Housefinch Heaven

This little fellow is living a dream, if birds dream. If they don't, well, he's got it made! This fellow is a showy red. When the sun was out full, he beamed.

Fun!

I'm sure glad I didn't take down those Christmas tree lights!

White Breasted Nuthatch

Here's another favorite of mine...the Nuthatch. A very friendly bird. Not afraid to approach. The Nuthatches watch me closely like no other bird when I'm out on the deck filling the feeders. They see me on the deck and they waste no time getting closer to see what I'm doing. I love them!

An Alternative

This female Downy is picking at suet pieces left over after adding a new cake to the hanging suet feeder. It was a good idea setting these out because while a more dominant Downy is on the feeder, this female took advantage of these pieces on the deck rail. Everyone's happy!

American Tree Sparrow

An American Tree Sparrow takes advantage of the seed/nut offerings on the deck. This afternoon it was rather slow regarding bird activity. The Blue Jays were almost non existent. I had their peanut ring out expecting the usual invasion. It didn't happen. I haven't seen our Red Shouldered Hawk for over a week now.  Oh well, I'm happy to see this sparrow today.

Hit and Run

In typical fashion, this Chickadee kicks seeds and peanuts in the air on leaving the scene. I prefer a slight blur in my action photos like this. It shows movement I think. Stop action is fun, but I don't think as.............artistic? That's my humble opinion anyhow.

A favorite bird of mine........

I really didn't give House Finches much thought, they were not a favored bird of mine until this past summer. We had a little male House Finch that started showing up on the deck that had the disease that's common to the House Finch. The poor little guy could hardly see out of his crusted over eyes. He did all he could to fly from a nearby tree to the deck for his sunflower seeds. He would hover over the deck rail unsure it was under him. Most of the time he'd make it, sometimes he wouldn't. It was so sad to watch.

At one point we set out a dish on the rail just for him. Of course other birds found it, but he knew where it was and that was his favorite dish to eat out of. He always wanted something to drink when he visited the deck, so we always set his dish close to the water so all he needed to do was turn around and hop about three times to get to the water. With his trouble seeing, when it came time for a drink of water he'd stretch his neck high as if looking for some distant object. After searching for a short time he'd get an idea of direction and hop over to the water with his head still held high straining to find his way. The little guy would get his drink and with much effort fly to the nearest tree and with a rather rough landing find his evening perch.  His course of habit was to feed just as the sun was setting. And most all the time, when he found his eventing perch he would face the setting sun just as in the photo above. Many times we'd watch where he settled in for the evening  and the next morning we would get up to see if he was still there and many times he was.

One fall day we had a storm, a big storm with sustained winds of 25 mph and gusts of wind at 40mph. I knew the night I heard the details of the next days storm, we would never see our little friend again. I imagined him trying to reach the deck with those kind of winds only to be blown way off course and with his poor eyesight would probably be unable to find his way back to our deck. Well, my fear turned into reality. After the storm we never saw our little friend again.

How strange I should invest so much time and emotion in this little sick bird. But I did. Through it I gained a whole new appreciation for House Finches. They are now a favored bird thanks to that little sick fellow.

Female Nuthatch

The Nuthatches are a favorite bird of mine. They have a personality all their own. They have an array of calls that I just love. For such a small bird they have a big call. They're a brave bird as well. They cozy up to me pretty easily. I hope to hand feed one of these soon.

Safflower Siesta

After a hard morning of picking seeds it's time for a snooze.

Sharing Sunflower Seeds

An American Tree Sparrow and an All American Chickadee share the seeds in the famous "green dish".  The seeds were mounded high in the dish not long ago.

Note the American Tree Sparrows split colored beak. Upper black, lower yellow. Neat.

At the Hopper

This male House Finch is spending some time at his favorite feeder. To my surprise today, the Starlings were all over this feeder pigging out. I didn't think they like safflower............oh well, if you feed the birds you not only feed the squirrels but starlings too.

Male Downy Woodpecker

This is a common practice for our Downy's that visit the suet feeder. They like hanging on to the rails of the deck before hopping on the suet feeder. Seldom, do they ever fly directly to the feeder.

High Key Blue Jay

Here's something a little different. In portraiture, this would be known as a "High Key" portrait. The background and in general, the lighting is bright. Why not try it on a Blue Jay.

The Blue Jay is studying the peanut ring, swinging just above him. He struggled a long time with many attempts to to get a peanut. About halfway in the struggle he hopped down on the rail stood still for a second, spotted the water dish and flew over to it for a long cool drink. After that refreshment, he went back to the struggle of trying to pull a peanut out of the ring. He did find success.

Bright Cardinal on a Cloudy Day

I had the day off today. I was hoping for a sunny or at least a bright cloudy day to help with the photography but it didn't happen. A dark day today. I didn't fare well photographically.  This Northern Cardinal did brighten the day however. They have been scarce around here for one reason or another. I was happy to see and photograph him.

