I am appreciating the view from my office window more this year than ever before…it is a great view of the natural world. We’ve seen wild turkeys twice (no pictures!) and one evening 9 deer came through (usually we see 2-4 at a time). There are the usual critters that I almost always manage to photograph: the finches, crows, white-breasted nuthatch, a pair of cardinals,
The squirrels,
The mourning doves,
The red-bellied woodpecker, and
The Carolina wrens.
The birds that we only have around during the winter are the dark-eyed juncos,
The red-bellied nuthatch,
The white-throated sparrow,
And the red-winged blackbirds. We have the red-winged blackbirds near the neighborhood pond in the other seasons, but they don’t venture to our forest and feeder except in the winter or during migration. They are almost too heavy for the feeder, so they don’t get enamored with what it provides.
The view from the window – the forest, the bird feeder and bath, the winter yard…the best in the house.
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.
What’s That Cloud? Your Guide to Cloudspotting – A little tutorial. Maybe a prompt to do some cloud photography too.
This white paint keeps surfaces cooler than surroundings, even under direct sunlight -- ScienceDaily – I remember being at White Sands National Park on a hot day and walking on the sand barefoot (i.e. the sand was not hot!). Hopefully the architectural norms will begin to shift toward white roofs and then durable paints/shingles will be readily available to make it affordable. The heat islands of cities would be reduced…which could be helpful now and an increasing benefit as climate change continues.
Google Maps Gets More Electric-Car Friendly – Android Auto (not the phone app) adding features.
Top 25 birds of the week: Land-birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy bird images!
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touches asteroid -- ScienceDaily – We went down to Florida for the launch back in 2016 so I try to at least scan articles with updates. The sample is now safely stored away and will be heading back to Earth…arriving in 2023.
Why older people are harder to vaccinate - BBC Future – What vaccines can do…what they might not do. For example – did you know that the flu vaccine reduces disease but does not do much to reduce transmission because a vaccinated person can still shed virus particles?
Black Witch Moths: A Night-Time Trick or Treat – Because it’s Halloween….it will be a very quiet one this year with the regular form of trick-or-treating called off in our area.
The rats evicted from paradise - BBC Future – A positive result for humans correcting a problem we caused….only able to succeed because of the resilience of nature (and because we corrected before it was too late for recovery).
Flowers Are Changing Color in Response to Climate Change | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Adjusting UV pigmentation to protect themselves (rising temperatures/thinning ozone)…maybe confusing pollinators.
Nature Nerd Trivia: Wild Canids – Dog relatives from around the world.
Firsts for the season at our deck. We saw our first Dark-eye Junco for the season. A small flock has spent the winter in our area – frequently visiting our feeder – for many years. We think they go to the Appalachians/Alleghenies for the rest of the year rather than the far north.
I finally managed to get a picture of a Red-breasted Nuthatch enjoying the seed spilled under our feeder. There were other times recently that I thought I saw one but was never fast enough with my camera.
Hawai’i Island Festival of Birds Swag pack arrived. It took more than 10 days for the small envelope to get from Hawai’i to Maryland. I don’t know for sure how long it took because there was no postmark. I will use the field notebook (upper left, a nice fit for one of my photo vest pockets) and the magnet (lower right) is already on our refrigerator to remind us of the virtual festival…and we’ll sign up to go to the festival when it is held ‘in person’!
Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….
Here are the unique activities for yesterday:
Baking a carrot cake. There is plenty of time to cook these days – a special dessert is always welcome. I opted for a variation of a recipe I found online…with some modifications:
Whole wheat flour rather than white
Heaping teaspoon of cinnamon
½ cup less sugar since I was using applesauce and sweetened coconut
No pineapple and since I didn’t have the juice I used a tablespoon on lemon juice and then added water to make 1/2 cup liquid
No nuts
No frosting
Made cupcakes rather than a larger cake (We enjoyed cupcakes right out of the oven with butter, later with orange marmalade or ginger preserves…or reheated with butter). I had enough batter left to make a small sheet cake we will probably freeze for later.
Noticing that the Dark Eyed Juncos are gone. I looked back at our birdfeeder camera and the last day they were recorded at the feeder was 4/6. Last year they left around the same time. In 2018 they were still around on 4/7 but were gone by the 9th.The birds are only in our area for the winter. They may go north for the rest of the year…or just a little west to the higher elevations of the Appalachians.
Blooming azaleas. Several buds have opened since yesterday. I took pictures between the rain showers.
Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.
And now for the second installment of macro photography with our mail-order bugs. Today I am featuring the Luna Moth. It’s the one pictured in the upper right of this picture – our order from The Butterfly Co.
I saw one at a Missouri rest stop last summer; they can be found in the US east of the Great Plains. So - Luna moths are native to Maryland – like the Cecropia Moth. It’s smaller and not as brightly colored. The antennae of the male Luna Moth are tan colored rather than deep brown of the Cecropia’s. But the antennae are arranged similarly in pairs along the rib.
