white-breasted nuthatch

You may have to do something over and over, but who says you must do it the same way each time?   Get creative ~ have fun with it!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

Backyard Birds

The little red-breasted nuthatches may be small (smaller than the chickadee), but they are mighty. They will run off other birds twice their size! lol

Not the best chickadee picture ever but he was so cute gathering fuzz.

A baby. . .robin?

Now the white-breasted nuthatch is bigger than the chickadee, but more mild mannered than the red-breasted ones.

And the little Downy Woodpeckers are content to nibble on suet and be left alone.

the bird or the bug?

Today I felt like the bird more than the bug. Not insignificant, but in charge!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here. ~

It's funny I haven't seen any nuthatches around for a while. Then this guy shows up, snags a bug (I didn't know they were carnivores) and hopped from tree to tree. Here he's tucking the bug in a crevice to eat it. It was pretty amazing to watch.

A little later he hopped to a tree with some nice backlighting. Spiderweb straight out from his beak. And I think the blobby tree kinda looks like a sideways heart, I never noticed that before now.

btw -all of these were taken with my 100-400mm lens while talking on my cell phone (to my mommy, lol).  You try holding that lens and the phone.

Chaos much?

There's been lots of excitement going on around here! Three mornings ago I finally got a visual on the large-sounding woodpecker I've been hearing in our backyard. It IS a Pileated and I can't wait to get photos of it, but so far no luck. I've been hearing him for about a month and this was the first time I've seen him - fingers crossed I'll be able to snap a shot of him soon.

Then two mornings ago, I went to let my dogs out and discovered this feathered friend sitting on the kitchen floor. My husband had left the sliding door open a bit when he went to work for the dogs and the bird came in. Brodi had a hold of him for a moment but he got free and flew up to the window above the sink and sat there for a few photos.

I opened the door all the way and he did go back out, thankfully! Yesterday morning, the SAME thing happened only it was a little finch who came in and she went right back out, lol.

We had this happen a few years ago with a hummingbird, lol. Seems birds really like us!

Time for an update

Boy I'm really longing for warmer days right about now! We've been having colder than normal temps, but I think most of you guys have been too. Warmth cannot come soon enough. So I pulled this cutie from my archives. He's here to ask you all to please check the 'blogroll' link there on the left and make sure you're on it and that the info is correct. If you're not or I need to change things, please leave me the title you'd like, your url and the state or country you're blogging from.

And btw, we signed up for the weight race again this year, trying to finish off those extra pounds.  And to help encourage us we started a blog where we'll both post.  So, if you're interested in hearing about diet food and exercise and results you can find it at "No Weighting".

Thanx for being my bloggy friends! (((hugs)))

tweet, tweet

Hey I found a dark-eyed junco in our yard who would cooperate momentarily!

I'm pretty sure this is a type of sparrow, but what kind?

He would not come out from behind that branch, but he has a little bit of yellow near the beak, and black stripes with white in the middle on his head.

Does seeing this side help?

The white-breasted nuthatches are typically zany.

Lil dive-bombers, lol

Who's in my yard?

A coy sparrow

The white-breasted nuthatches stay all summer, but the red-breasted are back now too.

We have a plethora of chickadees tour our yard daily, but a few have gotten zany, hoping over the plastic divider and into the seed! They often hop back out the other side. lol

We have several woodpeckers visit daily. This one was not in our yard, but you'll be seeing one of them soon.

And this dark-eyed junco is not in our yard but many are - they just don't cooperate as well in my yard.

The chipmunks are gathering for the upcoming winter. Their puffy cheeks always make me giggle.  The squirrels are driving me crazy getting into the seed too!  All except one, Pixel (the flying squirrel) has been making appearance again - I'm hoping she'll move back into the birdhouse for the winter.

I have not seen turkeys in our yard but I often see them a few blocks away from our house.

A nice day for a walk

Just a short walk down a path on a nice autumn day. This same path is now being used for cross-country skiing.

First I saw a white-throated sparrow perched on a branch.

A white-breasted nuthatch hiding food in an old woodpecker hole.

I almost stepped on a butterfly, but right before my foot crunched down I noticed him and of course 'snap, snap, snap'. But I was clueless what kind this little flutterer is. Finally, I dug out my butterfly book. I bought the Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America when I drove to Oshkosh in July to meet Marilyn, but I think of her every time I see it and I hadn't been able to look at it without thinking about the fact that she is no longer here. Damn cancer! I had a hard time making cards for a while too but have pushed through it and decided it was time to open up this book.

