Lots of things to catch up on here…lack of blogging activity does not mean lack of birding activity!
First of all, we must add another bird to the sightings by the bay: the mourning dove. We’ve got one dove that likes to hang around and has found the feeder. She has a very distinctive, blobby silhouette. Here she is:
Next, a few weeks ago Mark and I spotted some wild turkeys walking around through someone’s yard! We were on our way to the VASA pathway, a fantastic local ski trail, and made a detour to observe these wonderful, iridescent birds. There were about eight of them out for an afternoon stroll. As a bonus, we captured another mourning dove on top of the bird feeder (we didn’t notice that until later, when we looked at the pictures).
Then recently, I made an amazing discovery: a Wild Birds Unlimited store, right near our house! My friend Kimberli, of the previously-mentioned binocular-viewing tip, told me about it. I went straight there and purchased a suet feeder with room for two bricks. The Wild Birds store person even gave me one of the suets, in honor of my birthday (so nice!). Mark was a bit dismayed when I got home, though, because I had inadvertently spoiled his plans of surprising me with Wild Birds Unlimited merchandise for my b-day. So instead he surprised me by putting up the suet feeder. Only problem was, nobody saw it!
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| Wrong place for the suet feeder? |
After a few weeks, I finally noticed the nuthatch pecking away. He was on the tree, eating from the back of the feeder. Shortly after that, the red-bellied woodpecker discovered it. He makes so much noise pecking that you can hear it from inside the house. I guess he has to, as it is pretty well frozen!
Not so bad of a place after all.
Here is our frozen bay:
…and the mountains that are growing at the water’s edge with every storm:
The bay is always interesting…different every day.
So I went over to Kimberli’s house and got to add another bird to my list: the pileated woodpecker! We saw three of them, actually, at the feeders and on the tree. At one point they were artfully displayed on each side of the tree in lovely woodpecker symmetry. Of course by the time I got my camera, they had all moved.
Still, I managed to get this shot:
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| Maybe a better hanging style for the suet feeder. |
In other news, this article appeared in our local paper, verifying my bald eagle i.d. (and Randy, thanks for the confirmation…I just saw your reply the other day!).
But let’s save the biggest news for last. Since Mark was foiled in his Wild Birds Unlimited birthday bonanza plans, he decided to go in another birding direction, and got me…
drum roll, please…
THIS!
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Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
(extended zoom point-and-shoot) |
So just for comparison, let’s have a look at the best I can do with my trusty Lumix, zooming in all the way:
Then let’s have a look at the Canon, which I’m not even sure I zoomed in all the way:
By then the bird had changed, but you get the idea.
And when we crop from there, we get THIS:
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| Another one of the chickadee, just 'cause I can! |
Here's the reason I can get these shots:
WOW! I am in bird camera heaven!
