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!
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–
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.