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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 ... (read more)

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 ... (read more)

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 ... (read more)

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)

New Computer

I have a new computer, bigger, better, faster than my old, 7 or 8 year old computer with Windows 98. I am happy to be upgrading; I have been somewhat frustrated with the old computer. On the other hand, I am QUITE frustrated with the new computer. I guess I'm used to the old way of doing things; after using Windows 98 for so many years, Windows XP is totally foreign to me - I think this is going to be a slow learning curve. Is this because I'm no longer in the work force and not exposed to all the new technology. I just sit at home and watch my birds, take pictures, do my genealogy, and I think I have more or less let technology pass me by. This is not good. ... (read more)

Be Careful What You Wish For

Remember the adage, be careful what you wish for, you might get it. We complained about the rain; wanted it to go away and guess what? It did. And since then we've had snow and icy cold weather for days and we don't like it one little bit. I'd take the rain any day over this stuff. We here in the Pacific Northwest are not supposed to have this kind of wintery weather; we have MILD winters; that's why we live here. I guess we are in for it this year as it is cold, cold, cold and this snow is just not melting. The hummingbird feeders were frozen solid this morning. I brought them in and defrosted them and filled them with warm, freshly-made sugar-water and ... (read more)

More Snowy Day

The little hummer stayed near the feeder all day today. He chased all the other hummers away; I hope they had another source for food because he was VERY territorial and wasn't sharing! However, it was very cold and the feeder kept trying to freeze up all day. One time when I went out to check it, it burst open in my hand. I had to quickly find another feeder. I put out the "Texas" hummingbird feeder, but for some reason the hummer just doesn't like that one very much. So I put the window feeder back up and he used that the rest of the day. It was kind of nice having him coming right to the window like that. I tried to get pictures, but he's ... (read more)

The Snowy Day

The little hummer made it through another cold night - he was here bright and early for his breakfast. Unfortunately, the sugar-water froze during the night and he just buzzed around and finally lit on a branch til I figured out what the problem was. Then I trounced out in my bathrobe and as quickly as possible unfroze it and put fresh sugar-water in it. All the while I was doing this, he was buzzing around waiting. As soon as I got it filled and put back into position, there he was, drinking his fill. I also had to de-ice the bird bath and knock all the snow off the feeders and throw more seed down on the ground. This last snow covered everything, even ... (read more)

Snow, snow go away . . .

Today was beautiful and sunshiny and I thought all the snow would melt. It was cold but the snow seemed to be melting. I went out and cleaned the snow off of all the feeders, dumped out all the wet seeds and put out fresh and I spread plenty on the ground where there wasn't any snow for the ground feeders. The birds were busy all day long and I was happy to see the little hummer made it through the night and was busy all day long at the feeder. But now it is snowing again and it is just coming down in sheets, the roads and the yard are already covered over and all the tracks in the snow left by me and the animals today are filled in, the yard is a blanket ... (read more)

SNOW!!

We had snow today! We don't get a lot of snow here in Seattle, and usually not this early in the year, so I was surprised to wake up to snow this morning. The snow was predicted for higher elevations, but that usually passes us by. The poor birds and squirrels were scrambling everywhere looking for food. I had to go out in the snow and put down some seeds and peanuts under the trees where the snow doesn't accumulate. This poor little hummer looked frozen, I'm so glad my feeders are there for him - he kept up a steady pace all day preparing for the cold night . Here's a picture of the backyard and all the feeders from earlier today.  It is ... (read more)

Wild Weather

We had some wild weather yesterday which I happened to get caught in while driving home on I-5 from a doctor visit. We had torrential rain, wind, thunder, lightning and HAIL. It was not fun driving in that. We so seldom get thunder and lightning that it was kind of a shock. A transformer on Queen Anne apparently got struck and knocked out power there and a man in Snohomish got struck - he is fine but it knocked him 7' away from his truck. Pretty scary stuff. We have also broken the record for the most rain ever recorded in a single month. Whoopee. And it's still raining. In fact I went out today and cleaned bird feeders in the rain. They are a mess with all ... (read more)

Squirrel Proof Planters

More rain again today - when will it ever stop? At least yesterday we had periods of sunshine. I had time to finish planting all my tulip bulbs. I had to invent a way to keep the squirrels out of my pots, but still allow the bulbs to receive light and water and be able to grow. I searched all the garden supply catalogs and couldn't find anything like that, so I devised my own and so far it seems to be working. I went to Lowes and bought a roll of netting used to protect fruit trees from birds. I cut pieces to fit over the top of the pots and tightened them down with rubber bands on some pots and binder clips on others. It's keeping the squirrels from burying ... (read more)

Rain, Rain Go Away

We are about to break a record for the most rain ever recorded in a single month - EVER! Even those of us born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and who love the rain are tired of all this rain. We just want it to stop and go away. This morning the sun is actually shining for a change, but I'm not sure how long that will last. The poor birds, I didn't even venture outside yesterday to fill the feeders. It was just plain nasty all day yesterday. Fortunately there are a couple of feeders that are still well stocked with sunflower seeds, so the birds won't go without! Last week, I noticed that one of the squirrels has a problem eye. I cannot tell if the eye ... (read more)

Squirrel-Go-Round

The squirrels have stolen one of the arms of the Squirrel-Go-Round corn feeder. I went to Wild Birds Unlimited where Monty purchased the feeder and asked if they could sell me a replacement arm. They explained that although they used to be able to do that, Heritage Farms now prefers that customers call them directly; there is usually no charge, but customers have to call them. So today I did that. The lady I talked to in Customer Service did not seem at all surprised that the squirrels had stolen one of the arms. In fact she recommended that when I received the new arm (at no cost btw) that I rubber cement it in place! She also recommended that until I ... (read more)

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