Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the states. It’s a national holiday which marks a day of remembrance of our fallen soldiers who died while serving in the military.
Memorial Day also marks the official start of summer and I think these cute little birds are definitely feeling the summer vibes. Don’t you?
Until next time, here’s to our fallen and to a summer full of belly flops, flip flops and floaties.
Happy Sunday, everyone! I’m still hanging out back with the bird feeders this week. There’s always lots of activity around them which makes for great photography opportunities.
Today, I’m featuring this cute fella which is a Tufted Titmouse. He’s a charming little songbird that belongs to the Chic-a-dee family.
According to Cornell Labs it can be found in the Eastern forests and is also a frequent visitor to bird feeders. An interesting fact about them, is they can’t excavate their own nest cavities. Instead, they are dependent on natural holes left by woodpeckers. I guess you could say this is a great example of “one man’s (um, bird’s) trash is another man’s treasure?!”
Hmmm. It looks like they’re also talented in gathering their food upside down. I really don’t know what this was about, but, hey it seemed to work for him. Who am I to argue?
We have a VERY relentless squirrel hanging out around our bird feeders. He’s rather cute to watch as he comes scampering out of the woods across the lawn to the feeders. He even stops to snag a few droppings at the base of the feeders.
Quite honestly, I don’t understand why he feels the need to scale up the pole to the feeder. It seems to me it would be a whole lot easier for him to just grab from the leftovers. But hey, it is a squirrel after all.
He’s really quite funny to watch as he wraps himself around the feeder trying to get the optimal morsels of food.
Even the cardinal looks at little baffled as to why the squirrel is making it harder than it needs to be to get to the food.
Oh well, to each his own, “any which way you can.”
I don’t know if he was intentionally trying to hide from the other birds or not, but this little guy sure did give it a good try. So much so, I had a really hard time keeping the lens focused on him. You can tell because these photos aren’t as sharp as I would like.
This is one (1) of three (3) American Goldfinches we have visiting our yard this year.
Field Notes: F Stop 1/3200, AV 5.6, ISO 5000
Did you know the American Goldfinch is the state bird of Iowa, New Jersey and Washington?
Field Notes: F Stop 1/3200, AV 5.6, ISO 5000
They are also strict vegetarians in the bird world, eating an entirely vegetable diet albeit swallowing an occasional insect.
Field Notes: F Stop 1/3200, AV 5.6, ISO 5000
A breeding male Goldfinch can be identified by their bright yellow and black foreheads, black wings and white markings. They also breed later than most North American birds and wait to nest until June or July. This is the optimal time when milkweed, thistle, and other plants have produced their fibrous seeds, which goldfinches build into their nests and to feed their young.
Field Notes: F Stop 1/3200, AV 5.6, ISO 5000
I’m hoping to capture more of these little birds this summer. They always brighten my day.
Until next time,
~donna
Species Information Source: Cornell Lab – All About Birds
Day 10 – We have a new visitor at the birdfeeder today, an Eastern Female Downy Woodpecker. According to All About Birds“Downy Woodpeckers are small versions of the classic woodpecker body plan. They have a straight, chisel-like bill, blocky head, wide shoulders, and straight-backed posture as they lean away from tree limbs and onto their tail feathers. The bill tends to look smaller for the bird’s size than in other woodpeckers.”
Editing Notes: I applied a haze removal before cropping and made some minor level adjustments to the lighting before applying a final vignette for accent.
Field Notes: 170mm; Exposure: 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 1250
Day 9 – House Hen Finch. This little bird was having way too much fun at the feeder today, but I was lucky enough to get a shot of him staring at me. His face is not quite as crisp as I would have liked, but it’s nature and sometimes you just go with what you get. I’m also linking this to Becky’s Simply Red Squares Challenge.
Editing Notes: Today, I applied the normal haze removal, level adjustments (lighting) and some sharpness adjustments followed with the usual cropping and vignette application.
Field Notes: Focal Length: 400mm; Exposure 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 1250
This beautiful hawk has been visiting our backyard lately. I happened to snatch this photo of him last night while working on a few pics of the hummingbirds.
Field Notes:
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Lens: Canon EF 100mm – 400mm
Focal Length: 180mm
Shutter Speed 1/100
Aperture: f5.6
ISO: 1250
Time of Day: 6:59p.m.
I have no clue what species this is, so if any of you other bird enthusiasts out there know please drop me a note in the comments below👇👇
What types of birds do you have wandering around in your backyard?
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