Big Red
and his merry gang of friends in some photos from yesterday. Cams are out and ready today too - with snow on the ground and beaming sun, perfect conditions to harvest wonderful bird footage. I have to work today but the mood is definitely Christmassy with all that beauty outside. Snow and sun days are my favorite. Stay warm and have fun today!
We woke up to a winter wonderland
this morning! Everything looks pretty and there is quite a bit of activity but I loved these quiet moments at the bird bath. Until the thirsty MoDo arrived, that is 😆 They always drink as if they have a hangover. (You see a Junco, a female Cardinal, a male Cardinal and a Mourning Dove.) Stay warm today! (Music is a copyright-free clip called: A simple piano with a kindness like sunbeams filtering through foliage (1378519)). You can watch this bird bath on my Youtube channel as well.
Sorry for being a little quiet
here right now. I am trying to get a huge pile of work out of the way before the holidays, and it is taking all my time and energy. The Michigan perma-cloud is not helping either - little bird activity and the cams require extra charging. Be back soon! I hope you are all enjoying the holidays. Here is a picture from the Birdfy the other day that made me laugh out loud because it fits so perfectly right now, so I added some holiday swag to it too 😆
After doing this for about 8 years now,
sometimes I feel like I am getting a bit snobby when it comes to the bird photos I post. I know there can’t always be super exciting visitors, and this year seems to be especially odd too. So today here are some of the humble regulars but also a spectacular special guest because there happened to be one today. House Finches are some of the most loyal feathered friends around here, they stay year-round and also raise their babies here. The colors of the males can vary a lot, all according to what they eat. I love checking out all the details on their heads, the textures and colors are wonderful. Another regular, at least in the fall and winter, is the Goldfinch. Tiny feisty fellows who are not shy to show attitude towards their own or other birds when it comes to food, so this photo was perfect.
The special visitor today was Count Grackula again. I guess he is hanging around somewhere here, maybe waiting for temps to go up a bit again. Stay warm and have a lovely weekend.
It has been another busy week,
for some reason things do not slow down before the holidays at all… I have been busy posting videos on my socials and also my Youtube, so if you crave content, please check there too. And like every year, I also ordered my own calendars to give to family. I thought I'd share so you can see what they look like. They turned out really nice. The first one is the desk calendar (the black stuff is to fold the stand), the other one the rectangle format in the smaller size. You can get them here: https://t.ly/QOxEo
We are at the end
of the calendar bird introduction. November shows the sweetest Cardinal lady, and December is graced by the ever adorable Tufted Titmouse. I am yearning for that snow cover but the forecast looks good for the coming days. Stay warm and get calendars here (a link is also on the main page here).
December is here,
and now it feels like this year went by in the blink of an eye. We put some lights on the house today, it was frosty and the feeders were busy. The female Redbellied Woodpecker came down, usually it is mostly her guy. You can see a bit of her red belly here. Have a lovely holiday season!
September of my 2025 calendar
shows a young Mourning Dove. It has left the ugly fledgling state and has a very interesting, and I find, beautiful look with pretty patterns on the feathers. It already has the temperament of the adults too, as you can see in this photo where it starts to fend off a food competitor by raising the wing. The October bird is one of the lovely Redbellied Woodpeckers that are around here year-round. I found this photo fun because it is a bit unusual in the pose. Calendars are still on sale here (Linked also on main page here).
Happy Thursday, everyone!
I hope you are all in a comfy spot with lovable people, sweatpants ready and silverware in hand. I am thankful for my health, my family, the kitty, the birds and also all of you. And I am looking forward to spending the day making delicious food and watching the Lions win (🤞) Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy new week!
The August and July bird are here to remind you that my calendars will be on sale all week until Dec 1. Count Grackula for August was a favorite this year and even made it into gorgeous lead glass art. The female Redwinged Blackbird I loved because you can tell what she is by her epaulets, but the pose is also a bit unusual for #bird photos. The calendars are available here (link is also on my main page here).
