Pine Siskin

I am so excited! I just saw my first Pine Siskin for this year. They did not show up last year at all, so I am so pleased to see that at least one has come back. According to the Big Backyard Birdcount last year was such a mild winter that they stayed further north through the winter, so we didn't see any. This year has been a much colder winter so far, so they have come back! Yea! I do have a thistle feeder out there and I know they love thistle, but it's a very small one and not conveniently located - I will have to change that!

But not today - it is far to windy and blustery and rainy today. According to the weather guys we are in for another wild windstorm. And altough the wind hasn't started yet, the rain sure has. I did go out and fill bird feeders and the squirrel feeder and threw a little corn out. But the only reason I did that was that one of the squirrels was on one of the suet feeders. Those little critters are so smart. I bought these domes to keep the squirrels from climbing down the chains to the suet feeders and that works just fine, but this squirrel was too smart for that, he JUMPED from the fence over to the suet. It swung and swayed like everything, but he hung on and then was eating to his heart's content. The little rascal. So I had to go out and fix that right away.

While I was at it, I also changed the sugar-water in the hummingbird window feeders. I do that from inside, however. I just raise the window and reach out and pull them in. The little hummer came while I was doing that and he just helped himself to the feeder I wasn't taking down. Didn't seem to bother him that I was there at all. Then when I came back, he was still at the feeder, he flew away momentarily while I switched the feeders, but came back and started right in on the freshly filled one. I just love these little guys.

The little wren was also back this morning. He is so cute with his little perky tail. He was digging around in the dirt that I have beneath one of the planters. Right now there is just black plastic and a little dirt there, in the spring I am going to plant something there, not sure what yet, but for right now, it's a catch-all for seeds dropped from the feeder up above.

House Party

Late yesterday afternoon I was inundated with House Finches for some reason. They were everywhere - on the ground, on the feeders, all over the lilac bush, twittering, and flying about everywhere. It was quite something. I tried to take pictures, but they didn't stay still long enough. The males ranged in color from deep dark red to light yellow. They were all very pretty. It was fun watching them; I don't know what brought them all here; but I'm glad they stopped in for a visit. I always have House Finches at my feeders, just not such a large flock at one time.

Then at the very end of the day I had a real treat. The little immature male Anna's Hummingbird always comes to the feeder until it is just too dark to see anymore. And since the window feeder is his favorite, he is always just inches away from me. He seems to have become quite used to me and isn't jumpy or scared of my movements or my watching him at all. Last night I guess he got tired because this particular feeder does not have a perch so he perched on the windowsill and just sat there looking in at me - turning his little head this way and that. It was so doggone cute! I tried very hard to get a picture, but it was so dark and I'm still such a novice with this camera that I couldn't get the camera to focus on him - I think it was focusing on the window itself. But I did manage to get this one blurry, not very good shot, but it's the only one I have, so I am keeping it. Isn't he just the cutest little thing?

Thrushes, Wrens and Wind

We are having more wild weather - this time wind. On last night's news they equated it to the Inaugral Day storm, but so far not quite that bad, but I've been warily watching trees this morning, hoping none fall on my house. It's pretty scary when the wind blows 100' Douglas Fir trees like they are sticks.

Of course, it doesn't stop the birds. That pretty male Anna's hummingbird was here before it was even daylight this morning. I could see his beautiful red shiny gorget and red head from the light reflected from my office. He was just gorgeous. He was here yesterday, too, and that was the first time in a while that I have seen him. Mostly I see the little immature male and one female.

And very early this morning there were two Varied Thrushes here and they were right up here by my office window. They don't normally come that close to the house. They usually stay back under the Holly Tree like the Spotted Towhee does. But I am trying out some new bird seed and they seem to like it. It's a mix of white millet, cracked corn, striped sunflower, black oil sunflower, and sunflower chips. All the birds seem to like it, but the squirrels more or less leave it alone, so that's a real plus.

The other day, I was trying to take pictures of some Bush Tits. I just have a hard time with them because they flit around so fast - hardly stay in one place long enough to take a picture and there are so many of them in a flock that it seems like the flock is constantly in motion. But for the first time I saw them go to the seed feeders. They usually just go for the suet. So they were more or less still and I snapped quite a few pictures. I also noticed the Bewicks Wren was back. But he was here and then gone and I didn't have a chance to get a picture at all. I just love the little wrens, so I was really disappointed.

However, when I uploaded my pictures and looked at the shots I had taken of the Bush Tits in the platform feeder with the cage on top of it, lo and behold, there was the little wren in amongst the Bush Tits. And the wren was in perfect focus and the Bush Tits of course were not (as usual). I was thrilled - now I just have to get that photo editing software so I can crop and edit out the blurry parts.

