Butterflies (Yellow) Magnolias

Tags

butterflies magnolia, carolina chickadee, goldfinch, house finch, photography, postaday, Purple Finch, yellow magnolia

Our Butterflies Magnolia tree is in full bloom, covered with flowers and hardly any leaf.

Butterflies Magnolias.

Butterflies Magnolias.

I planted the tree near the bird feeder, which is why many birds perch on its branches while waiting for their turn. They also tend to land on it as a place to break apart the sunflower seeds they pick out from the feeder.

Carolina Chickadee.

Goldfinch.

Today I noticed some birds that resemble House Finches. Looking them up at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site, it turns out they are Purple Finches. These birds are losing out to the House Finches which came to the East Coast after they were brought to New York City in the 1950’s. Between 1966 and 2014, populations of Purple Finches have declined by 52%!

Male Purple Finch.

Female Purple Finch.

Male Purple Finch.

Here’s a photo of a House Finch on the same Magnolia tree.

Male House Finch.

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Wordless Wednesday

Tags

dark-eyed junco, house finch, photography, postaday, white-breasted nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch.

Dark-eyed Junco.

House Finch.

House Finch

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

This young House Finch appeared at our feeder four years ago. It must have found a good source of red pigment in its food, since it was easily the reddest one I had ever seen.

House Finch.

House Finch.

Silent Sunday: House Finch

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

House Finch.

House Finch.

House Finch.

House Finch.

Early Birds – 2

Tags

house finch, northern cardinal, photography, postaday

This evening, I tried to shoot more photos near the bird feeder, and surprised two birds, one full of color, the other blander.

A Northern Cardinal flew in and landed on a magnolia branch. It shook itself as if to get rid of some water, and that’s when I took this photo. He was one of the reddest Cardinals I have ever seen.

Northern Cardinal.

A young female House Finch did not see me until I took her picture.

Female House Finch.

Early Birds

Tags

blue jay, carolina chickadee, house finch, northern cardinal, photography, postaday

This morning, I went out on the deck and took pictures of the early birds that came for breakfast. Some looked very young, and they may be this year’s fledglings.

Blue Jay.

Northern Cardinal: “Peekaboo!”

Blue Jay: “I see you!”

Young male House Finch.

Young Carolina Chickadee.

House Finches: Feeding Time

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

A female House Finch snatched a sunflower seed from the feeder and flew to join her younger ones on a branch of the magnolia tree. Curious as to why she would not eat it right away, I soon found out.

House Finches.

House Finches. Juvenile male demanding his food.

House Finches. She gave it to him.

All happy now.

Two Red Birds

Tags

house finch, northern cardinal, photography, postaday

The first one if not red all over, but the House Finch is one of the more dominant birds in our neighborhood. They are also not native to our area, but over the years have migrated from the West Coast to the East Coast.

Male House Finch.

A Northern Cardinal, all red except for some black patches around its beak, stands out especially well amid the whiteness of yesterday’s snow.

Northern Cardinal.

Cardinal and Other Birds This Winter

Tags

blue jay, downy woodpecker, house finch, house sparrow, junco, northern cardinal, photography, postaday, tufted titmouse

Today skies are mostly sunny and snow is melting at a good pace. I took the opportunity to photograph the various birds that come to our feeder all day long.

Blue Jay, checking out the bird feeder. They rule the place and whenever they land, all other birds scatter away.

Blue Jay.

Junco about to jump.

Female Downy Woodpecker.

Female House Finch.

Male House Finch.

House Sparrow.

Tufted Titmouse, working on a sunflower seed.

Finally, the one and the only Northern Cardinal, resplendent in colors rivaling its human counterparts in Rome.

Northern Cardinal.

Backyard Birds in the Fall

Tags

blue jay, house finch, photography, postaday

I filled up our backyard feeder with sunflower seeds to help out the birds when it is so windy and cold. They came within minutes, and I took the following shots of two of our regular fall visitors.

Blue Jay.

Blue Jay.

House Finch looking up at bird feeder.

House Finch.

Young Birds

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday, tufted titmouse

There seems to be a lot more juvenile birds in our backyard this year. They look young, and they are not too shy. They strike poses that exude youthful confidence and vigor.

Tufted Titmouse.

Tufted Titmouse: “Hey, you, Finches! I can fly too!”

Female House Finch.

Female House Finch.

Male House Finch.

Male House Finch: “What? You want me to jump now?”

Male House Finch: “Dive, dive!”

Backyard Birds

Tags

goldfinch, house finch, northern cardinal, photography, postaday

Lately our weather has been nothing but rain and clouds, so I have not gone out much, relying on the birds around our bird feeder to pose for photographs. They did not disappoint.

