Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward

Tags

photography, postaday, reward, The Wave, weekly photo challenge

Almost two years ago, I found my photographic reward at The Wave in Arizona, near the border with Utah. I had hiked about 3.5 miles in the already hot temperatures of early June, when I finally arrived at The Wave. The sandstone formation, twisted and eroded by the forces of nature, formed a beautiful and unique landscape unseen anywhere else on earth.

The Wave

I blogged about the Wave earlier here, but the above photo is only published now.

The link for this challenge is at:

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/reward/

Cardinal – Uncropped

Tags

cardinal, house finch, photography, postaday

Almost all of the photos that you see on this blog have been cropped, sometimes drastically, so that their main focus, birds small and not so small, are not lost in their surroundings. Today I was able to entice a male Northern Cardinal to come closer. The resulting image required no cropping, and here it is.

Male Northern Cardinal

In the following photo, a Cardinal was confronting a House Finch. The action took place much further away, so the following photo was cropped to less than half of the original.

Male Northern Cardinal and House Finch

Even though he was smaller, the House Finch stood his ground and did not budge from his perch.

 

Starling Visit

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, starling

Another cold day –so what else is new this winter?– and we got a visit from at least half a dozen starlings. They suddenly appeared and mobbed the bird feeder, sending the other birds fleeing, except for our female Red-bellied Woodpecker which usually yields to no one.

Starling checking out bird feeder.

Starling on bird feeder hanging pole.

Starlings, one landing, the other keeping watch.

Starlings are larger than our usual guests. When more than two of them perched on the bird feeder, their combined weight closed the feeding holes. They still tried to get at the seeds, but eventually most gave up and left. Only one remained to keep company with our Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker and Starling.

The last one eventually left. Total time these Starlings stuck around: 2 minutes.

Mohawk and Others

Tags

cardinal, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

It warmed up to a few degrees before freezing for one day, before dipping again. For some unknown reason, the birds all went away when it got warmer, then came back yesterday.

Cardinal among icy branches.

Cardinal with wind-induced mohawk.

When they came back, the male and female Red-bellied Woodpeckers took turns at the the bird feeder. Only once, for less than a second, were they perched side by side, but I wasn’t fast enough to get that shot.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker 

Ice and House Finch

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

After the snow, we got rain, which became ice overnight. In the morning, all the magnolia branches were encased in ice. That did not bother the House Finch which took its regular station over the bird feeder.

House Finch on magnolia branch. Note how some the bird’s red colors are reflected on the ice.

In the following photo, I did not change my camera shutter speed, and the diving House Finch became an intricate geometrical blur.

House Finch diving.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, rule of thirds, weekly photo challenge

Yesterday, while snow was coming down, the female Red-Bellied Woodpecker finally perched on a magnolia branch for a few minutes, looking around to see where the male was.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker on magnolia branch

I took that opportunity to shoot this entry to the rule-of-thirds challenge: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/rule-of-thirds/

Here’s another shot that I took for the banner image of this post. This one does not follow the rule of thirds.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-Bellied Woodpeckers

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Yesterday was a cold but sunny day, with good light for photos. A pair of Red-Bellied Woodpeckers took turns coming to the bird feeder, and I tried to photograph them flying. I was not successful because they were too fast, but I will keep trying! In the meantime, here are some of yesterday’s shots.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker. Note that the red cap does not fully cover her head.

Male Red-Bellied Woodpecker, head fully covered with red cap.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker flying away when male landed on bird feeder. This couple never stayed on the bird feeder together, and the female always yielded to the male.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker flying away with sunflower seed.

Those Juncos

Tags

junco, photography, postaday

Those Juncos are at it again. In the winter, many of them cluster around the bird feeder, and they will chase each other away at the slightest provocation. I haven’t been able to find out why since there is plenty of food and feeding perches.

Juncos food fight

Juncos food fight

Lunar New Year

Tags

cardinal, downy woodpecker, photography, postaday, woodpecker

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Chinese New Year in the US. To wish you a Happy New Lunar Year I am posting two photos of my favorite birds.

