Thursday birds and boys…
Northern cardinals or Arizona Cardinals?
Ah, something special is in the air, friends! It’s that time of year again when my favorite birds change from bluebirds and goldfinches to Ravens, Falcons, Seahawks, and even Eagles. Yep, it’s NFL season again, and it all starts tonight in Pittsburgh! Now we don’t go ballistic on football in our house mind you (the TV is hardly ever on anyway), but we do catch at least one of the games each week. Then in February, my wife does a mean, family Super Bowl party! Check out our picture from last year…my how folks have grown!
The boys are gearing up for football season, too…tackles and tickles abound right now! Slick in the back there is a big fan of the New York Giants for some reason, while yours truly of course is a long-time (back to the Staubach era) Dallas Cowboys fan. The Chargers and Panthers rate high in our house as well.
By the way, I was experimenting some with the camera earlier this week and got this interesting black and white effect that still kept some green in it…fun, huh?
Hey, who put this brown thrasher picture in here?! We’re all about football today…well, football and maybe some sweet potatoes. Yikes, what happened here? Little man doesn’t seem too concerned, though. He must be thinking about Dallas crushing the Bucs this weekend in Tampa. Me, too! Dave
Attracting goldfinches with thistle socks
Greetings, and welcome back everyone! What’s been going on for us lately in the backyard is goldfinches! We hadn’t had much of them throughout the summer, but we recently made a feeding change that has really helped…check it out below.
We’ve traditionally used one of the thistle socks that you get can at the bird stores or even Wal-Mart, but the problem has always been that the seed gets wet and rots before it’s gone. Then it stinks and bye-bye go the gorgeous goldfinches. Well, this time around, I rigged up little rain shield, and it has made a huge difference!
Now the thistle seed is staying dry and the goldfinches have been loving it! Fresh thistle seed is important, but dry thistle seed is even more crucial. We’ve had several on there at a time, and the seed has been going down at a crazy pace! Watching these beautiful birds from the kitchen window is one of my wife’s favorite things right now. We’ve even seen them out there under the dome in a rainstorm…happily eating the dry seed and staying dry themselves!
This morning, “Hoover” showed up again. That’s my name for any of the mourning doves because they inhale our seed at an incredible rate…like the Hoover vacuum cleaners, get it? Our oldest son really likes these birds though. He’s named this one “Mourny.”
We also had a cool tree frog show up yesterday on our garage. Looks like he’s napping, but really he’s hanging on the wall (I rotated the picture to make it fit horizontally, but really it’s supposed to be vertical).
So what’s going on with the family, you ask? Well, we started our first day of second grade homeschool on Tuesday, so Tuesday night was a school kick-off celebration complete with root beer floats! Yum!
The more you wear on your face the better the experience! The little man (below) is doing well, too. He’s nine months now and workin’ on his fourth tooth. Here he is right after a bath and bidding you bird watchers a fond farewell. Have a great weekend, everyone! Dave
The promised bluebird video, but…
Yes, today I will finally give you all the details and even the video, but I must confess that I am not proud of what I will be sharing with you today. It represents an act of very poor judgment on my part that thankfully turned out okay but could have had disastrous results. I expect many of you will be angry after seeing the video below. Please watch, but then I ask you to also read what follows after…
There’s no way around it…what I did here was mean and cruel. It was wrong, and I ask your forgiveness. Please know that my intent was not to harm any of the bluebirds at all. They were ready for fledging, but the way in which I got them to leave the nest was self-serving and no doubt traumatic to both parents and fledglings.
If you’ve followed the blog for any time, you know that we truly adore these birds. I only did what I did because I knew they were due to fly at any time, and this would allow us to “see” the moment. The idea came from seeing the way they fledged earlier this summer when a real snake in the grass approached the box and mama blue sounded the alarm. Also, I never intended for any of us to ever hold one of the birds. Only when the one landed in the grass did I realize what an awful thing I’d done, and we started trying to herd him to safety. He kept hopping away into open parts of the yard where he’d be vulnerable to our neighbors’ cats, so I finally picked him up. At that point, I figured my son should at least be able to hold him briefly. After a few minutes of awe and wonder mixed with my regret and a fellow mother’s appropriate outrage, we set him high into a tree where his sibling had already landed. Then we watched him slowly make his way higher and higher up to safety. The third nestling in the video flew to safety as well, just a few seconds after I stopped recording.
Well, that’s a lot to digest, and again I’m very sorry to betray your trust. Definitely leave your comments below, and may no one who sees this video follow my poor example! Dave
Two bluebirds fledge…one lands in the grass!
Finally my friends, I give you the much anticipated Heiser bluebird fledging experience! For now I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, then I’ll come back and explain everything on Monday or Tuesday…plus show you the video. In the meantime, a picture is worth a thousand words…enjoy! Dave
Gorgeous Steller’s Jay pictures!
We interrupt this week’s bluebird fledging video project to bring you these beauties from Dave Bertram, a co-worker of mine here at the TV station. Dave recently visited Mount San Jacinto State Park near Palm Springs, California and saw these stunning black and blue birds all over the place! For a long time they were too fast, but at the end of the day, one finally landed close by and posed for a quick picture. Wow!