With the upgraded computer, my old photo editing software will not work with Windows XP, it was an old Adobe Photo Deluxe 2000 and Adobe stopped making and supporting that in 2002, but I never upgraded because I liked it. Now I HAVE to upgrade because it simply won't work with Windows XP. But I have checked out Adobe Photo Elements and it will do all the same things and more and is similar in style to Photo Deluxe, so I shouldn't have any problems using it. Now I just have to get busy and order it! The photo editing software that came with my camera and my new computer do not have the same flexibility or capabilities - they are very simplistic and generic.

Wings

Monty has been helping me with my camera. I have been trying to get pictures of the hummingbird that comes to the window feeder. He is just inches from me and I have taken a ton of pictures - but I can never capture his wings. It really bothers me because he looks deformed in the pictures. Monty told me I need to change the shutter speed or something like that - I don't understand those things, I just want to point and shoot like I did with my film camera, but I want his wings to show. Monty played with the camera and adjusted some of the manual settings and viola - it worked - the wings showed up great, but the picture was much too dark. So now I have to ... (read more)

Missed Opportunities

I've only been birdwatching for about five years, actually trying to identify birds and keeping track of where and when I see them. Prior to that I had bird feeders and I ocassionally took pictures of birds through the years in various places we lived - Bald Eagles and Snow Ptarmagin in Alaska, Brown Pelicans in Puerto Rico, Great Blue Heron on the Olympic Peninsual, WA, an unidentified hawk at my feeders, Grey Jays at Hurricane Ridge in Washington (they eat right out of your hand). But it was just casual interest and not in any way organized. Looking back I regret all the missed opportunites. I had occasion to go back to Corpus Christi, TX recently to the ... (read more)

New Hummer

Today there was a new hummer at the feeder and she was here on and off all day long. But boy, she was a nervous little thing. She would hardly light at all, just hovered and flew around nervously. I did manage to get quite a few pictures of her, though. The little immature male did not chase her away at all. He still chased the other males away, but not her. Not sure what all that means, but he didn't bother her. You can just barely see the white in her tail feathers in this picture, but when she spread her tail when she hovered I could see them quite clearly. I took some pictures today of the little birds drinking out of the ant guard cup that I ... (read more)

Clean-up Time

The snow is gone now thank goodnes, but what a mess it left behind! Today I just could not stand looking at the mess a minute longer and I went out and raked and raked and raked and only got about 1/4 of the back yard done. But at least the weather cooperated at last. It wasn't raining or snowing and it was fairly mild. I'm not sure what the temperature was because I don't have an outdoor thermometer, but it was sweater-weather - that's all I know and care about. I love that the little Chickadees don't pay the least attention to me while I'm out there working, they just fly around me. It's so cute. It always amazes me that after I rake, the birds ... (read more)

My Little Corner of the World

I was looking at pictures of birds and reading comments on Flickr yesterday. One person commented that her computer was right beside her birdwatching window and her camera was right at hand and that's how she got some really nice bird pictures. Another person commented that she had the same set-up but added that her TV was also right there. That started me wondering - how many others of us are out there? Because that describes my little corner perfectly! My desk, my computer, my TV, my bird books, camera, and binoculars; everything I need to make my day complete. And here I sit day after day, watching those birds. One would think a person would get ... (read more)

Snow Pictures

It is far too easy to take pictures with this new digital camera. And the snow was so pretty and the animals so cute, I took a TON of pictures. I just reviewed all of them and deleted those that did not turn out well - but still there were lots that I kept. Those darn squirrels are so cute anyway, and the snow just enhanced their "cuteness." And the hummer, he was such a frequent visitor to the feeder during the snow that I just couldn't get enough of him. I especially like this shot: During the summer I had trouble with ants at one of the hummingbird feeders. So I went to my favorite bird store, Wild Birds Unlimited, and bought this little clear ... (read more)

Bird Blogs

I have been busy with my new computer and trying to learn Windows XP (which is a challenge for me since I've been using Windows 98 FOREVER). One of the things I have been doing is adding some of my favorites sites to my favorites list. Yes, I saved my favorites from my old computer, but I decided to start fresh with this computer and only add those sites that I REALLY need. I had far too many before. Of course my birding, photo and genealogy sites were the first ones that I added. This afternoon I was catching up on my favorite bird blogs. I was surprised and delighted to see that Laura Erickson's blog described a rare sighting of a ... (read more)