Nature Photography through a Window

My office window provides a great vantage point of our back yard and I’ve cleaned it so that sometimes I can get good pictures just steps way from where I write this blog. The deer wonder through

And the squirrels are active in the yard.

They climb up the sycamore or the steps to get to the deck if I have seed in a bowl in addition to the squirrel-proof feeder. It is surprising how fast they discover the seed in the bowl!

But I enjoy trying to capture images of birds. There have been some successes this past month. The dove sat for a very long time on the roof of our covered deck that is visible from my window. It was cold day but that was a sunny spot.

The cardinal sometimes shares the seed bowl with others…and sometimes chases them away but he doesn’t stay long so the others get their share.

The female cardinal seems to need water more often than seed!

The titmice come as a pair.

The blue jays sometimes come from water but they often move so fast that there is not time to even get the camera turned on. This one sat for a few more seconds than usual!

For the Birds

Earlier this week I noticed that the bird bath on our deck railing was frozen when a dove tried to get a drink, failed and then proceeded to slide across the ice while two cohorts watched. It was time to put out the heated bird bath – of the changes we make to the deck for the birds in winter. The ring that is attached to our deck was purchased with the bowl we use in summer quite a few years ago and I was pleased to find a heated bowl that was exactly them size last fall.

Our bird feeder is full but there are a lot of foods in the woods and gardens now so we don’t have as many visitors as we will later in the season.

I put seed in a bowl sometimes since the feeder doesn’t work well for the larger birds (cardinals and doves) and sometimes even the small birds prefer the bowl. Once a squirrel discovers it the bowl empties very quickly so we try to chase them off. The chipmunks are fun to watch.

On the afternoon after I filled the bowl with seeds I saw a male cardinal, juncos, a nuthatch and a chickadee…we were fast enough chasing off the squirrel for them to still get their treat.

Our deck is ready for the birds of fall and winter!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 11, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Exploring Vermont's Ancient Roads - (abstract of an article in The New Yorker: Where the Roads have No Name) Studying history through roads - some long abandoned but still ‘on the books.’

The oceans can’t take any more: Fundamental change in oceans predicted - A study that focused on the impact of climate change (specifically atmospheric CO2 increases) is likely to have on the oceans….it is not a ‘good news’ story.

Trails Win Big in Florida's 2015-16 State Budget - Hurray! This is important for Floridians and tourists that enjoy the outdoors in the state.

How did milk become a staple food? - Milk became the ‘super food’ of the early 1900s. This article provides the historical background for this ascendance.

Water usage for fracking has increased dramatically, study shows - And most of the water for fracking is disposed of deep underground, removing it from the water cycle. In areas of the world where water is already a problem - why would anyone want to take water out of the water cycle?

Rosetta's Comet Is Developing Giant Sinkholes before Our Eyes - Lots of changes to observe…and Rosetta is in position to do it.

The Best Places to See 10 Iconic American Animals - Bald Eagles, bison, gray wolf, moose, mountain goat, pronghorn, black bear, alligator, wild turkey, northern cardinal - oh my!

The traits that make human beings unique - Many traits once believed to be uniquely human have been found in the animal kingdom…what defines us?

These are the Minerals That Give Fireworks Their Colors - A follow-up to fourth of July!

A Satellite's First Look at Earth Has a Stunning Photo of the Sahara - An image from the second of six Sentinel missions to track land use, vegetation stress, soil and water cover…and for imagery needed for emergency response. There is a lot of information we need to guide our actions to sustain the planet.

Waking Up to Bird Song

I like waking up with the birds rather than an alarm clock. Of course - that means that I am waking up a bit earlier as the days gets longer since the birdsong occurs before dawn!

Somehow even with the house closed and air conditioned…and a ceiling fan turning lazily…I still hear the birds. There is forest behind our house and three trees in the front which provide ample places for birds to proclaim their presence in the world!

Surely in the days before air conditioning, most people woke up with the birds. It was impossible not to. Who could sleep through all that joy! Now we think of children sleeping later in the summer but that was not the case 50 years ago. When I think back to my childhood, it seems like most everyone I knew was a ‘morning’ person. The early morning was the best time of day to get physical work done too - before it got too hot.

I’ve stayed a morning person and I naturally wake up early…the timing this time of year is linked to the birds!

Brookside Gardens Birds

My walk around Brookside Gardens last weekend offered more than the usual opportunities to photograph birds. The day was chilly and a little breezy….but full of sun and an improvement over prior days. The birds were active.

The robins were the easiest to photograph because of their numbers and their interest in searching through leaves and grass for edibles. It was possible to get close enough for the camera zoom to do the rest. This bird had just stopped his searching temporarily to survey the surroundings…eyeing me with suspicion.

The cardinal was singing a spring song in the tulip poplar. I appreciated my monopod for this shot - and that the breeze paused momentarily.

This mourning dove was walking around the bed of sprouting bulbs looking for nesting material. In the instant after this picture was taken, the bird flew away with the piece of straw in its beak.

There were lots of these black birds (in the trees, in the bushes, on the grass) but I haven’t quite identified them. The tail seems short for a common grackle. They eye is yellow so that rules out a cowbird or starling…and there is not red shoulder patch for it to be a red winged blackbird. Hmmm.

March Birds

March has been a colder than usual this year. Some of the bird activity seems to be happening with about the usual timing in spite of the cold. The robins have become more numerous - on the lawn, scratching around the leaf litter in the garden and at the edge of the forest, gobbling worms in the street and driveway when it rains.

We have pairs of doves and cardinals that we see from our windows frequently; they must be nesting nearby.

One day at Belmont there seemed to be swallows everywhere - staking out the blue bird boxes (hopefully there will be blue birds that get some of them but it seems that the swallows arrived first).

Most people have kept their feeders full to help out the birds arriving in the cold. At Mt. Pleasant Farm there were lots of gold finches and a pileated woodpecker (which I was not fast enough to photograph).

The juncos that leave us for the summer are still around; I haven’t watched them closely enough in years past to remember when they leave….are we keeping them here by feeding them?