Neither one of us knew what bird it was, so we researched online and discovered that, as we all know by now, it is in fact a Steller’s Jay. What a cool bird! Dave rightly suggested that it could be the official bird of the Carolina Panthers, the local NFL team for us here in NC (they also sport the black and light blue colors). Thanks, Bertram!
And to update our earlier bluebird endeavor, we have success! The fledging was indeed captured on video and I have some amazing pictures to show you! I will even go so far as to say that you truly (and I REALLY mean this) can’t imagine what I’m going to show you…I can’t hardly believe it myself. Dave
Bluebird video plans and another bird quiz…
We’ve got something exciting brewing this week here at ye olde bird blog…it’s bluebird fledging time again, and I think I’ve come up with a way to guarantee we capture the first flights on video! Stay tuned, but in the meantime, let’s have a little bird quiz…
The Carolina wren up above is
A. attempting to lay an egg on our deck rail with no nest,
B. sitting in front of a hair dryer just out of view, OR
C. demonstrating the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for my crazy bluebird video plan.
This male cardinal is upset about
A. this morning’s meager food offerings,
B. how faded the red seed plate has become, OR
C. his choice to fly into our bleach washing of the deck this past weekend.
This otherwise friendly little chickadee is a serious threat right now because
A. it has a fierce look on its face,
B. it has extraordinarily sharp feet, OR
C. it got into some laxatives that spilled outside our recycling bin. Oops!
“Dave, what in the world are you up to, and why do I get the feeling I should be afraid?”
Carolina wrens and my musings on moths…
Haven’t had much time or energy for the birds this week, so today’s blog is mostly pictures. This Carolina wren shot from Saturday morning is my favorite. All the different shades of brown set against a dark green background make for a really nice contrast…not that I can take any credit for the composition, though. This was my only angle shooting from our inside back door. I love that white “eyebrow” on the Carolina wrens!
Mister wren was not on the deck rail for very long before hopping over to the grill. That’s where our wrens go for their favorite food we supply…moths. We leave a light on at night, so all sorts of moths are there for the taking the next morning (kind of a bird buffet). Moths, of course…not the smartest of God’s creatures. This bright orange (and fuzzy-faced) moth decided to hide itself on our black grill cover…not the best choice. Still, it amazes me that something this short-lived and destined for consumption was created this beautiful…
And “beautiful” could be a seamless transition into a myriad of pictures…my wife, a sunset, Mt. Rainier…but today it leads us to Mrs. Bluebird. I always think of the word “elegant” when I see female bluebirds. Their color is muted which leads to that classy, understated elegance…great bird! By the way, we have three nestlings in our box right now and one unhatched egg. I haven’t been a very diligent landlord lately, so I missed my chance to get the egg out. Now it’s buried under one of the little ones, and I’m afraid it would damage somebody to take it out now (the nestlings are about eight or nine days old I think). If it cracks, we’re in for ant trouble…
Well I thought today’s blog would be mostly pix, but it ended up being a lot of writing, too. Here’s a Carolina chickadee and tufted titmouse to end on…classic visitors to the Heiser deck and fun favorites as well! Hope it’s not too hot wherever you’re at today. Here in Carolina it’s another scorcher…going for the century mark again today (though overall the summer has been fairly mild). Bye! Dave
Hummingbird pictures and photography tips
I’m definitely not a professional photographer, just an amateur who enjoys the hobby with a little Canon Powershot A620. That said, here’s a quick case study in hummingbird photography…
Picture one (above)…nice shot, relatively crisp for my camera (I’m shooting through a glass door about six feet away without a tripod), but the angle is bad. Too much leafage competing with the hummingbird, and we miss the gorgeous lake water almost entirely.
All right, picture two (above) taken a few seconds later…better angle here for sure. We get more of the lake and the hummer stands out a lot more. His green and the blue water go nicely together. I’d love to keep some more of the dark leaves up at the top but just couldn’t get them in. Of course, we’d like to see your face there, Mr. Ruby-throat!
Picture three (up above still)…same bird, just a few more seconds later. Yes! We have a hummingbird profile! Very nice of him to cooperate for us, but his electric throat is not lit up! I can’t use a flash right up against the window, so I keep waiting and praying…turn your head. Turn your head, little guy!
Picture four…now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Some bright red ruby-throat action! Most hummingbirds I’ve watched fly in and out pretty quickly, but occasionally you’ll get one that stops and drinks awhile. This male just sat there and perched…guarding the territory no doubt, but I’m thankful he stayed so long. We even got a little boat wake and shoreline in the background to break up the blue a little. Not professional but good enough for me! Dave
Bluebirds and butterflies
Morning everyone! Today’s pictures are from a recent trip to my parents’ house at Lake Gaston, NC. My mom loves gardening, so there’s always an abundance of beautiful flowers and therefore butterflies. I’m pretty sure this is a tiger swallowtail on a lantana bush.
They also have a bluebird box similar to ours, but they hadn’t peeked inside recently…
So of course we peeked together and found out they have four eggs! This will be their second round of bluebirds this summer.
Mama bluebird is so pretty. My folks also have lots of ruby-throated hummingbirds at their place. I haven’t gotten any good close-ups recently, but I did get this picture looking down from their deck. This hummer’s a plump little guy!
After reading this month’s Birds and Blooms magazine on hummingbirds, I’m hoping to get one to land on my finger sometime. Now that would be a fun picture to show you! Dave
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