June 2008

Cleaning The Hard Drive

I thought that I would move the Wingscapes camera again, because I was getting a little tired of seeing the same birds over and over. So I moved it to the other feeder. It has been in place for about a day or so, and it seems that I do get a different mix. The lighting is a bit trickier at this feeder though, a good portion of the pics are too dark. Anyway, I thought I would share a selection of what I had been seeing before the move. Since I have a limited amount of space on here, I posted them to Picasa. I didn't post the less desirable birds, like the cowbirds and grackles. Since there are a bunch of pics, and I am lazy, I'll just do a quick copy and paste. :)

Male Cardinal Always at the feeder.

Blue Jay Finally found a mate, showing up more and more.

House Sparrows  

Watcher

Morning Mix

House Finch

Mrs Cardinal

When looking through the Wingscapes camera's pictures, I was pleased to see the female cardinal is back. I think my favorite picture is the one of a female cardinal, sitting in my bush , early on a sunny morning.

I haven't noticed before, but the color of the male house finch must vary throughout the year, because they have really turned red now. I didn't save any of their pics, but next time they show up, I might stick some on Picasa.

I had to replace the batteries in the Wingscapes camera today. This is only the second time since I got it. Considering that it takes almost about one hundred pictures a day, that is pretty good!

Upside Down Downy

I checked the suet feeder Thursday night, and it didn't seem as though anything had touched it. I'm glad the starlings left it alone, but I was hoping either nuthatches or downys would be feeding on it. Friday morning I heard chatter outside my window. When I looked out, I saw this. Saturday morning I saw it again, and today when I walked past I saw a downy fly off. So, looks like the downys are back!

A friend told me this story: Last week he was sitting outside when he heard a bumblebee. He turned to look at it, and saw a hummer trying to get nectar out of the glass globe to his torch. I have three feeders and get nothing, he has a globe that attracts them. Oh well. He said that, last year he saw a Baltimore Oriole in his neighbors yard. I gave him my oriole feeder and two bottles of concentrated nectar. See if he can steal the neighbors birds. :)

Blue Jay

When I first put up the Wingscapes camera, I had seen the blue jay in a few blurry shots. The other day I saw it feeding on the ground. I couldn't believe how big it got! The Wingscapes camera caught it at the feeder, see what you think.

The hummingbird vines are really growing, but it will be quite sometime until they will be attracting any hungry birds. I wasn't going to say it but, no, I didn't see any hummers. :(

I did not see any downys for quite some time. Then suddenly, the suet was shrinking faster than ever. Hmm... Yup, the starlings were feeding on it. So I put up an upside down feeder. Some people say, starlings can learn to feed on those feeders. For now it seems to have stopped them. Since the downys don't need the suet, I might just pull the feeder until Fall. I'll keep it up for now.

That sneaky swallow was circling around me again while I was mowing. It just won't get close enough to get a good look. It was only one, I used to see two. Hope that means one is taking care of the little ones! Same goes for the cardinal. I see the male show up in the Wingscapes shots frequently throughout the day. No sign of the female.

There are usually some doves hanging around here. Some are more skittish than others, but they often let me get closer than most birds. This is not a good thing! Today I saw a pile of feathers. I'm pretty sure it was what was left of a dove, after the neighbors cat caught it. It wasn't near any of the feeders, but that doesn't mean it was killed there.