Projet FeederWatch

This Dove came to the feeder on a snowy morning with a tiny bit of sun. Their subtle beauty often becomes more visible to me in close-up shots. There are so many colours and patterns to discover, and it all is one beautiful composition. The bird looked so serene and content but also somewhat distant in this photo that it reminded me of the Mona Lisa 🙂

I took this photo at an apple orchard in Orrtanna, Pennsylvania. It was the first week of Spring, and a friend had told me there were lots of Waxwings feeding on the Crabapple trees there. I couldn’t resist going to take some photos of them as they are such beautiful birds that I don’t get to see very often. The Waxwings were so busy feeding that they didn’t even notice me there, so I was able to take lots of photos. This photo is my favorite from that day. I like the bird’s pose as it stretches to reach a crabapple above its head even though there are some right at its feet.

While driving one evening along the dam of a local lake, I was very surprised to have this young Short-eared Owl fly up from the spillway and surprise me–it was pretty late in the evening and the sun was going down. This owl as well as several others were hunting the grassy side of the spillway. I had my camera with me and this little guy allowed me to back-up and take a close-up! I wish the light would have been better as I had to shoot the image hand-held from my car with a super high ISO setting. THE BEST PART OF THIS experience was that my disabled daughter who likes to take “birding and wildlife” drives with me was able to see one of the awesome owls close-up from our wheel-chair van.

This red-winged blackbird was displaying in early spring and using my car as a blind, I captured this image through the window. I love how the tail is fanned out and those specs of reddish color on the back.

I was fortunate to get an opportunity to photograph this rare find – Leucistic Black-chinned Hummingbird, in Kerrville, TX.
Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes. (Source: Wiki)

Male Pyrrhuloxia giving me a quizzical look as I photographed him. Franklin Mountains State Park, TX

I was photographing this female Northern Cardinal when all the sudden a wind gust blew from behind her. It blew her crest forward making for a perfect “crown!”

I took this photo in the fall, we had so many red breasted nuthatches come through in a period of a couple weeks; this day there were over 6 different red breasted nuthatches and 4 white breasted moving all around me and as I was taking photos of one…another would be running around behind me or around me on posts and trees; this little bird in the photo was incredibly comfortable with me and would even land on my shoulder or on my camera lens and tap trying to see if I would hand over some peanuts it saw me feeding it (and others) earlier. Most of the large group moved through; but there are still a few that stayed behind to overwinter.

A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers made a nest in my horse pasture in 2016. Every morning I would sit near the tree with my camera on a tripod and my Kindle to read while I spent time watching them. They didn’t mind me being there at all, and I was able to photograph the family from even before they peeked out of the hole until all three chicks left the nest.

I put a half of orange out but it’s gone so soon, then i keep filling the the empty orange half with grape jelly. I get many Baltimore and Orchard Orioles show up during the spring migration. Some years a couple make this their summer home. It’s really fun to watch. I was standing in my patio door when i took this.

Two male Baltimore Orioles show dominance for food.

Saw this Eagle in a nearby tree. Got my camera ready. He started to fly away. I pointed my camera out of the sunroof and started snapping. I was able to capture this shot.

Bald Eagle flying overhead. Photo taken out of my sunroof. Nikon D810

The brown thrasher although a skulker, during winter and summer times can be seen raiding the suet areas. In feb of 2018, I had suet in that log, which many birds enjoyed. when I put it out in open, many of these big birds enjoy it well, instead of hanging in the wire mesh case.

Two Downy’s feeding on my peanut butter mixture

This lucky shot was captured in Henry County KY during early fall. This field of milo had recently been harvested and only a few isolated stalks of milo remained. This particular piece was being used by my intended target of an Eastern Phoebe that was using it as point to sally out and capture the numerous
small beetles that were hatching. During one of the phoebe’s flights out; this beautiful titmouse came out
of nowhere and struck this pose for a brief second or two. Being that I was focused on this point;I was able to get this single shot before the titmouse left and the phoebe returned shortly thereafter.This happened so fast I wasn’t even sure I got the shot at first. A little serendipity goes a long way sometimes.

A little flock of Black-capped Chickadees was foraging in the brush when this one perched for a moment with its multiflora rose hip. I took a series of shots and came away with some really cute poses of the bird with the red fruit, but this was definitely the cutest pose of all.