Woodpeckers

Tags

photography, postaday, woodpecker

For a long time, I’ve tried to photograph woodpeckers living in the woods behind our house. I can hear them drumming somewhere from time to time, or see them making a fast swoop at the bird feeder. Recently, I’ve discovered seed bells that seem to be very attractive to them. This past week, I hung one near our deck and sure enough the woodpeckers came, the whole family:

Female woodpecker

Male woodpecker

Baby woodpecker watching from magnolia tree

Woodpecker: I love this stuff!

Half of seed bell gone!

Woodpecker saying goodbye

 

 

 

Near the Brearley Oak

Tags

black-eyed susan, brearley oak, coreopsis, photography, postaday, Rudbeckia, thistle

Near the Brearley Oak that I posted about last fall, there is large piece of land owned by a major pharmaceutical company. The land has been left unused for the past 15 years, and much of the vegetation has reverted to its wild nature. Last week I went there to photograph the Brearley Oak with its full complement of leaves. However, the birds and flowers in the back of the oak were much more interesting.

The tree was filled with sounds of birds which nested there, and I am sure most of the sounds were warnings the birds sang about my intrusion into their domain. Here’s a robin perched on a branch of the oak.

Robin

As I walked along a jogging path near the oak, I saw many flowers, some familiar, and others I can’t name.

Coreopsis

Rudbeckia, or Black-Eyed Susan

Black-Eyed Susan and other flowers

Thistle

Wild flower

 

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Nature Animals – Semipalmated Plover

Tags

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, photo challenge, photography, plover, postaday, semipalmated plover

For this challenge, I am submitting a photo I took today of a Semipalmated Plover at the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge. This is one of the cutest birds with a large head and big eyes. It is found mainly around sandy beaches. They are hard to see because their colors blend in well with their environment. I heard this bird melodious call first, then I turned toward the sound and saw it.

Semipalmated Plover

I had wrongly identified this bird as a Piping Plover, which is an endangered species. The Semipalmated Plover is not endangered, and is said to be doing well and increasing in population.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Wildlife

Tags

photo a week challenge, photography, postaday, swallow

This past Sunday, at an empty lot near our house, I managed to snap a picture of a swallow bringing food to its child.

Swallow feeding child

This photo is my answer to A Photo a Week Challenge: Wildlife

http://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/a-photo-a-week-challenge-wildlife/

Flowers from the Vegetable Garden

Tags

basil, cucumber, eggplant, photography, postaday, squash, tomatoes, vegetable flowers

Hurricane Arthur, the fist of 2014, spared us yesterday, dumping just a little bit of rain as it passed by way out on the Atlantic Ocean. Still I went to check on our vegetable garden. As I did so, I saw all the various flowers that we mostly ignore while waiting for their fruit to form and ripen as tomatoes, squash, cucumber, or eggplant. Some of them are quite interesting as you can see from the following macro photos.

Tomato flowers

Eggplant flower

Cucumber flower

Winter squash flower

Thai basil flower

The grapes no longer have any flower, but they have some promising fruit.

Grapes

 

Young Cardinals and Goldfinch

Tags

cardinal, goldfinch, photography, postaday

This year brought a new generation of cardinals that we had not seen before. Like babies, they look fat, carefree, and not so shy.

Young cardinal

Young cardinal on deck. Cardinals like to pick up seeds from the ground,

Young cardinal at bird feeder

Meanwhile, a goldfinch wondered what all the fuss was about.

Goldfinch