate.

What is it?

In an effort to reinforce Nevada’s proud identity as the Silver State, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles is declaring the Statewide Vehicle Color Standardization Act, taking effect on January 1, 2026. Under this new initiative, all personal, commerical, and government-owned vehicles registered in Nevada will be required to be painted silver.

The purpose of this act is to promote state pride, improve traffic flow aesthetics and create the country’s first color-coordinated highway system.

The DMV encourages customers to begin painting their vehicles silver or purchasing vehicles that follow this guideline to avoid violation fees.

Picture of Silver vehicle

In Case You’re Still Reading

We cannot enforce a statewide vehicle color compliancy. We hope we made you laugh. Happy April Fool’s Day!”

I thought it was pretty funny and thought I’d share it since it was the most unique pun I saw all day. It had the most comments and likes I’ve seen on a Nextdoor post in my feed.

I hope you all had only fun pranks yesterday.

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Lifers

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Last week I mentioned He-Man and I went on a not so spontaneous trip down to Henderson, NV. Not so spontaneous because I have been wanting to go down since December when the Long-tailed Ducks were first reported being seen there. They have wintered there since December! I needed two-three days with nothing planned so we could go down.

Henderson is just the next town south of Las Vegas. The ducks were continuing to be seen and we finally had a couple of days free to go so off we went on a little road trip.

There were 3 Female Long-tailed Ducks staying in the ponds at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. We arrived on Sunday afternoon after the Preserve had closed, so our plan was to get there when it opened Monday morning at 7AM. We arrived just a few minutes after they opened, signed in, spoke with the person working there about where to start in the preserve to see the Long-tailed Ducks. They gave us great pointers.

We didn’t see them on our first pass of the pond they were being sighted at so we moved on and explored some other ponds. There are 9 ponds in the preserve.

On our second pass by pond 5 He-Man spotted one! I moved to get better light and there they both were!

Here’s the first one we saw.

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Here’s the second one. They were easy to tell apart because their bills are different. One has some pink on it and the other one has an all black bill.

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The female tails are much, much shorter than the males, but still they’re so cute. I was so excited to see them. The male remains on my “hope to see” list.

I saw 4 other new to me birds while there which I’ll share in future posts.

more to come…

CFFC- Lunch or Dinner

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

This week for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge the theme is something suggesting lunch or dinner.

Back in the day I was playing with my food more and setting up “food photography shots”. Here’s old image of mine suggesting lunch. A turkey and avocado sandwich.

Do you like chips with your sandwich?

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Or how about tacos?

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Let’s finish this post with dessert shall we? How about some fancy smores?

more to come…

CFFC-Breakfast

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

I was MIA with a post last week and reading yours. It was a busy week with lots of birding, a Gull ID field workshop, lunch and shopping with girlfriends, and a not so spontaneous overnight trip to Henderson, NV to see a rare bird. I’ll tell you more about that later.

I thought I’d use Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge to let you know I’m catching up with your blogs and getting back to my regular schedule of posting.

Here are two of my classic breakfasts. I made these images a long time ago but, they fit the challenge and I still eat these foods for breakfast most days.

Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2013 Deborah M Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This is part of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge or CFFC. If you’d like to participate head on over to see what’s coming up in the upcoming weeks, or add your own post about breakfast.






Friday’s Feathered Friends-Birds, Birds, Birds

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

I thought I’d share some of the birds I’ve seen the last couple of weeks.

Starting with a little Pygmy Nuthatch. It was flying to and from its nest the hole in a tree trunk you can sort of see behind it.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

A female Downy Woodpecker who was cold that morning. It was 15 degrees F when we started birding. She didn’t move from that tree for the longest time.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

Another morning I had the pleasure of viewing a posing Cooper’s Hawk. Look at that tail!

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

Then it showed off its wing.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

Then it flew showing off its wing span.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

Last but not least, I saw the pair of Bald Eagles in their tree near my house on my way out last week. He was obscured by all the branches, but she was up high and in the open. I had to stop for a photo of her.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

That’s all I have for you this week. I may be late getting to your posts and blogs this morning as I’m birding with my bird group.

More to come…