10 minutes with my camera - hungry birds out my window....

[NRaleighLiberal]

Last edited Sun Mar 17, 2013, 01:55 PM - Edit history (1)

no more room...Pine Siskins

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Myrtle Warbler with fleeing Chipping Sparrow



Posing Junco



Window feeder full of Pine Siskins



Pair of Myrtle Warblers



Pine Siskins looking for our cats in the window



Myrtle Warbler



Thirsty Brown Thrasher

[alfredo]

1. Very good images.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. It is so much fun to watch birds at the feeders.

I spend hours wasting time like that. You certainly had a fruitful 10 minutes!

Is that last picture a Wood Thrush?

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. indeed! Brown Thrasher - just labeled all of the pics.

We also have Purple and House finch, Pine Warbler, Goldfinch, Carolina Wren, Bluebirds, Cardinals, Titmice and Chickadees, which didn't make the photo cuts.

Warm weather has them all singing and flocking and eating us out of house and home! They empty the two tube feeders and both suet cakes dailly. Most common of all are the Siskins and, surprised to find, Myrtle Warblers.....hoping that the Rose Breasted Grosbeak appears soon (they hung around for quite awhile last year!)

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Such a different variety than I get.

I have tons of birds, but not the same ones---well, not all the same ones. I hope your Rose Breasted Grosbeaks show up soon...they are lovely birds. I usually have one pair show up here just for one day---and I don't always see them since the visit is so brief and I am at work most of the day.

I have never had a Bluebird show up here, or Pine Warblers. House Finches used to be the most common (after the House Sparrows), but I see few anymore.

Enjoy.

[csziggy]

9. Bluebirds are not seed eaters

To get them at a feeder you need to have meal worms. To attract them to your yard you need to put up a nest box and a water source, such as a bird bath, will attract them close enough to watch and get photos. That's how I got this shot:


Right now here (Tallahassee, FL) we have flocks of goldfinches just getting their summer plumage and chipping sparrows, titmice, chickadees, and cardinals. Since I put out the woodpecker blend with nuts and fruit the red bellied woodpeckers and white breasted nuthatches stop by. And I've seen one indigo bunting that is just starting to get his summer feathers.

The goldfinches will head north soon and I'll have to see who comes by over the summer.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. Oh, they are darling! What a lovely picture!

I have goldfinches here in PA all winter---the feeder is very popular with them, they are one of my most regular visitors in the winter in large numbers. I have not seen any getting summer plumage yet, but it will be very soon.

[csziggy]

11. Thank you - that's a favorite of mine

In the old house I took the screen off the window facing the bird bath and kept my camera on the desk. With the bird bath only about ten feet away from the window I could get lots of shots of birds in the bath or on the branches above it.

The bluebird pic is part of a series. These two were immature, still had a few fuzzy feathers. They had two or three other siblings and all would come and have a good splash in the bath, pretty much emptying it every time. I took photos of them over a couple of days when the light was good.

I have another set which is a good concept but not as good a picture, with a bluebird, a cardinal and a goldfinch all on the bath at the same time. I may turn that into a needlework. The photos don't work since the lighting wasn't good and the goldfinch was in his winter plumage so was a muddy greenish color.

Another day the bath was invaded by cedar waxwings and I have a bunch of pictures of them. That was the only time I ever got waxwings come like that so I was lucky the light was good that day.

Here before the goldfinches get the full summer plumage they head north. Usually they still have some greenish patches when they leave so we never get to see their best color. But it's fun to watch them moult. Maybe next year I'll set up my camera on the desk and try to get pics of them as they change colors.

[Curmudgeoness]

12. Goldfinches sure are awkward looking during the moult.

A little patch of bright yellow, with drab coloring and a shaggy look elsewhere. I can't wait to see that here. At least I am lucky enough to see the beauty of the summer plumage....although they will only come in low numbers once nesting starts.

I will have to try to get some photos of my birds, but that will have to wait until after the winter weather is gone and I can wash those horrid windows!

[csziggy]

13. I wish I had gotten a pic of the coolest one in moult

For a few days he had bright yellow epaulets with a stripe of yellow down the middle of his back. Most of the others were just a patchy mess, so this one with the distinctly symmetrical coloring stood out.

Now most of the adult males have nearly all their yellow color though some still don't have their black caps completely clear of the drab feathers.