Cardinal in snowstorm

Downy Woodpecker

Birds in the Snow

Tags

cardinal, photography, postaday, sparrow

It snowed last night. When I got up this morning, six inches were on the ground and the snow was still coming down, light and fluffy.

This is a shot of our backyard. If you look carefully, you’ll see four Cardinals on the magnolia tree, and one at the feeder. On the upper right hand corner you will also see the Red-bellied Woodpecker on an oak tree branch.

Magnolia tree, left, and bird feeder

A couple of Cardinals posed in a rare family portrait.

Cardinals family portrait

Many song sparrows weathered the snowfall, perched on the magnolia branches.

Sparrows

One even got into the Cardinal family photo.

Cardinals and Sparrow

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this brilliant Cardinal who posed for me.

Cardinal

Red Cardinals – 3

Tags

cardinals, photography, postaday

Lately, it has been very cold and snowy, making the birds come to our feeder in unprecedented numbers. Normally I have to restock it about 3 to 5 days, but yesterday they emptied it from sunrise to well before sunset.

At one point, there were two red Cardinals dining together, perched on each side of the feeder. This was the first time I saw such a scene and I rushed to capture it.

Cardinals dining together

Alas, it didn’t last long. Within less than a second, one chased the other away.

Cardinals fighting

This all happened very fast, and while I had my shutter speed at 1/4000 sec I could not completely freeze the action.

Red Cardinal – 2

Tags

cardinal, photography, postaday

Yesterday we got some more snow, not as much as further up North, only about 3 inches. The Cardinals were mobbing the bird feeder and at one point I saw three beautiful red ones on the magnolia tree next to the feeder. With the long zoom lens, I only managed to frame two of them in one shot.

Cardinals on magnolia tree

Earlier in the day, I was aiming at another one. Just as I clicked, it dove toward the feeder.

Red Cardinal diving  

Red Cardinal

Tags

cardinal, photography, postaday

Under our deck’s bench, this male Cardinal was eating sunflower seeds spilled onto the snow when I filled up the bird feeder.

Red Cardinal in snow

 

Tufted Titmouse

Tags

photography, postaday, tufted titmouse

This weekend promises record low temperatures, and our bird feeder has been the scene of intense activity. One of the main actors is the Tufted Titmouse with big eyes that make it stand out among the birds. They flit in and out, carrying seeds away to crack them at the nearby magnolia tree. Then they carry the shelled seeds to hoard them somewhere else.

Tufted Titmouse with a sunflower seed between its feet

Tufted Titmouse staring at photographer

 

Three Regular Visitors

Tags

cardinal, junco, photography, postaday

Even though it was still fairly cold, the sun was out today, allowing me to take advantage of the good light falling on three regular visitors to our bird feeder.

Junco

Male Cardinal

Female Cardinal

Hooded Mergansers

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, hooded merganser, merganser, photography, postaday

Hooded Mergansers are handsome ducks, easy to identify, especially the males with their black and white crests. They were in abundance in every pond at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge this past weekend.

Hooded Mergansers, male and female

Hooded Mergansers, three males and one female

In courtship, the male expands his crest while making deep, low sounds to attract the female.

Gray Catbird

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, gray catbird, photography, postaday

This past weekend, at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, while I was trying to photograph a Bufflehead which kept its distance out on a pond, my wife pointed out a Gray Catbird in a tangle of vines from shrubs no more than 10 ft from us! It was jumping from branch to branch and paid no attention to us.

Gray Catbird

Once I got home and looked at the photos on the monitor screen, I saw that it was snacking on little red berries.

Gray Catbird with red berry

Gray Catbird with berry

Once the berries were ingested, it appeared to be quite content.

Gray Catbird after snacking

This bird owes its name to the meewing sound that it uses for calling. That sound is not too pleasant, but when it sings, the notes are different, varied, and may go on for many minutes. It is able to copy from other birds and rearrange their songs into their own song repertoire. All in all, a bird lacking in colors and looks, but with very unique vocal abilities.

Mallards

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, mallards, photography, postaday

Early today, six mallards were walking on thin ice, literally, at a partially frozen pond at the Edwin B Forsythe Wildlife Refuge. Suddenty, two of them decided to take off.

Six mallards. If you look carefully on the larger version of this photo, you will see that three of these ducks are banded.