Resting Mourning Dove

We have a flock of Mourning Doves about 30 in number. I like them. I have on the deck beside the feeders a heated water dish. The Mourning Doves love it. They'll gather 3 or 4 at a time to get a drink. The coldest night this year was close to 15 below zero. The water dish was open for the birds come morning.

Another reason I love the Mourning Doves is that they are great "Deck Maids". They are continually picking at the spilled seeds on the deck floor helping me keep it picked up.  The Blue Jays and Chickadees are little winged pigs. They'll sit in the middle of the dish of seeds and then take flight scattering seeds better than a John Deere seed planter ever could. Good old doves.

My turn little friend.......

 I just had three Pileated Woodpeckers come in to feed. This was the first to hit the deck. The Downy wasn't frightened off but continued to feed. The Pileated Woodpecker hopped over to the peanut feeder to "nose around" or maybe "beak around". The Downy finally left at which time the Pileated took possession of the suet feeder. What a beautiful bird this Pileated!

We had some nice sunshine this early A.M. but it's gone now.  But, had the sun been out, it would not have worked. So, I'll be thankful I got what I did. It's kind of a "grab shot" but it tells a story.

A favorite seed picker of mine.

A Chickadee smorgasbord of seeds and nuts. I like to spoil my birds.

Now that I have your attention........

.....Smile!  The Goldfinches love this sunflower seed feeder. They spend as much time here as they do at the thistle seed feeder.

Winter Flight Operations Center

Yikes, it looks a bit different from the picture I took in August. It's about 10 degrees. There wasn't a lot of activity at the feeders today. Enough to keep my interest. I do prefer the flower pots and green trees. The open trees I must admit make for easy tracking of the birds.

Yes, the Christmas lights are still up. I love the color they give these long, cold, dark winter nights in Minnesota.

Nuthatch Back Detail

Here we are. I took this early this morning after the pileated sighting. This is what I'm talking about regarding the detail we could never see with the unaided eye. Look at the beautiful layering of the feathers and their coloring. It looks like he's wearing a solid gray shawl over his shoulders. Simply beautiful! And this is just black, gray and white. Ok......I have a new project. I'm going to attempt to photograph the backs of as many birds as I can to illustrate their being flying works of art. Should be a challenge, and this wire mesh sunflower seed feeder will be an important tool in my getting what I want.

Our Pileated

I was sitting in our sun room this morning drinking my coffee and heard the voice of an old familiar friend. I sprinted for the camera. I managed to squeeze off a handful captures before she flew down to the deck. It's interesting how she approaches the deck in flight. She's usually a good number of feet higher than the deck when she pushes off from the tree. She dives below deck level then swoops upward as she hits the suet feeder. Never a straight line flight to the feeder, always the big dip and swooping upward to the feeder. Interesting.

Our friend didn't stay long at the feeder however. As she always does she looks all around checking to make sure its safe before she dives in. Today, something caught her attention straight off. She had a keen interest in something going on behind her back. She would stare then shift her head one side then the other then stare again. This went on for what seemed to be a minute. Something was up. Then she flat out hit a dead stare and flew to the tree she just came from. We ran to the window opposite and found a flock of what must have been 200 ducks. They were circling about 150 feet to the north, her back. She apparently saw the sky darkened by all these ducks and didn't care for it a all. Unfortunately, they scared her enough to send her back to where she came from. We didn't see her the rest of the day. Maybe tomorrow!

A Goldfinches Best Friend

The female Goldfinches loved the Gerbera Daisies once the blossoms died on the stem. Although before they died on the stem, when the blossoms were in their prime, we would catch the females sitting and picking off the petals one by one. Anyway, the seed portion of the flower exploded with silky material carrying the seeds. The finches would carry mouthfuls of the silky material away to build their nests. By the way, if you cut these flowers and vase them in the house they last a long time.

Chickaseed

There's just a few sunflower seeds left in the dish and this Chickadee is determined to clean it out. There's more where that come from pal, eat up! When I hand fed my first Chickadee I was surprised at how soft the feet were when grasping my finger. I was expecting a sharp/prickling sensation and was amazed at how soft a touch they have.

Yippee!

Here's a happy camper! What a feast. For crying out loud.....I wanted to go over and dig in! The fall leaves blend nicely with the dish. I was at our garden center and saw these catch trays for the matching ceramic pots and thought, "Hmmmm, look at all these different color bird seed dishes." I bought about 5 different color dishes. This one worked out great for the fall.

Fly Away

Wow, look at the wing spread on that Blue Jay. Here's one of those photos I marvel at where the ability of the camera to stop the action gives us the ability to see what our unaided eye could never see. As soon as the weather moderates, in Minnesota right now we are in a deep freeze, I'm going to spend more time attempting to capture more of this kind of thing. I'm fascinated by it.

