Sunday, May 15, 2011

Bird-a-palooza

It has been raining all weekend, ugh, but the light this morning was nice for photographing birds, and we had an invasion of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks...


The lovely Mr. R. B. Grosbeak!

 

And the plainer Mrs. R. B. Grosbeak.



I have never seen this many at once. I had five males and a female at one feeder this morning!

We've got other lovely birds as well...





"Got suet?"



Mrs. Downy Woodpecker. Or maybe it's "Ms"!



A common grackle! I thought the lighting today showed off the irridescent feathers particularly well. Some people don't like grackles because they hog the birdfeeders, but I love 'em. And if you see them in lighting like this, they're beautiful.





Another shot of our gorgeous friend.




"Why are you pointing that big black thing at me?"



Everybody was getting soaked in the rain...


 ...but a bird's gotta eat!





 


I love his "racing stripes"!

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:23 pm

    Superb shots. All very formal in your garden though with this Mr and Mrs stuff. We tend to use first name terms, as in Woody the wood pigeon, Blacky the blackbird, Fezzy the pheasant, Ducky the duck... not very imaginative I admit but a legacy of the days when the kids were small and they also had Hedgy the hedgehog, Sluggy the slug, Wormy the worm, etc etc et... There were times when they called me Daddy the Dad too but I digress :)

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  2. Thank you Andrew! I used my Nikon SLR with the long lens, and took 268 photos. Nothing has improved my photography like the advent of digital! I can just take so damn many shots that a couple are sure to turn out. I always used to be conserving film!

    Our chickens are the informal ones around here. I like the names for your garden creatures! O Andrew the Andrew!

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  3. Anonymous7:31 pm

    Too true Knaty the Kantolee, digital photograpy is the best invention since.... maybe the wheel :) And it would be Andry the Andrew, or maybe Andy the Andrew by the way... names gotta end in "y", my kiddies demand(ed) it. Time to fall asleep now beside warm wifey the wife. Goodnight

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  4. It's hard to say which birds I like best! I'm partial to the woodpeckers, but the grosbeaks are cute too - and that grackle is gorgeous!

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  5. Beautiful, beautiful shots Natalie! Still raining here and the birds are still singing and chirping!

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  6. What a lovely array of birds you've got there!

    And yes, the blue tit is nesting in the tractor.

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  7. Wonderful. I do like the grackel in particular.

    Which Nikon SLR do you use? I use a D700

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  8. Anonymous9:28 am

    Those photos are fantastic. I wish we could get the same variety around here. It's a big deal when we see something other than a sparrow or a finch.

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  9. Amazing shots of the birds. I thought I was doing well with 2 male grosbeaks together - 5, that is pretty impressive. They must have made a fair bit of noise. My two boys are certainly noisy.

    Saw our orioles on Saturday, but just briefly. Hope to get a shot of them in the next few days, if they stick around.

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  10. Lovely birds. Lovely pictures. 268 photos! My photography professor used to say "It's only film." Today, it's only pixels.

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  11. Hey, send those Grosbeak's over here.

    So far we had 32 different bird spezies on our feeder.

    Great shots.

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  12. I really have to start looking at birds more. Beautiful photos, Natalie.

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  13. Andry, I used to be very sensitive about the price of film. I remember taking ten rolls of slide film on our 10-week honeymoon and rationing every photo!!

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  14. WanderingCat, I was pleased with the grackle shots. Sometimes they just look like boring black birds!

    Jams, I have Nikon D70. it's getting old!

    CogDis, do you feed your birds? We are lucky because we have lots of habitat here (forest, fields, water, etc...) And we are on a migratory flyway as well!

    Musical, I have never seen that many Rose-breasted grosbeaks at once. I was very impressed! I haven't seen any orioles yet. They are so beautiful! Lucky you!

    Joy, pixels are way cheaper than film! ;)

    Willie, you must see some great birds there, near the lake and all!

    Deb, start watching the birds with your cats!

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!