The rest deliberated for about a minute.

Four mallards: shall we? All four of these ducks are banded.

Then they all flew up, one so fast that I could not catch it in the following photo.

Mallards

Starling

Tags

european starling, photography, postaday, starling

It was really windy and cold two days ago, perhaps causing many birds to come to our feeder as I have mentioned before. In addition to the ones that came regularly, there was a newcomer. It was an European Starling that somehow strayed from the large flocks it usually belongs to. You may see them as small black clouds drifting from one part of the sky to another.

European Starling

The white dots on this bird are part of its winter plumage.

European Starling

This bird is not native to North America. One hundred of them were brought from Europe to New York’s Central Park at the end of the 19th century by a group that wanted America to have all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare. Today there are 200 million of them from Alaska to Mexico, all descended from the original 100.

The single starling that came to our backyard only stayed for about two minutes. It watched other birds congregate around the bird feeder, but did not trying to compete for the sunflower seeds. Then it flew away and has not been seen since.

Favorite Birds: Cardinals

Tags

cardinal, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Cardinals, due to their colors and shapes, are arguably the favorite backyard birds of many of us. Yesterday was a cold and very windy day with a bit of snow, which may explain why we had so many of them come to our bird feeder. At one time I counted as many as seven, both males and females, and there could have been others unseen as they gleaned sunflower seeds that had fallen to the ground.

Male Cardinal

Female Cardinal

Male Cardinal approaching feeder

Normally, if a male Cardinal is at the feeder, the females keep a respectful distance, waiting until he leaves. He is only deterred by the Red-bellied Woodpecker which is slightly larger.

Male Cardinal and Red-bellied Woodpecker

On the other hand, female cardinals are not averse to fighting others of their kind for a seat.

Female Cardinals fighting

Yawn and Other Birds

Tags

cardinal, house finch, junco, magnolia, photography, postaday, sparrow

If you are getting bored of my BIF photos, this following picture, taken at Holgate two weeks ago, is for you.

Gull yawning

All right, so no more BIF today.

The other day, while trying to capture the Red-bellied Woodpecker in flight, I noticed our magnolia tree was getting loaded with birds.

Three Cardinals and one Sparrow

That was not the end of it. One more bird hopped on.

Three Cardinals, one Sparrow, one Junco

Then there was our House Finch next to a Junco.

House Finch and Junco

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Tags

cardinal, chickadee, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, timouse

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is bigger than a Cardinal but smaller than a Blue Jay, yet it manages to bump most other birds off when it comes to our bird feeder.

It has an undulating flight, much like a roller coaster wave, which makes it hard to photograph. I’ve been trying to catch it in my viewfinder as it jumps off an oak branch and dives toward the bird feeder. However, it always comes below my line of sight before coming to a stop in the back of the feeder. After many tries, I was able to more or less capture it in flight in the following photos.

Female Cardinal fled as Red-bellied Woodpecker swept in

Two Titmice got out of the way as Red-bellied Woodpecker appeared

Downy Woodpecker and Chickadee about to escape as Red-bellied Woodpecker was coming close

Downy Woodpecker and Chickadee Scattered

Dove Landing on a Branch

Tags

mourning dove, photography, postaday

A family of mourning doves has been coming to our backyard, two parents and two children, assuming the larger ones are the parents and the smaller ones the kids. One of them landed on a magnolia branch, as captured in the following photos.

Mourning Dove landing 1

Mourning Dove landing 2

Mourning Dove landing 3

Mourning Dove landing 4

Mourning Dove after landing

This dove then proceeded to sit on that branch for at least half an hour, only moving its head once in a while.

 

Dark-eyed Juncos Fighting

Tags

dark-eyed junco, juncos, photography, postaday

Juncos are winter sparrows, and they have the same feistiness of the ordinary urban sparrow. Today it was snowy and rainy outside, with temperatures soon to go into the 20’s. The juncos were out in force, with two of them suddenly fighting for food, for no apparent reason. I took the following three shots within less than a second.

Fighting Juncos 1

Fighting Juncos 2

Fighting Juncos 3

After these shots, the fight lasted perhaps a second more but the two birds had flown to the right and up, out of the camera’s sight.