Outside My Window

It’s getting to be that time of year when I enjoy watching the wildlife outside my window.

blue jay in the crabapple tree

I dearly wish Sky wouldn’t try to kill everything I’d like to feed there.

Sky

I don’t think that is something he’ll ever outgrow though.

red-bellied woodpecker

I need to find someplace outside my fence that I can feed them.

Squirrel eating acorns

Even if they’ll be too far away to photograph because, as you can see, the pictures are none too good through my dirty window anyhow.

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Fledglings

It seems this past weekend was the time for all the little blue jays to leave the nest. This one I photographed in the north paddock with Minnie and Helen on Sunday.

The next afternoon, I rescued one from my yard before the dog got it.  I put it in the safety of the paddock with Minnie and Helen.

When I went back later to give Helen her meds, the baby was gone (and no feathers), so I hope its parents found it.

I hope you’ll come back to join me for Friday’s Hunt.  I have this week’s items listed at the top of my side bar.

A Bunch of Birds and Rambling

Today was a birding kind of day.  I had just made it over the first hill in the Back Forty when I heard the sound I’ve been waiting to hear for the last few weeks–the bobolinks are back!

bobolink

I love their song and their bright breeding colors.  They were putting on quite the show for me!

It makes me wish I hadn’t had my 300mm lens on my camera because, even though I can zoom in really close, I have horrible lens shake with it.

I need a monopod, and I do have one, but I haven’t figured out how to change it from a tripod to a monopod, and the directions are very unclear.  Almost as unclear as my pictures handheld with this lens.

Anyhow, I can live with a little shake in the bluebird.

I am seeing the northern flickers almost everyday because there’s a whole family of them living out here.  The robin on top was just a bonus.

I missed the nuthatch because they are such quick little things.  I also saw a ton of blackbirds and sparrows.  Here are more birds from pasture–

blue jay

red bellied woodpecker

eastern meadowlark

When I was hanging laundry out this morning, I got to see a Baltimore oriole, but I didn’t have my camera.  It sat there and watched me and let me tell him how beautiful he was, and he was gone by the time I got back with my camera.  That’s okay because I got to see the red-headed woodpeckers that live in the paddock north of my barn.

When I was in pasture, the orioles were still trolling me.  Nothing but a fly-bye shot.

Later when I was doing laundry, I saw the male cardinal.  I think there’s a pair that are living in the pine trees on the north edge of my yard.  Since I was again doing laundry and didn’t have my camera, this shot is from a couple of evenings ago.

Here’s the eastern kingbird.

Another wind/lens shake shot–this time the eastern goldfinch.

Luckily, by the time I got up from the pasture, they had figured out I put out the bird feeders in their summer location north of the house.

The red-breasted grosbeak found it too!

It was definitely a good birding day.  Now I just need the hummingbirds to find their feeder.