Goldfinch.

A moody House Finch.

Northern Cardinal.

House Finch.

Young female House Finch with stray feather.

This last one is not a bird, although it would like to be one to get at the food.

Squirrel at bird feeder.

Two Backyard Birds and a Water Bird

Tags

blue jay, house finch, photography, postaday, red-breasted merganser

For this rainy and bland weekend, I offer three colorful photos taken over the past two weeks.

Blue Jay waiting for me to go away so it can get to the roasted peanuts.

A handsome House Finch.

Red-breasted Merganser near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Cloudy Days

Tags

Holgate, house finch, junco, photography, postaday

Last week, there were two sightings of the Snowy Owl on the Jersey Shore, so yesterday I went to the southern tip of Long Beach Island to find and photograph it. After walking for almost four hours, I failed to find the visitor from the Artic. There were only Seagulls and some birds which flew by too fast for identification.

Juvenile Ring-billed Gull.

The above Ring-billed Gull had just walked out of a fairly large sea water pond on the beach. The pond banks, shaped by wind,looked intriguing.

Sea water pond on beach at southern end (Holgate section) of Long Beach Island.

Back home, it was cloudy today as the sun obstinately refused to come out. Our bird feeder, however, attracted the usual crowd of small birds, even after one of them was attacked and carried away by a hawk. I didn’t have a chance to capture the hawk, but here are some photos of the small birds.

Junco on magnolia branch.

House Finch on magnolia branch.

House Finch looking at bird feeder.

House Finch Fledgling

Tags

fledgling, house finch, photography, postaday

Yesterday we saw a House Finch flying erratically around the bird feeder, up and down, left and right. It turned out that it was a fledgling trying to land on the feeder perch. His mother was coaching.

Female House Finch coaching fledgling.

House Finch fledgling trying to land on bird feeder perch.

House Finch fledgling resting on deck railing after an unsuccessful attempt. Note the muddy colored, immature eyes.

Update: looking as closely as possible, I think this young House Finch only has one eye! It may not survive for long, and has been continuing to fly erratically. I will keep the bird feeder stocked up to help him, but its long-term propects do not look good.

Cardinal, Downy Woodpecker, House Finch

Tags

cardinal, downy woodpecker, house finch, photography, postaday

Scenes at the bird feeder this afternoon.

A female Cardinal was dining when a male Downy Woodpecker landed.

Female Cardinal: “Hey, I was here first!”

Female Cardinal: “Wait your turn! Scram!”

The Woodpecker flew away.

Female Cardinal: “Some birds have such bad manners!”

House Finch patiently waiting his turn.

Hummingbirds and Others

Tags

goldfinch, house finch, hummingbird, nuthatch, photography, postaday

Hummingbirds are very small but they move around so fast that up to now I have not been able to see where they go after they fly away. The photo below shows how most of us see these birds.

Hummingbird: this one looks like a young male born this year.

However, yesterday I saw one fly to a nearby oak tree and perch on a branch.

Female Hummingbird on oak tree branch.

To give you an idea how small it is, here’s a shot of a female House Finch at about the same distance.

Female House Finch

Or, how about a Nuthatch and a Goldfinch for comparison?

Nuthatch to Goldfinch: “Hey, how about sharing that seed?”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inspiration

Tags

daily post, edwin b forstythe national wildlife refuge, house finch, lotus, marsh mallow, nuthatch, photography, weekly photo challenge

These are my submissions for this challenge: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/inspiration/

The sources of my inspiration of course vary with the season and the location, but over time they tend to be mostly birds and flowers.

I took the following shot last month at my favorite location, the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. It was raining so I took the picture through the open car window and the rain.

Rainbow over the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Nuthatch, the Cyrano bird

White Lotus

Marsh Mallow

House Finches

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

A young female House Finch was chased away from the bird feeder by an older bird. She flew up and took refuge on a branch of the oak tree.

Young female House Finch upset and sad at being chased from the bird feeder.

A male House Finch flew up to join her. She at once complained to him.

Female House Finch fluttering her wings to complain to male House Finch.

The complaints were quite noisy and animated. Lots of fluttering wings.

She: They won’t let me eat at those nice sunflower seeds at the feeder.

He tried to calm her down.

He: Look, there is room for all of us at the feeder.

He: Let’s fly down there together, okay? She: All right then.

Sure enough, they both flew down and got their perches at the bird feeder, and ate there happily together ever after.

Young Birds

Tags

cardinal, house finch, photography, postaday, tufted titmouse

Yesterday it rained almost all day, and it didn’t stop until this morning. More and more birds kept coming to the bird feeder even in the pouring rain. It wasn’t until this morning that the sky cleared and sunlight came out. The air was pure and clear, perfect for shooting the following photos of birds that were born this year and looked very young and innocent.

