MikeandRong

With the sun almost directly overhead in the picture, this Common Blue-headed Grackle was showing off his blue colors nicely, even the few he has on his outer wing feathers which most times you can't see unless it's in direct sunlight. He's waiting his turn for the Red-breasted Woodpecker to finish eating the peanuts before he will go in to feed. He doesn't want to mess with that long and sharp bill the Woodpecker has.

This Ruby-throated Hummingbird spent a couple of minutes feeding and chasing away the Yellow Jacket Bees that are starting to show up to drink the sweet sucrose water too.

The Blue Jay yearlings are doing great this year and look to be fully grown up and in nice color too. Only the crest on the top of their head will get taller and their beak will get a little darker black and thicker too once they reach full adulthood by next spring. I'm pretty sure this is the same bird in both photos, as the black coloring around his left eye is a real good match.

This Male Red-breasted Woodpecker in the top photo switched feeders and was still eating peanuts. The big Female Hairy Woodpecker in the second photo was doing the same thing too. Other than this feeder being in the sun at this time of day versus their usual one, they both have the exact same food inside. But these 2 pictures really let you see the size of them both and how this Hairy Woodpecker is really an exceptionally large sized one.

With the cooler weather in the nighttime these days, I'm starting to see some of the bird species disappear and probably starting to migrate. Not too many Goldfinches around these days and I haven't seen any males. This nicely colored Female Non-breeding Goldfinch was feeding all alone here today. She sure looks bigger than the typical Female does.

Had to take a break as I was under the weather for a few days, but got off 1 nice picture Monday evening. This is a Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak that I spotted. They migrate through here in the spring and only stay for about 4 days at most. The Males are a vivid black, red, and white and really stand out and I have never seen one come through here in the fall, so it will be interesting to see if any more make an appearance here at this time of year. They are usually paired up when here in the spring so I'm hoping to see the Male too.

We took a walk outside about midnight to see how the Cicadas were doing, and they were crawling out and hatching everywhere. There is excess clothesline balled up under the pine trees and they really seem to like that material to cling to. Most of them are just about head high, but some of them go way on up to about 20 feet before they shed their shells and start to dry out and harden. These are the yearly Cicadas that come out each summer all summer long. When we get the 17 year hatch they are red instead of green and they are out there by the millions, not just dozens like these here. Tomorrow morning they will all become bird food, thus starting the cycle of life all over again.

I slowly moved my body to the left, again lining up the thistle seed feeder. There is another non breeding Female Goldfinch along with a more yellow colored Female too this time. As I'm practically standing in the same spot as before and the sunlight has not changed I think it is 2 different birds than the alone one that was just feeding only 2 minutes prior to this, as these 2 Goldfinches have much more detail colored patterns and are somewhat brighter too. Again, all these different birds came in over a period of just 9 minutes, start to finish.

Well the movement I was seeing was this little Ruby Throated Hummingbird that didn't seem to mind too much I was standing up almost right next to the sucrose feeder. The clicking of the camera shutter is what seems to tend to spook them away more so than my presence being so near to them. On a windy day or with more birds squawking in the background I can get away with more noise and the same amount of motion without spooking them quite so easily. So as I am taking her pictures, I once again catch some movement back on the thistle feeder.

So I am standing up now and slowly moving to my right when this non breeding Female Goldfinch lands and starts to feed. She is pretty tame so I try to continue with my move right, trying to get the large tree in the middle of the background more off to the side. All the while I'm busy focusing and making minor adjustments, I can see movements out of the corners of both eyes. These non breeders sure do have some striking colors for being this late in the summer when the other birds are becoming more drab looking.

Tuesday brought a flurry of action in a matter of only nine minutes. This Female Hairy Woodpecker was busy eating and not paying any mind to the bird on the bottom of the feeder eating at the same time, and then the bottom bird suddenly flew away. A bald head peeked out from behind the reeder and it was the molting Male Red-bellied Woodpecker that had quietly snuck in for a bite to eat too. They both took turns looking at each other and the Hairy ended up flying over to the far left black oil sunflower seeds to eat in peace. But I also see a real raggedy looking House Finch squawking at her from the yellow feeder to her right. This Hairy Woodpecker just couldn't catch a break to be left alone to eat today.

Really sounds like a broken record, test fire this, test fire that, new tougher sanction this, new tougher sanction that. What's going to happen the first time there is an error or malfunction that occurs and some test falls short or flies too far, payload on board or not, and it happens to land in a populated area instead of the ocean or sea? Oops just won't cut it at that point of time. You can only post so many warning signs around the guard dog to keep away, don't pet, do not enter, etc.... and then there is always somebody stupid enough to go ahead and poke and antagonize it with a stick. It will come as no surprise when the idiot gets what he deserves, quick & overwhelming ferocity that should leave absolutely no doubt he should have let the sleeping dog lie.

