Five shy wild turkeys have been passing by my window this week.
The turkeys leave at the slightest sound or movement, so I captured these images through the dirty double pane glass on a dark and snowy spring day. Even so, they noticed me watching them and hurried away.
This grinning bird’s no fool.
It’s eating Con’s special suet.
It’s snowing again and many birds are waiting for a turn at the feeders. This dark eyed junco waits with feathers fluffed against the cold (23 degrees F) while nuthatches feast at a nearby feeder.
It’s spring break here and the weather is springlike, too. Warmer temperatures quickly melted the last snow of only an inch or so. Banks of snow in the shade shrink smaller every day and most sunny spots are clear of snow.
The mountain chickadee below is enjoying a bite of homemade suet.
I saw four bluebirds in an old wildfire burn area yesterday, but they were too far away for a close up portrait. I looked for spring birds around my home today but all I found were the year ’rounders like the chickadee above.
Snow falling through bright, cloud-filtered sunlight today
A chunk of suet, happy stellers jay
It isn’t a recipe. The Bird was doing the grilling, or hiding, or something in the grill. He winked his grey eyelid at me and I caught it in mid wink. Then he flew away. Image from a morning walk through a picnic area in the Garden of the Gods.
For another large rock from the Garden, click the thumbnail below. I don’t recall the name. I’m more interested in the direction of the sunlight on them than the names given to the rocks. This one’s huge and close to the road, you won’t have to look for it if you visit the Garden.
Bird lovers can take an international birding trip sighting birds in Australia, Japan, U.S., Ireland, South Africa, and Sri Lanka when they read edition #67 of I and the Bird hosted by Trevor’s Birding of Australia. Trevor invites us to travel round the world on a birding holiday with stops at blog posts submitted for this edition.I was happy this morning to see my recent post on the mountain chickadee was included as a stop in the tour. I slid my submission in on the deadline date here, but by Trevor’s time in Australia, I was late. Create your bird related posts and submit them (on time, please) to nds22 (at) cornell (dot) edu by Tuesday, February 5th for edition #68 of I and the Bird at Biological Ramblings. Aren’t blog carnivals fun?
The little mountain chickadee is often a photographic subject for me in winter. This one posed for a portrait view behind a rail covered with snow. Then, it perched on the feeder hook as the little nutchatches often do. The mountain chickadees seems comfortable with me and the camera as near as about 8 ft. Any closer and I send them flying into the nearby trees. Both of these images were captured with a 100 to 400 lens from about 10 feet.
I’m not really a birder, I just like the challenge of photographing them. I have to keep the field guides to birds at hand to look up any unfamiliar species. I also search for information about my feathered subjects online. In a recent search, I learned that the mountain chickadee stays only a short time near the nest where it hatched. It then moves to a new location and spends the rest of it’s life there. No migrating away from winter weather for these little birds. No wonder they seem so appreciative of the seeds I put out for them.
This is my second time to have a post in an edition of I and the Bird. Thanks to wren at Wrenaissance Reflections for suggesting it to me the first time around.
If you’d like to participate in the 66th edition of I and The Bird, please send the URL of your blog post to the next carnival host, John, at bornagainbirdwatcherDOTcom with the words “I and The Bird” in the subject line. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, Jan. 8.
With more snow in the forecast, these little birds seem to be stocking up today. I know that some bird species hide a stash of seeds. At the rate the seed is leaving my feeders today, it wouldn’t surprise me to find these birds hiding the seed somewhere. They seem too small to be eating it all.