Blue Jay Arabesque

A perfect arabesque. A Blue Jay ballerina. I spent almost an entire Saturday on the deck with my camera and the birds. It payed off! Once in a while you get that special one......this is it. It's my fav.

Pondering Downy

This female Downy appears to have a lot on her mind.  Life, love and..........suet.

Male House Finch

I was at our local big box lumber store and found in the garden center this "thing" that I suppose you let vines crawl on. I looked at it and immediately thought that if I were to put this "thing" on the corner of my deck rail, the birds would love to perch on it. Do they ever like to perch on it. I'm glad I bought it. The setting sun has a quality of light about it that cannot be beat. The old photographers maxim of the light just before or after sunrise/sunset is the best light is something I can agree with.

Comfort Food

 

What can I say? Nothing like a good lie down on your dinner plate.

Time to Get Cracking

Chickadees usually take their seeds and run, finding a nearby branch to sit and crack their seed. This Chickadee saw the benefit of not utilizing the drive through method and chose to dine in.

A Beautiful Bird

A good number of people don't care for Blue Jays. I'm not one of them. They are a great bird to have around. I love their various calls. One of them is a familiar call I hear when I go out for walks in the fall. I hear the call and it announces to me that fall is here. That's my association of course. That's what makes it fun.

The Blue Jay is related to the Crow. They both are in the Corvid (Corvidae) family. Very intelligent birds. One day I watched a jay fly from the deck with a peanut. He flew off not far from the deck to an area under some mature trees. He hopped on the snow until he found just the right spot to bury the peanut. He dug his hole with his beak and peanut and then proceeded to cover the peanut with snow. The jay then hopped up to a branch of something, wild raspberry plant or something, and found an old dried leaf that was still attached to the vine. He grabbed the leaf and struggled a bit to pull it off the vine. Once he pulled the leaf off, he flew down to where the peanut was. The jay placed the leaf over the peanut, pushed down on the leaf to securely place it and proceeded to push snow over the leaf. Neat!

And yes, they do remember where they put them. On another day, I watched a jay fly in from the marsh. He lit on a tree and looked down on the ground. He jumped off the branch and onto the ground. He hopped around in an area no larger than a foot. With three attempts of brushing snow aside he finally found his buried peanut and enjoyed his buried treasure up in a tree. Pretty interesting stuff.

I love how the background turned out on this one!

Death Wish

One morning as we were watching a Red Shouldered hawk we noticed a squirrel run full bore to the tree the hawk was in. Up the tree went the squirrel stopping on the trunk of the tree across from the hawk. Next thing you know the squirrel was ambling out on the limb the hawk was on, trying to get as close as he could to the hawk. He got as close as 2-3 feet. He scrambled back to the tree trunk, hid on the other side and peered over at the hawk. After that first attempt I scrambled for the camera. The squirrel was now gawking at the hawk from the other side of the trunk of the tree. Slowly the squirrel crept out on the branch and again approached the hawk, this time getting to about a foot and a half away. The squirrel now had the hawks full attention. At that foot and a half point the hawk leaned or lunged forward toward the squirrel not leaving it's perch and sent the squirrel running....the picture above.

What's so curious about this behavior is, we saw the same drama played out about 3 weeks prior to this incident. I'm uncertain what kind of behavior the squirrel was displaying. Playful, aggressive, just plain dumb? I don't know. We have plenty of squirrels in the neighborhood  and this hawk is a resident, we may see it again.

Look whos back!

The Red Shouldered Hawk is back. I took this through the bedroom window. The hawk sat for a good half hour watching and waiting.  When I first spotted this hawk I had a hard time trying to figure out what kind of hawk it was. However, this hawk was very vocal that day. So, I went up the Cornell Ornithology website with his/her voice well ingrained in my memory and found that it is the call of a Red Shouldered Hawk. A handsome bird.

Everyones Favorite Feeder

This male Red Bellied Woodpecker is spending a little time away from his favored suet feeder. I bought this sunflower seed feeder on a whim. It was on sale for $9.99 and it went home with me in my pickup. Nearly every bird that visits the deck picks seeds from this feeder. The European Starlings will have nothing to do with it (that's fine by me!) and even the Pileated Woodpecker hopped over to pick around in the catch tray on the bottom of the feeder. The Nuthatches love clinging to the screen to pick their seeds, of course they do it upside down.

Cold and Windy

It's a very cold, 5 degrees, and the wind is blowing at a sustained 20 mph. With all the trees in the backyard, this Downy, Nuthatch and Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker decide to hunker down for a while and get out of the wind. The wind is pounding the other side of the tree. The trio stayed for about 15 minutes before they started leaving one by one. Pretty neat, I'd say.

