July 2008

Doves

I mentioned before that I am getting a lot of pics from the Wingscapes camera, but lately the count has gone even higher! Here are some daily totals from the past week: 319, 373, 258, 298, 317. Unfortunately, these are mostly pics of house sparrows and house finch. Not that I don't like them, but after viewing a few thousand, I sort of lose interest. :)

I always had doves around the house, and I posted a pic the first time I saw one using a feeder. Lately, I see more and more pics with them using the tube feeder. One of them is OK, but two of them are too heavy on the squirrel proof feeders, and they close off the feed ports. Here is one view of this. Speaking of doves, here is a recent Birdnote on doves.

The final dove pic, with a chickadee, and I believe a nuthatch.

Last, but not least, an article about birdsong in Science Daily.

Cypress in Bloom

After waiting for months, the Cypress vine has started to bloom! Here is a pic of the first bloom.

The feeders are busier than ever, just now. The Wingscapes camera captures up to 300 pics a day. My eyes glaze over sorting through them, but this week I tried to pick out some that are a bit different:

Where is the camera?

Upside Down!

Scruffy

Where?

You looking at me?

Um... hey guys!

I follow rec birds, and Lanny Chambers posts there pretty regularly, usually about hummingbirds. If you do not have a newsreader configured, you can view it via Google Groups. Someone posted pictures of a banding program with Lanny. Worth a look.

Chickadee

I am on my second week of vacation, so I really have no reason for being late with this entry except, I AM on vacation! :) Today, while I was water proofing my porch, I saw a chickadee at the box feeder. I no longer have a camera pointing at that feeder, so I was disappointed that I couldn't capture an image. I really like those little guys! So when I came in for a break, I saw one sitting on top of the other feeder. I do have a camera at that feeder, but it doesn't point to the top of the thing! When I retrieved the memory card, I saw that I did indeed have ONE pic of the little guy.

I re-aimed the Wingscapes camera, and it now has bushes for a background, rather than a white, mostly sunlit, wall. I am getting much better images, now. I saw a dove at the feeder, and since this is unusual, I saved it.

Every now and again I get a pic that makes me laugh, this little squawker is one of them.

The hummingbird vines have already reached the top of my trellis, and show no sign that they are going to stop growing! Now if they would only start to bloom!