Monday was overcast with rain and small bursts of thunderstorms on and off throughout the day, so no really good photo opportunities were to be had. The Doc had given me a new medicine to try last Thursday and I feel like I have drunk an entire urn of coffee the way it has kept me awake for the last 5 days now. Because of the rain we have gotten over the last 2 days I went outside to catch some Nightcrawlers for us to use as bait for when we go fishing later on this week. There were lots of new Cicada shells on the trees that I had not seen before tonight so I did a quick nighttime recon & survey and this is what is going on right now. Lots of fresh new Cicadas are emerging and crawling up the trees to shed their shells and dry and harden their bodies and wings before dawn brings out the birds that will have a Thanksgiving feast on this new hatch. The rain softened up the dirt just enough to give them their wake up call and start the next process of their lives. I'm half tempted to collect a couple cups full and have them for breakfast together with Mama, as this soft phase that they are going through the next couple of hours is easily the best time to collect them for cooking and eating.

Sunday started to warm up a little bit but some heavy low clouds hung around most of the morning. A cool colored Goldfinch was present so I went in to get the camera, but when I returned she was gone. I didn't even get a chance to sit down when this Ruby-throated Hummingbird darted in for a quick drink. Between my still standing up and the movement of raising the camera, it was a little too much activity on my part and these 2 photos were all I got. Rain moved in a short time later and that was enough to shut down my production for the rest of the day.

I never add anything to the food or water for the birds with the exception being some unsalted dry roalsted peanuts I get from the $store, or some dried out raisins with cranberries and blueberries that I add into the fruit and nut mix. Many many years ago I remember my Mother stop buying the liquid red food coloring, I think it was called Red Dye #2. The news was telling us that it can/could cause cancer in humans, even if used in cooking or baking. It was then even eliminated from the box of food color dye for quite some time, and none of our Easter eggs, Christmas cookies, or even M&Ms would have any red coloring in or on them either. Now days I do see the red being sold once again but I still won't use it (they say it's a different mixture now). If something needs a red color to be added to the recipe, some beets boiled in water and then reduced will do just as well and no worries about consuming it either. Those Red Tailed Hawks sure do get pretty once they are fully grown up, espically the larger Females. They are quite large when just perching and watching the fields for a meal. And when they are starting their circle climb and you can spot them while they are still fairly close to the ground, their wing span and wing markings are just as impressive as their rusty red/brown tail feathers. I'll be getting some much better and more closer pictures of the different birds of prey as Autumn starts to wind down and Winter starts to settle in. For now though it's just a quick glimpse inside a small window of opportunity that I can get if only confining myself to the yard.

Only a minute later I glanced over to the other sucrose feeder, which I converted from being an Oriole feeder, seeing I have only seen but 1 lone female perching on the power line and getting spooked away by a Dove rather quickly. I have no idea if it's the same Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the above photos or a different one. It looked a little bigger than the first one and had much more green color on its back. Sometimes they fly really slow and I can follow them throughout the yard and the various tree branches they stop to rest on. Other times they fly quite fast and pick a direct line between the trees or fly right over the roofline of the house, both departing or suddenly arriving from out of nowhere. But I like the change of color and different sunlight exposure, even though it twice as far away as the first feeder.

This Ruby-throated Hummingbird really enjoyed the warmed up sucrose water that I made for them today. She is much lighter in color than most of the others I have been seeing, and a picture search online has lead me to believe that this is a Female, but the black dots on her throats are throwing me off to be 100% positive. You can clearly see in most of the photos that her tongue is flicking in and out and up and down too. Pictures 1&2 show the up and down of her tongue and 3 shows how far in she pushes her beak to gain access to the sucrose. The last photo shows how long her tongue can be extended outwards. I've also been noticing that at times the birds will show up with a white powdery residue at various places along their beak, I'm guessing it is some type of flower pollen that they have picked up from somewhere else where they had been drinking at.

This different color phased Non-breeding Female Goldfinch caught my eye once again. Back on August 4th was when I photographed one for the first time and I haven't seen one of this color since then, until today that is. This one appears smaller in size and lacking the banana yellow head that the first one had, but the body, wing, back, and tail feathers all match the color phase of the first bird. This one acted quite tame in my presence just as the first one did too. They sure are pretty up close, but it never sang nor chirped, so I don't know if they sound the same at this stage of growth as a regular colored Goldfinch does.