Darling Starlings.....Ah....I don't know.

"Hey, follow me! The house up the street has bite sized suet balls rolled in crushed peanuts. We'll come back here for dessert."

So, I was sitting on the deck........

......right by the rail, when six feet in front of me, I see a blur and hear a THWAP! There on the deck rail was this female Pileated Woodpecker staring me in the face! I didn't move. She sat on the deck rail for what seemed like a minute just staring at me. With a hop she launched herself onto the suet feeder about 3 feet away. I ever so slowly raised the camera from my lap and started firing. She didn't move. I still don't know why she didn't fly when she saw me move. She had to see me move. The Pileated's are very, very shy and will launch at the sight of the smallest of movement. She didn't and I was thrilled. I don't think too many people get the opportunity of being just a few feet away from one of these incredible looking birds. I'm blessed!

I'm outta here.........with a peanut!

This male Downy Woodpecker is taking wing after grabbing a peanut. Note the bug on the green dish. The bug eluded a dozen bug eating birds that came to the dish. And of course not only do the leaves tell you fall is here but the yellow jacket by the rail tells me fall is here. The yellow jacket is looking for the hummingbird feeder. It's down in the trees pal....get outta here! At this time of year the hummingbird feeders are magnets for wasps and hornets of all kinds.

I wonder if these are any good?

A male Northern Cardinal approaches a pile O' peanuts wondering if they are anything he'd be interested in. He was very interested. This guys been off in the bushes eating berries. He's got berry juice all over his beak. That's got to be good eating.......berries and peanuts.

The October Red Belly

It's late October and the sun is setting. This female Red Bellied Woodpecker catches some beautiful mottled light. I love this picture and the bird.

The Blue Fan

This Blue Jay has just hit the deck flying and taking a peanut to a hiding place. I set up shop one Saturday on the deck to photograph the birds and determined to try to capture the birds in flight. This is one of the very first of my efforts in that direction. It's fascinating how the human eye cannot capture this detail but the camera can. I'm glad it can. I'll resume my efforts this spring. As I type this it is 12 degrees below zero. I will not be making any such attempts tomorrow.

Deck Flowers

What have these got to do with birds? Well, they're on the deck where the birds feed and sometimes a Goldfinch will land on top of one.........there, that should do it. Anyway, when the action slowed with the birds I looked for things to do and this was one of them. Poke the camera under the flowers and shoot up. I think it worked. I like it.

A true peanut thief!

If you feed the birds..............you feed the squirrels. I'm not interested in purchasing bird feeders that are $150 purporting to be squirrel proof. Here's how I keep the squirrels off my feeders. I provide them what they like, peanuts and sunflower seeds. The squirrels come up on the deck and eat a few seeds and disappear. It's working for at least now. I don't mind them so much. They make me laugh. I can't laugh enough so I'm keeping them around.

Chickens!

These European Starlings were a hoot to watch this afternoon. Neither of these birds had encountered a clay dish before. They were scared to death of it. It took 3 or 4 approaches to get this close. The bird with it's beak open charged the dish, thought it had a nugget and lunged back. It soon discovered it didn't have one and once again charged the dish full bore grabbed one and flew away in a blur.

It was funny!

What the world..............?

Does this Chickadee think it's a Wren? Or what other possibilities could there be that we wouldn't care to discuss. This Chickadee is in what I call the "Hunchback" mode. This bird is displaying to another bird outside the photo that this is his seed dish and to get away! This guy isn't in full "mode" here. When they are, it's hilarious, the look pretty goofy.

Chickadee

A great place for any bird to perch. Way to go Chickadee!

Waiting Patiently

It's late summer and this old Gerbera Daisy is sporting a different kind of beautiful blossom. This female Goldfinch landed on the plants leaf to wait for a position on the finch feeder to open up. The sun is setting on another day of seed picking.

Could I get any closer?

While I was out repositioning a seed dish, this male Downy decides to land right along side me. I turned slowly and took his picture. Who needs a 500mm lens? Put a feeder on your deck!

I've got one!

Selection has been made and this happy Chickadee is about to fly. Chickadees are fun to watch. They are such little busy bodies. I've been able to hand feed them and what a thrill it is. They are so vocal and curious. When I've been out walking the trails I've had Chickadees follow me down the trail. A great bird to have around.

The Blue Rainbow

Say what you will about the Blue Jay. They are beautiful birds. It's a late fall afternoon and filtered sunlight is shining on this jay. It's taken some time, but the Blue Jays have finally warmed up to me. The jays make a funny communicating call between themselves when they arrive in the trees around the deck, it sounds like chimps chattering. I laugh out loud every time I here it. The Blue Jay actually has quite an array of calls. Some very interesting. The have a hawk call that is quite impressive.......then they can turn around and sound like a monkey.