[RILib]

19. most every summer

One or two birds who visit my feeders has a moult where all the head feathers go at once

[Curmudgeoness]

22. Oh, the horrid looking Blue Jays!

I see that the most in Blue Jays at my feeder, and those bald black heads look so bad. The first time I saw that, I was freaking out about what disease it had!

[RILib]

32. me too :-)

The cardinals do it also.

[NRaleighLiberal]

20. bluebirds go nuts over the peanut suet cake we put out.....

[csziggy]

29. They're probably going more for the suet than the peanuts

And they might eat some of the peanuts, too. But for the most part bluebirds eat insects and worms, not seed and nuts.

[postulater]

4. Nice pics,

we still have multi-inches of snow.

But goldfinches are turning color, early ducks are coming through, Red-Wing blackbirds are starting to arrive and was a great blue heron last week.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

6. Lovely!

I actually mowed my darn lawn today! (mostly clover - LOL!) - but it looked too long & shaggy so I mowed.

Spring's a comin'

[freshwest]

7. What a wonderful home you have and thanks so much for sharing these beauties with us.

You are a good person to take the time to feed all those lovely songbirds. Where I live we don't see the birds up close, but I do hear them.

Mornings here are usually greeted with the sound of seagulls, later in the day a bit of cooing from pigeons and crows. Not these smaller birds, whose songs are so sweet.

I have a CD of bird songs loaded on my iMac that I play at times in the summer as the sun comes up and sometimes it draws these little ones to respond. I miss hearing the birds in the trees.

When I lived out on the prairie, we were greeted by the song of the meadow larks and the morning doves with their low notes, that remind me so much of my youth. I'm betting these birds sing a little bit to brighten your day.

[Solly Mack]

8. Birds!

Love your Brown Thrasher!

Thank you!

lol! Just look at the Siskin checking the kitty out. He got a full stretch in...

[DrewFlorida]

14. Nice pics, thanks for posting.

[OnyxCollie]

15. Very nice pics.

I tried to take pics of birds feeding this winter, but any move towards the window scared them away.

I did manage to take a pic of a bird I've rarely seen here in NE Ohio. Do you know what it is?
[IMG][/IMG]

[NRaleighLiberal]

16. hi! either a female Goldfinch, or a male in his winter clothes!

[OnyxCollie]

26. I didn't realize the males' color changed that much.

This is a pic that I took in the summer of one feeding off the sunflowers I planted.

[IMG][/IMG]

[NRaleighLiberal]

27. we are a few weeks away from the mixed males showing up - patches of bright yellow

mixed into the dull gray green. Very cool! Off with the winter wear, on with the summer!

[NRaleighLiberal]

17. Hey! My birds are "cool"! Thanks, Skinner!

[Curmudgeoness]

23. Don't go getting a big head about this.

That is the last thing we need, Mr. Tomato Head.

Glad you made the cut.

[NRaleighLiberal]

24. Me? Never!

I relish my relative anonymity around here (or so I think I am?)

[awoke_in_2003]

18. Great pics. nt

[shenmue]

21. Beautiful

Really cute boids!!

[Cleita]

25. Lovely, damn I miss my bird feeders, but

I had to take them down on account of my evil cat and the hawks going after the smaller birds.

[FlaGranny]

34. My one attempt

at a bird feeder resulted in a scene from "The Birds." I had several hundred, perhaps close to a thousand blackbirds (mostly grackles) show up that practically covered every roost within a half block. The hair stood up on the back of my neck when I saw them. No pretty little birds showed up. I took down the feeder.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

28. Everyone here thought a bird feeder would bring something exotic....

Pigeons,....as in, a flock of fifty empties the bird feeder in five minutes.

[JDPriestly]

30. Thanks. Great pictures.

[midnight]

31. Enjoyed all these photos-thank you for sharing...

[Iwillnevergiveup]

33. Beautiful photos all!

I've got 6 suet cake feeders out, and my sparrows, 2 blue jays and wrens love them. But when the weather warms up, I bring them in and put them in the freezer overnight. Extras stay in there too since they will melt even if the packaging says otherwise.

Thank you for posting these.

[marions ghost]

35. great photos

You inspired me to post my one recent birding experience with my birder sister going to see the Northern Lapwing in Roxboro NC ( Lots of other birds on that pond--many).

[Aerows]

36. Pretty voices

in that group