So, I have it narrowed down and am pretty sure that it's a Comma. I think it's a Green Comma, but it could be a Hoary or a Gray – I'm no expert, obviously.

When I got home I was happy to find my little shrew out and about. In fact, we have two living here now, one is darker than the other.

And the dark-eyed juncos came back!

How I shoot Bluebirds

So, the next morning I woke up to the sound of Bluebirds. I was so excited that they were still here! I had to grab the camera and run out to see if “she” was still showing interest in my birdhouse.

Isn’t he beautiful! The males are SO bright right now.

I sat with my lens trained on the opening to the birdhouse waiting to see her peek out. There was no peeking this time, as she came out, he came down and I was so excited thinking I must have caught them terrifically. . .

Then so disappointed when I saw this on the computer. The focus remained on the opening, not the quickly moving birds. I’m thinking, if I had allowed the flash to go off I might have been able to freeze their wings, but then again I think they moved out of the area I had in focus so this is just it.

When she went back in, I tried again and she came out a little slower this time.

She’s doing a little house cleaning, but once again she moved out of my area of focus. Her little feet sure look good though, don’t they?

See, these last three photos all happened so fast I didn’t have the chance to move the camera.

She looks so sweetly curious, I just had to see what she was looking at. So, I moved the lens down, below her, and. . .

At this point I decided to go buy some nesting material to help encourage them to stay.

But this little Nuthatch caught my eye. I still thrill over the zany Nuthatches. I’ve only seen the white-breasted ones lately though and am kinda missing the itty bitty red-breasted ones. If you’re not familiar with Nuthatches, they are really fun to watch as the walk down trees eating insects from the bark. This guy had been digging around in some leaves prior to walking along the driveway.

This is a female Brown-headed Cowbird. These birds are new to me, but according to my bird book they are the only parasitic bird in the state, laying their eggs in host birds’ nests, leaving others to raise their young. So I guess they’re footloose and fancy free.

I was probably 20-30 feet away from the birds in these photos. That’s typically about as close as they’ll let me get. That’s my set-up there for birding. The 100-400mm on the Canon 40D, they are pretty much married, it’s rare for me to change the lens on that camera.

That’s the zoomiest lens we have and it can be used on any of our cameras. That being said, if it is put on the 5D, it would not be as zoomy. The 5D has a full frame sensor and the other cameras (Xti, 20D, 40D) have smaller sensors. Think of them like widescreen and full frame movies. When we bought the 5D, I almost got a 5D too, but I knew that I like to bird and the smaller sensor gives me more zoom. So I went with the 40D.

The 40D has a fast processor and many sports photographers choose it. It reacts quicker than the other cameras. It can shoot 5 frames per second compared with their 3 frames per second. This matters in birds. And when I saw the bird guy speak a couple of weeks ago, he says he uses the Canon 40D too, and he’s a pro.

Let's Photograph some birds

I spent just a little time in the yard yesterday and in addition to seeing my everyday juncos, finches, nuthatches, and downy woodpeckers, I found for you a Robin.

A pair of Cardinals.

A Hairy Woodpecker. He’s been hanging around for a while and I was surprised how much bigger he is than the Downy’s.

For the first time ever, I saw a Brown Creeper, right in my front yard! I don’t care if the picture is fuzzy, it still proves I saw him. I guess the point I’m trying to make by showing you these photos is that when I see a bird for the first time I try to get a photo, any photo and then try to get a beautiful photo when I can. I usually start by snapping at a safe distance and then slowly walk towards the bird. Snapping as I step. Unfortunately, this was the only shot I was able to get of this guy and I hope he comes back.

Fibi alerted me to this fellow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Brown-headed Cowbird before yesterday either. He didn’t seem to mind Fibi scratching at the screen and I shot through the screen. When I opened it, he flew away.

One more first. . .

A Pied-billed Grebe, found while walking along the river a few days ago. Then as I went back to the car I caught a little acrobat.

My husband tells me that “Professional bird photographers set their tripod up and probably wait hours to get the shot.” I have no patience and I have heard some of you saying that you don’t either. My bluebirds, from a few days ago, I drove into a cemetery, spotted one, and snapped from my car, I got lucky, but if I hadn’t we would have missed them, because I can’t sit still.

This was my first bluebird shot, taken through the front window. Aren’t you glad I didn’t stop with the first shot?

So, my point in all of this, is grab your camera and go snap those birds. Practice makes perfect. Some of the best places I’ve found, to find birds easily, are cemeteries. Often you can you can use your car as a blind. Give it a shot, and maybe in a couple of days I’ll have some more tips for you. I will be going to the “Photographing Birds” by Jim Miller, Wednesday evening.