These Red-bellied Woodpeckers always start calling from another tree before the fly in and land to eat, so I have plenty of time to get up and move in closer for a better picture. I think they are 1 year old brothers as I rarely see two of them eating together and yearlings don't molt their red head feathers. The first guy landed and just sat there for a minute not eating nor calling. His brother came in next and it appeared they greeted each other in a very non aggressive family type bonding. Happy with each other's company they took opposite sides of the feeder and each ate their fill and there was no aggressive or agitated behavior from either of them. This was pretty cool for me to be able to witness this from only about 10 yards away.

You would think that the Cicadas would be all done emerging this late in the summer, but they are still coming up new every single morning. This Black-capped Chickadee was busy climbing up and down the tree trunk in front of me, and as I had not seen them do this technique before I was watching him to try to see why. As he stuck his head into a deeper valley of the tree bark and started pulling on something, I then spotted the newly emerged Cicada in its beak. Because it was still soft and it's wings not even dried out yet, there was zero chance of escape. I only managed one quick photo of this happening and apologize for not getting a better focus before taking a picture. I just did not expect a Chickadee to be pulling out a Cicada so I was not prepared for the moment, thinking it would be just a hidden sunflower seed that the Nuthatch had previously stashed there.

This adult Female Cardinal was sitting on the feeder all alone and both chirping her baby call and wing beating without moving the rest of her body. She was not trying to fly and I finally saw a baby Cardinal land just behind her on a tree branch waiting to get fed. Turns out the stay in place wing flapping is a visual attention getter she was using in addition to her calling that lets her baby easily see her and know it's safe to fly on in to get fed. The parents will keep feeding their young as long as the babies beak stays the color black. After a very short period of time it changes to an opaque orange and then that's it, they are on their own. The last photo here (from last week Tuesday) shows this stage of turning orange and just how young they look when they are left to fend for themselves, all the while looking like a wet baby chicken.

Did not see or hear any Hawks this morning and that encouraged the rest of the birds to come on out and be fairly relaxed today while staying around for a bite to eat. This photo is of a new Adult Male Goldfinch that I don't recall seeing here before. He arrived and ate quietly, and the only time he started to sing was when he was all finished eating and starting to fly away.

Was still cold this morning and I have noticed that the Hummingbirds will only take but a quick sip until the sun warms up the sucrose water later on in the day. So I changed out the cold outdoor water for nice warm 80 degree inside sucrose water and waited to see what would happen. It worked like a charm, with those Hummingbirds staying a minute or two drinking and resting and then drinking again. This little guy was resting on the clothesline eyeballing the feeder and when he was ready, he did a quick sky jump off the line on down to the feeder hardly beating his wings until he was level, he then did a quick reverse thrust flare out with his tail to bring him to a stop, and then settled in for a drink.

It sure felt good, even with the windows closed the inside temp registered 66 and a flannel shirt was broken out for a couple of hours. I'll send some on down your way and we'll get those summer rentals packing up for sure. Just be sure to send some warmth up my way in about 5 months from now when the high is hovering around 0.

They were about 250 yards up at picture time. But when they take off from the neighbors tree they barely clear the tree tops even with their powerful wing beats. Once they get about 50 yards up they hit some wind currents and start a gentle giant circle, only gliding up to the next air current they want, never once beating their wings or flapping them. Probably at 400 yards they find the wind current they want and off they go pretty darn fast, and still gliding all the way. Amazing to watch them climb like that, I've seen the Sandhills do the exact same thing, only they go up even higher and do a much tighter circle to climb. It's the little Hawks that can maneuver in between the trees that the birds have to watch out for. The squirrels completely ignore the small Hawks and falcons that are here and just continue with whatever they were doing at the time. Birds go dead silent and rocket to the nearest thick bush, hedge, or pine tree for cover. The Falcon will follow them right into the heavy stuff too. But let a Redtail fly over or scream out and they all freeze and cling to the nearest tree like a statue. Once the trees lose their leafs I cut way back on the feeding just to make sure I don't draw any crowds, because I have witnessed way too many dive bomb kills in the yard. 10 or more at a time is just asking to get picked off, and more often than not it is a Dove or a Robin that stuck around and didn't migrate. But the Doves seem to be the number 1 choice for those bird eaters (not counting the mice and such), espically when their on the ground, or sleeping all alone on a branch in the afternoon. I've never seen a Blackbird, Woodpecker, or Songbird get picked off though, even the alone ones, maybe they just don't taste good. I've eaten Dove, Blackbird, Crow, Sparrow, and Starling before, and the Dove is by far the best tasting to me, so who knows. I still haven't seen an adult male Hummingbird with a ruby red throat come through here yet, and this morning it was 48 degrees in the backyard at 5:30am. And to think it was 89 on Monday, what a change!