Spring "Preening"....

WHADDYA YOU LOOKIN AT ????

"I'll take "Dark-eyed Juncos" for 600, Alex..."

Ah, the joy of observing Nature. Sadly, there must be many who only glance but do not see...those that look, but don't 'connect'...and those that never even see anything in the first place.

Here's a two-word prayer for you: "Mitakuye Oyasin". It's Lakota for "All my relations." The 'all' means ALL. No one person or thing is not connected to another. We Are One. And it gets no more simple than that, which for many is also extremely complicated given how they choose to view the world.

The big influx of spring birds is not yet here, not yet. I don't bother to pick the camera up so quickly as I have pictures I like from the current set of feeders.

However, the Mourning Doves have been of note with the stirrings of their romantic mating nature (rubbing necks, etc.) - while I didn't catch that on 'film', there was this dove sitting and preening and fluffing a few days ago and, well, at peace being itself.

Too, it's not all the time you get to view it all from the south-bound end of a north-bound dove. I just liked turning the brain off and watch this Winged One go through all of it's motions. As I've noted before, their very nature is one of calm. Can't have too much of that in life, eh?....

Enjoy looking and musing...and may each of us take the time to do our own preening today. I realize humans are incredibly wonderful in every way, but so too is all of life...the perfection of the feathers and how they grow and layer, the coloring and patterning that is just perfect in its own right...the protective eyelid that shuts as the dove goes under the wing...the fluffing that gives extra warming air space which is what insulation is all about...

(click pics to enlarge, as always)

Mo' Birdies...

Even with less than desirable weather conditions this past weekend, I felt like investing more hours just sitting and waiting for birds to come feed. I sometimes stopped and asked myself why I was going through all this trouble since I was doing it for pleasure (and had plenty of other worthwhile things to do)...and that's just it, it brings me pleasure to 'be' with the winged-ones and to challenge myself technically and aesthetically to try and get decent pictures under trying circumstances (i.e. shooting through glass, light rain at times, fast-moving birds and trying to keep the ISO fast enough to stop motion yet low enough to minimize 'grain' (aka 'noise').

You end up watching behaviors unique to the species...the squabbles between individuals...species mixing side by side...and how they scatter like 'haints' when a hawk is seen close by. And so I present to you new species that I didn't run in a prior photo blog last week (well, for the most part).

I'm starting with a pic of the Hairy Woodpecker female as it happened to come out so sharp, and she posed on the feeder she doesn't feed on (notice how she's using her tail for added balance)...remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it for a better view...

Hairy Woodpecker (female)
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In that same earlier post, I mentioned the almost identical but smaller Downy Woodpeckers didn't come around, but they did this weekend...

Downy Woodpecker (female)
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This angle for the male barely shows his red on the back of his head, but it was the better of my final pics...

Downy Woodpecker (male)
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I compressed the pics from the earlier post and put them side by side for comparison. While there are more subtle differences between the Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers like beak size, you can loosely say the Hairy is a Downy on steroids as they do look similar except for size:



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Purple Finches were showing up more than they have up 'til now...

Purple Finch (male)
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I just love the little up-flipping tail of the Carolina Wren...of course, I didn't choose the pic with the tell-tale tail as I liked this one for something a little different!

Carolina Wren
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It's a bit comical to have all these little birds flit in and out to feed before and then see the feeder totter when the much larger Doves come and snack. We refer to doves often as 'doves of peace', and among other reasons they truly are very, very peaceful birds...

Mourning Dove
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Pine Siskins are abundant through the winter, and their tell-tale sign amongst their tans and browns is the slight yellowish-green splash on their wings...

Pine Siskin

...and the Siskins are known for their love of sunflower seeds...that feeder is presently not in a good photographic position, but this trio was eating some I'd spread out on the railing...

Pine Siskins
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This is another year-round resident, the Dark-eyed Junco, found from the heights of Mount Mitchell to the Carolina Coast....

Dark-eyed Junco
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Though I showed the Tufted Titmouse in the earlier blog, I just had to add this cute one with a mouthful...

Tufted Titmouse


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Happy Monday, all y'all! Get ready for some cold stuff later this week! You can bet these kids will be even more fluffed than usual and eating to beat the band!

"Birds of a feather..."

I put up a couple of new bird feeders this winter and have been enjoying the "winged ones" coming around and discovering them. In warmer months I would sit outside at a distance to photograph them, but winter is not my first choice for that (except for the die-hard photographers making a living at it!).

The suet feeder of interest here is close to a window, and I figured I'd remove the screen, clean the window, and try my hand sitting on the sofa inside using my bahama mama zoom lens on a monopod (my robust tripod has a broken leg at the moment). Shooting through glass has it's own issues, but I was shooting at an angle which helped kill some reflection problems.

And patience. You can't forget the patience needed to do this...these pics came from a 3-hour stretch one day late last week.

(click on pics to enlarge)

White-breasted Nuthatch
Sitta carolinensis

(These birds spend a lot of time going head-first down tree trunks!)

Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapilla

I love the native Lakota word for the chickadee:
"S'kipipi"
(Ss-kee-pee-pee)
Pretty much the sound it makes. And speaking of one of my favorite birds is a pic of one of my keeper flutes, a closed-end Mahogany in A#, holed in a Mode 4 minor pentatonic fingering pattern (hardly enlarges so don't bother...old pic from 2004). I realize that brief explanation left you going 'huh?' but I'll explain in a blog soon...maybe I'll even make a video to explain it in person with sound added...hmmmm.....:

The Titmouse is the second to arrive in the pre-dawn hours, just behind the Juncos which don't feed on this feeder. Setting aside the 'visual', I recognize these birds by the fluttering 'whoosing' sound their wings make when they fly nearby...rather distinctive...

Tufted Titmouse
Baeolophus bicolor

The Downy Woodpecker pair didn't visit during this shoot...at first glance they look a lot like the Hairys below, just about a third smaller. Too, a Common Flicker has come before, but I haven't seen it for several days at the feeder. However, this pair of Hairy Woodpeckers below fed, and quite a bit...

Hairy Woodpecker - female
Picoides villosus

Hairy Woodpecker - male
Picoides villosus

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So much for Round #1 of new photography efforts. I'll be filling in this week at News 14 for the evening shift for the Triad weather forecasts, and have been dusting off the cobwebs. Seems like ages since last I was on-air, though it's been nothing more than a few weeks.

Always good to get back in the saddle for a limited run to make sure I remember how to ride...or at least fake it!