A nice sunny Friday at the feeder

At some point, I want to put out mostly nyjer seed to attract American Goldfinch, but still using my songbird mix.

Here are some nice pictures of White-breasted Nuthatches...

 

 

And a male Downy Woodpecker (not quite holding still)...

 

 

Happy 8th Birthday Russell!

Russ turns 8 today.  We are very blessed to have him.

He celebrated by chasing three deer away from the feeder area. 

 

 

 

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

First day of Spring Break.  Jake and I went out to see if we could find those darn railroad tracks my neighbor told me about.  We didn't find them but went on some different trails.  You'll see the Des Moines River in the background.

 

 

I can't prove it, but to me, these are some of the Indian burial mounds...

 

And here is my bird feeder from a different vantage point (hard to see).

 

 

Well, it's almost tick season so the woods will have to wait until fall for further exploration!

"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"

Aside from being a memorable line from the movie Sunset Boulevard, it's also the theme for this post. Last weekend I tried another (and more successful) attempt at using Steve's trail camera on the ground under the bird feeder.

I had over 200 images.  One picture showed a leaf blowing by.  Most were not too interesting but as you will see, some were memorable!

Here is where I positioned the camera.  I put a rock in front of it because it was getting knocked over.  That's our house in the photo.

 

 

We'll start with what is probably my favorite photo ever...this squirrel appears to be genuinely surprised by the flash of the camera!

 

SQUIRREL!!

 

 

Somehow I caught a rabbit running by...

 

 

Various close-ups...

 

Here is a Northern Cardinal stopping by...

 

 

Here is a White-breasted Nuthatch with something in its bill...

 

This appears to be an American Sparrow and a nuthatch...

 

 

Sharing is caring.  Here is a squirrel and a Dark-eyed Junco...

 

These next three pictures show good color...

 

 

Two more bird pictures...

 

And I'll finish with a few more squirrel pictures.  All in all a pretty good experiment.  My hope was to get a bunch of squirrels in a picture because they tend to fight and chase each other.  So I may try again!

 

Squirrels do the darndest things!

I've always found squirrels to be entertaining.  Often a nuisance, but always entertaining in their pursuit of food.  They usually flee when I come outside but some are stubborn and don't want to forfeit their spot.

This guy was actually trying to hide from me on this tree.  So I walked around to get a better picture of it.

 

"Shhh.  I'm hiding."

Here is another view...

(That's a shower hook in the tree)

So once it was discovered, I got a scolding...

 

 

I like this picture.  Look at the paws grabbing the branch...

 

 

 

(Reminder - if you are receiving this post by e-mail, if you click on a picture, it will make it larger.  Once you have viewed the picture you can close it out and go back to the e-mail.)

Feeder activity from last weekend (trail cam experiment as well)

I have not been using my trail cam because I still haven't spoken with my neighbor about it.  But I had the idea to use during the day so it wouldn't show a bright flash.  So I tried using it on the ground to get squirrel shots and strapped on the tree to face the feeder.  The results were not spectacular.  I want to try it again but this time pointing the camera down more to catch movement better.

I'll get the Fox Squirrels out of the way first.

Here's a shot of four vacuuming up loose seed...

 

Now here is a trail cam ("squirrel cam") shot...

 

 

 

And one more.  If you look close, you'll see the squirrel is running away and has all four legs in the air...

 

 

 

Sticking with the trail cam, here are two attempts at capturing activity on the feeder.  In the first picture, you can see a Black-capped Chickadee on a branch and then the second picture you will see it on the feeder...

 

 

 

The bird that I've been after this winter is the Black-capped Chickadee.  If you read about them, you'll ready two things.  They can be trained to eat out of your hand and they are also extremely cautious.  They hit the feeder and then off to branch to eat so I haven't taken a good picture this season (to me anyway).  But Sunday was a good day!  See for yourself...

 

 

(above)  Looks like corn in its bill.

 

(above)  Eyeing the feeder.

 

(above)  Reaching in.

 

 

I'm separating the photos by type this time.  Next up is a Downy Woodpecker (looks like a female again).  These will look similar to the last batch of photos and hard to choose which to post so I will post them all.

 

 

And finally, my always reliable White-breasted Nuthatch.  They really don't seem bothered by me and are fun to catch upside down.

 

 

 

(above)  "Hello in there!"  Look at the feet.

 

(above) A classic pose.

 

(above)  Looks like a longer bill but has seed in it.

 

That is all.  I'll be watching for any birds that might be migrating.