The wings have eye spots that are very different than the Cecropia. The Luna’s have a clear membrane in the center! The bit of color seen is the color of the Styrofoam that The Butterfly Co. used to pen the specimens. Also notice that the ‘scales’ on the Luna wing look more hair-like.
The wings are a pale green outlined in brown and with a few brown marks. The shape of the wing looks like an exaggerated swallowtail.
I wasn’t at home for the first part of the month, so the opportunities to see birds through the window were more time limited than usual.
The Downy Woodpecker seemed to be coming to the feeder more frequently. It was always a female. Usually I see them in the trees more than at the feeder, so I wondered if the insects were not as available (maybe because of the cold).
The House Finches seemed more numerous at the feeder than last month. The males were ‘courting’ – providing a seed to their favorite female. They would occasionally accept another bird at the feeder – like a Carolina Chickadee. They were the birds most impacted by the visit of the bluebirds that we saw on the birdfeeder camera; it was only a short time but I’m sure they were relieved when the bluebirds did not stick around.
Both the male and female Red-bellied Woodpeckers are active at the feeder periodically – not every day. They had to contort themselves to get the seed they wanted or if the seed was low. The Carolina Wren learned to get a snack from the opposite side of the feeder when the woodpecker was there.
These little birds were frequent visitors to the feeder – often the first ones there in the morning.
There was a Northern Mockingbird that sat on the deck bench on a wet morning. I don’t see them frequently around our yard and wondered if it was injured.
The White-Breasted Nuthatch was around – coming like a bullet to the feeder, getting a snack and leaving again…never sticking around for long.
The Northern Cardinals were around periodically but not as frequently as in January. I wonder if they are not building their nest in the usual place near our house…they’re coming from further afield.
I always am aware when the Blue Jays come (for water) since they are so noisy. I still enjoy seeing them.
The Dark-eye Juncos are still around. They are here in about the same numbers as previous years…our little flock.
And the Mourning Doves were around to clean up any spilled seed from the other birds that were digging through the seed in the feeder to find just the one they want…throwing the seeds they didn’t want onto the deck.
I’ve learned a lot about the birds coming to our birdfeeder this month when I reviewed the videos from our Reolink Argus 2 camera.
The earliest bird at the feeder is a Carolina Wren that was there before sunrise one morning (that’s why the pictures I clipped from the video are in black and white). The wrens pick through the seeds and scatters seed on the ground a lot; I’m not sure which seeds are preferred. We have at least a pair of wrens…and maybe more.
There always seems to be birds at the feeder in the morning. One snowy morning I caught the sun just as it came over the house to light the trees behind our house; a male Northern Cardinal and female finch were at the feeder. Over an hour later, there was a female cardinal and a Dark-eyed Junco on the feeder…with lots of juncos waiting their turn.
There was a female Red-bellied Woodpecker in the middle of another day….and then a male came and that was enough weight that the feeder closed making it very difficult to for either one to get any seed. The female pecked the feeder (frustrated….maybe angry) and flew away leaving the male. That is the last time I saw the male at the feeder. Maybe he’s found food elsewhere (hope he wasn’t found by a hawk), but we still see the female frequently. Watching the red-bellied woodpeckers, they seem to like the bigger seeds: sunflower seeds and peanuts.
I’ve only seen the Downy Woodpecker once on the video (there could have been some instances where it came to the sides of the video not visible to the camera). Otherwise the birds we see are frequent visitors
On the 8th there was a female Northern Cardinal that spent a long time at the feeder. It was a quiet day for birds otherwise. The first time the bird was at the feeder was for over an hour and the second time it was there about 20 minutes. The bird was looking around rather than eating most of the time. It would get a seed from the feeder and then turn around so that it could look around toward the house or back over the yard. The cardinals seem to like all kinds of seeds in the feeder.
I’m still working on the hierarchy of birds at the feeder. Right now, it seems like the red-bellied woodpeckers are the top bird. Most of the other birds leave when they come. The juncos are the ones that hold back….they are at the bottom of the ‘pecking order.’ Next month I’ll work out some more of the hierarchy.
It’s easy to photograph birds through my office window – when I am in the office and not totally focused on something else. I’ve positioned my computer and raised the bird feeder slightly so I can see activity in my peripheral vision while I am working at the computer. I just grab my camera, stand up, make a few steps, and take pictures!
The Dark-eyed Juncos are around all the time although I rarely photograph them. We have our own little neighborhood flock. They are fast moving…like they are nervous all the time.
We have a pair of Northern Cardinals that are around every day. Their color and sounds stand out.
