Friday, August 29, 2014

Our Birds

We have been feeding the birds for many years, but due to our planned travels this year, we didn’t want them to become feeder dependent then quit feeding them.  As it turned out, the travel plans got cancelled so we decided to begin feeding them again.  I’ve always been in awe of the variety of birds visiting Betsy’s feeders (Joyful Reflections), so I ask her to send me some shots of her feeding area then we had a couple of conversations about the details.

Before getting into the songbirds, I’d like to tell you about our Hummers – I believe Bev has four feeders for them and one is on the bedroom deck and visible from the living room.  This is the window we look through with the feeder on the left side of the middle window and it’s fun to watch them fly right up to the window if they arrive in spring to no feeder or if it runs out of food, as it did last week.


During a recent visit from Betsy and George, they gave me some instruction on how they set their cameras for various shots and I shot these from inside the bedroom using my long lens, a tripod, and the Av camera setting (5.6) which provide a 1/320 shutter speed.  They definitely turned out better than my normal shots.




Now for the songbirds feeding station, which we’ve located in the new landscaping next to the patio and visible from the kitchen window.  The area contains one of the hummer feeders, a birdbath and four hanging feeders – two with sunflower seeds, one with thistle, one with meal worms, and two suet feeders.


After this shot, I moved the meal worm and thistle feeders to various places around the yard as I need to slowly lure the bluebirds and gold finches around to where the new feeders are located.

Thanks Betsy and George for the camera and feeding advice.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/25/14 event date

15 comments:

  1. our internet was too slow your pics would not load.

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  2. our internet was too slow your pics would not load.

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  3. Great shots Larry. You have a very nice system for the birds and I know you both must really enjoy them. The hummers can get quite aggressive for little guys when it comes to their feeders.
    Sam

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  4. I love that hummingbird feeder. It's so pretty. And don't you dare let it get empty.

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  5. I love your hummingbird pictures! I've had a pair of mourning doves wandering around my courtyard this week, along with the usual assortment of northeastern birds in the yard.

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  6. Great shots Larry! The hummingbird feeder is really pretty and I also love the lamp you have in the first photo.

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  7. I'm excited for you.... Just be patient and soon you will have all kinds of varieties of little song birds... If you ever get a photo of a bird you don't recognize yet, just send it to me and I'll keep you informed...

    I have 3 hummer feeders --and have yet to get a good picture of them this summer... We always have more hummers here at the end of the season (like now) than we do in spring... Don't know why--but they don't come up here very early--or at least, they don't come to our feeders until mid-summer... And even then, we don't have too many up here.. BUT--the ones we get are Ruby Throated Hummingbirds and so pretty....

    Good Luck.. I love your set-up.... Keep me posted. The photos you got are excellent.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  8. We were late getting our hummingbird feeder up this year, it's out by our deck usually. So I'm out there grilling two weeks ago and see the hummingbird hovering nearby. He goes over to the weeping cherry and alights on a branch, looking at me. I swear he was saying, "where the hell is my food, dude? I come here every year!"

    Got it up for them that afternoon. Always fun watching their aerial acrobatics as they battle for the territory. Last year it was a 2 against 1. A pair would trick the most territorial one (a red throated guy) by having one hummingbird come in to get "chased off" by Red Throat and as he was chasing, the other hummingbird would swoop in from the other side of the house and get a quick meal before Red Throat came back. We watched them do this time and time again, pretty cool strategy.

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  9. Great shots, Larry! The hummingbirds are fantastic. We feed the birds here too and have a lot of visitors. A couple of years ago, we had a nest of baby Cardinals, and baby Blue Jays, both the same year. We have a lot of wren bird houses. We were told to have all the houses face East so the birds would occupy them. It's fascinating the way they decide which house to use, load up a nest in one, dismantle it to another house, for the momma's inspection and back to another one yet again. And the babies are noisy, noisy.

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  10. Birds are fun to watch. It is amazing the variety, colors and sizes you can attract. We have a simple bird bath that gets a lot of use. We also grew sunflowers and let the birds have at them. Wow, what a show.

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  11. Great humming bird shots! I love to watch them going to and from my flower beds.

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  12. I am totally impressed with that hummingbird shots! Did you make that stained glass piece?

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  13. Larry, So now you've gone to the birds! Good hummingbird photo... Working those camera lessons! Looking good! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  14. Wow, Larry, you certainly have taught me a lot about photographing hummers in this post! I can't imagine life without all of the wonderful birds and their songs! I will try to follow your instructions and attempt to capture some hummers (sadly next summer, since they are in departure mode) on camera to enjoy looking at!
    Thanks so much,
    Roz

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