Young female Cardinal.

Young House Finches.

Young Tufted Titmouse.

Young Tufted Titmouse.

Fledgeling Begging

Tags

fledgling, house finch, photography, postaday, woodpecker

Young birds even when they are able to fly still must beg their parents for food since their bodies and skills may not be fully developed yet. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen bird parents mouth feeding their fledglings, but I was only fast enough to take the following photos of youngsters begging for food from their mother or father.

Young male Woodpecker begging mother for food. Note how thin she was compared to his chubbiness.

Young House Finch on top left had just been fed, but wanted more from father at bottom right.

Wild Strawberries

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday, wild strawberries

A few days ago I took the following photos of a young House Finch. When I looked at them closely on the computer, the bird’s beak appeared bloody. This bothered me until today when I went out and saw many ripe, red, and juicy wild strawberries covering part of our backyard. The birds had been eating them with abandon and that explains the “bloody” beak and also several patches of red on some oak tree branches.

House Finch after eating wild strawberries.

House Finch: note the “bloody” beak. He was perhaps drunk, not wounded. 

Hmm … Pretty Flowers

Tags

blue jay, butterfly magnolia, house finch, magnolia, photography, postaday

The Butterly Magnolia is in full bloom, and even the birds have to stop in their track and admire its flowers.

Blue Jay: Hmm, Butterly Magnolia, so pretty!

House Finch: Yeah, pretty flowers, I agree.

The Other Red Bird

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

The House Finch is the other red bird next to the male Northern Cardinal. Yesterday one of them posed for photographs.

House Finch posing for photograph: magnolias aren’t blooming yet.

House Finch: What? Now you want me to turn to the other side?

House Finch: How is this, good?

House Finch

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

Lately, many House Finches have been coming to our bird feeder. They are tough little birds that yield to no one except the larger Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Otherwise, they perch around the feeder portholes and would not let any other bird species come near them until they’ve had their fill. The Juncos, for example, keep a respectful distance and wait until their turn come.

House Finch on oak branch: there he is, taking pictures again.

House Finch on oak branch: I’ll wait.

House Finches at bird feeder.

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.

 

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.

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

BIF (Birds in Flight) Attempts

Tags

BIF, chickadee, house finch, junco, photography, postaday, tufted titmouse

For a photographer, taking pictures of birds in flight (BIF) is probably the ultimate challenge. Birds fly very fast, they won’t wait for you, and you have little control on such matters as lighting and angles. You must shoot at very high speed, bump up the ISO, and just hope that your camera can meet those critical demands.

I have started to do BIF with the small birds around our bird feeder, as you can see in the following photos.

House Finch flying away as a Cardinal looks on

Tufted Titmouse arriving as a Chickadee is leaving

Two Juncos, one landing, the other taking off

 

Snow Storm – Ending

Tags

downy woodpecker, house finch, photography, postaday

That monster snow storm that everyone was talking about over the past few days shifted east and spared our area. There were only a few inches of snow when I woke up this morning and by noon it was over. Using a snowthrower, I cleared our driveway in less than an hour.

I had refilled the bird feeder and many birds came and feasted, even while it was still snowing. The hawk was nowhere in sight, so the little birds ate their fill. A very cute one is the House Finch which stood out with its red, almost scarlet colors.

House Finch

House Finch

Here it is perched on the feeder.

House Finch

Another cute one is the Downy Woodpecker that I have been photographing since he was a baby.

Downy Woodpecker

Proportions

Tags

cooper's hawk, house finch, photography, postaday

The following two photos give a sense of proportion between a Cooper’s Hawk and a small bird, the House Finch, that often comes to our bird feeder.

Cooper’s Hawk. Photo taken four days ago.

Today, a House Finch perched almost at the same place.

House Finch on a cold and cloudy day

A Cooper’s Hawk is more than three times as big as a House Finch. However, the hawk prefers to eat birds that are larger than House Finches, such as Blue Jays or Mourning Doves.

More Backyard Birds

Tags

goldfinch, house finch, nuthatch, photography, postaday, woodpecker

In addition to cardinals and blue jays, smaller birds inhabit our backyard and the woods behind us. These birds are colorful, but somewhat shy and not easy to photograph as they never stay still for very long. A bird feeder and seeds spread around do help in attracting them.

Nuthatch

Goldfinch

Woodpecker

Male house finch

Male and female house finches

House Finch

Tags

house finch, photography, postaday

I’ve been testing my new camera, a Canon SX50, by taking photos of birds. Lacking time to go and find them in the wild, I resorted to putting out sunflower seeds in a dish on our deck. A house finch came by, and here is its picture.

House finch