The raucous groups of Blue Jays come to our trees and sometimes to our bird bath. I go to the window based on the sounds. One day this month there was a big thump on the roof above my office. Three blue jays (silent) flew off to the sycamore as I made it to the window and a single blue jay feather drifted down. Was there a fight? Did there used to be four blue jays and a hawk got one?
The Carolina Wren is at the feeder and the bath almost every day. Sometimes I am drawn to by their song and it takes some looking to find the bird. We have at least two around. We’ve had several instances where they’ve found their way into our screened deck….and we open the door for a while to help them escape.
The Red-bellied Woodpeckers come to the feeder almost every day. We have at least one pair….although the female comes more than the male (Could there be more than one female?...Maybe). The dig around for the larger seeds they like at the feeder.
Mourning Doves are frequent visitors as well. They are too big for the feeder, but they do clean up the seed underneath and they drink from the birdbath.
The House Finches have returned after a hiatus of a few years.
I like the White-breasted Nuthatch for its orientation and postures. It is head down on the feeder more than upright!
The Downy Woodpecker comes to our feeder less frequently although I see them in the trees. Maybe that’s a positive indicator that they are finding enough food they favor in our forest.
There are birds that don’t come to our feeder but are probably frequent visitors to our yard since we are at the edge of a forest. Common Grackles pass through frequently. They look like small black birds at first glance but with a little zooming the different coloring is distinctive…and the yellow eye.
There are also flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds that come through. They very rarely come to the feeder. They must be finding plenty of food elsewhere.
We have the Reolink camera monitoring our birdfeeder all the time these days; that gives us a great opportunity to catch more bird interaction. I’m saving that for an upcoming blog post!
We are seeing more birds come to our deck for the bird bath now that the weather is cold enough that other water sources are frozen most mornings. Having a heated bird bath is a big draw.. The jays are too big for the feeder….but they come for the water and feel secure enough to sit a bit. Otherwise they are further away in the trees.
The titmouse is at the feeder and the water…but nervous enough in both locations to require a quick response to capture an image.
The Carolina Wren likes the deck railing as a stage for song…but it also likes the seeds in the feeder.
The Cardinals frequent the new feeder. Our previous one was a little smaller and they tended to only get seed that fell to the ground from it.
The finches and juncos can sometimes share the feeder….sometimes it is a contentious situation.
The doves are too big for any feeder that is squirrel-proof, but they like the survey the yard from our deck railing, get a drink of water, and clean up any scattered feed.
The starlings could probably get seed from our feeder but, so far, they haven’t found it. They tend to stay in the treetops in the forest.
The nuthatch seems to not be around as much right now. Maybe it’s found another nearby feeder.
My favorite birds right down are the woodpeckers. The downy is around and occasionally comes to the feeder.
The red-bellied is s frequently visitor…both male and female enjoy the bounty of the feeder. They are big enough that when they come, they are the only bird at the feeder.
Last week we got a little bit of snow. It was an easy snow to deal with: less than an inch, pavement warm enough to melt it. There was no delayed opening for schools or cancelled events. It was pretty on the surface of our deck and the grass in the yard. The juncos were out at our feeder and in the snow. I took some pictures of their tracks on the deck floor. Some areas had been so heavily used that the tracks were overlapping – showing the density of bird traffic for the whole morning. The tracks look a lot like the theropod (dinosaur) tracks I used as a Zentangle pattern with the summer campers! The campers were quick to tell me that birds are our ‘living dinosaurs.’
Of course, I made my own print in the snow when I went out to take the photographs.
By the end of the day, all the snow and footprints had melted away. Maybe the next time it snows there will be enough to make snow ice cream.
There has been a lot of bird traffic visible through my office window in November. The Blue Jays are frequent visitors – at the icy bird bath (we’ll put the heated bird bath out soon), in the trees, on the gutter, and in the yard.
Both male and female Northern Cardinals enjoyed the seeds on the deck and from the new feeder.
The Downy Woodpecker pair comes to the feeder and finds seeds between the deck railings and insects(?) in the knots of the deck boards.
The House Finches have returned
As have the Dark-eyed Juncos. It took the juncos a few days to discover the feeder. They were finding enough seeds on the ground underneath it before that.
The Mourning Doves are always around.
The Northern Flickers (yellow shafted) rarely come to the deck but they are around – probably more frequently than I see them. The pictures are not as good because the birds are farther away from my window – usually on a neighbor’s roof or in the red maple. One picture shows the yellow shafts very clearly.
The White-breasted Nuthatch is fun to watch – sorting through the seeds until it gets a sunflower seed. The bird has a unique shape and behavior!
The Tufted Titmice move around a lot but are frequent visitors to the feeder. They always look like their eyes are too big their head.
There are other birds that come to the feeder as well. The chickadees come frequently but are so fast that it’s hard to get a picture of them.
The squirrels stay in the trees most of the time. They come to the deck for water – but are frustrated by our feeder that has turned out to be as ‘squirrel proof’ as advertised.
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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