May and June
of my calendar for 2025 show a Hummingbird and a Baltimore Oriole. May is my birthday month, and I love hummingbirds, so that choice was easy. I am seeing fewer and fewer every year, and this year was especially bad but maybe also because I could not properly take care of the garden this spring. June is a Baltimore Oriole, and there were many here this year. I love their calls and their colors and am always sad to see them leave.
My calendars are on sale for the entire coming week until Dec. 1. (My shop is here, but also linked on my website: t.ly/QOxEo) Bird photography (I know it feels like a lot of "shopping" stuff right now but I will return to normal business soon.)
Another trailcam test - the CEYOMUR CY75
Things are still on the quiet side here, but the weather is getting cooler and I am hoping for some snow soon. In the meantime, I have been given the opportunity to test another trailcam by Ceyomur, the CY75. It arrived yesterday, so I cannot be super conclusive yet but I am rather pleased with the photo quality of this trailcam. The info page claims it has 60 MP photo quality but this is not the true number. I tried 8 MP, and I think from all the cams I have tested so far, it produces the best photos, and they may even be ok printed. The camera comes with a solar panel and requires 4 AA batteries. I use rechargeable ones for my trailcams and always have some charging and some in use. It has been cloudy here and little activity but so far the camera holds up. The info page says it has a 0.1 s reaction time, which is faster than the other Ceyomurs I am using, but I will have to test some more to see. A fast reaction time is good especially for birds since some may get missed because they are too quick. This is where the photos come in handy because sometimes they show a bird that has not been captured on the video. As the other ones, it also comes with an app, a different one than the other Ceyomur cams, and it will also create a little WiFi network between your phone and the camera to check the positioning and settings and also the camera roll. The app is very responsive and also gives information about the temperature outside. Settings-wise it comes with all the things the other trailcams from this company have too. Photo mode, video mode (it claims 4K quality and the videos look good but I am not sure what the native resolution is), and photo + video mode where you can choose how many photos it will take (I always do three to get a glimpse and preview for the video clips), and it also has a timelapse function for video and photo. I have not tried those yet.
The one downside I have found so far is that the sound is not really stellar. It has the weird mechanical noise effects that make it sound a bit like in the gutter. But with some editing, things should be ok. I may also try to tape a piece of foam over the microphone to see if that helps.
The camera comes with a preinstalled 32 GB SD card. It was a bit hard to get out because it goes in on the side and with the back to the front but once you get a hang of it, it works well. I don’t know how long it would take to get the card full since I check it every day. It is not a micro SD, so harder to lose in the grass.
The camera is a bit bigger than the others and I will try to mount it in different spots to test it more in the coming weeks. You can check and get it here.
March and April of
my 2025 calendar are an American Robin (Michigan's state bird!) and a pair of Blue Jays. Robins leave my area for the coldest months but return in March to stake out their territory. I love them dearly and am always happy to have them nest around my yard. Blue Jays are all-year regulars, but it is rare that they share the food bowl, so this was a special photo. It is rainy and dark here today, I hope these photos can provide some cheer. (Calendars are available here.)
Surprise visitors!
The orange heated bath had a broken plug, and I replaced it today. The first visitors were a wonderful surprise... The Bluebirds came back! And it looks like it was at least three. They raised a brood here in spring but I have not seen a lot of them this year. This makes me incredibly happy because I really missed them. I hope they will stick around for the winter like they did in previous years. I found the bath on Amazon, it was not too expensive and I like the way it comes with a mounting ring in which the bowl sits. Easy to take out and clean. We will see how well it holds up.
It's a true November day today,
rainy and dark. As a Gemini, I thrive on light and air, so I can use some extra serotonins now. Baked goods with cinnamon help, and chocolate too, but so does nature! There have been some visitors at the tree cam, with a special one last night 🦉Sending love out to you all.
It is a bit calm in the yard,
which is just as good of a time to introduce some of the calendar birds. The year is greeted with a Dark-eyed Junco. These little birds are usually here from October to April, and live farther north for the rest of the year. Their arrival and departure are always good markers for a seasonal change. They make the funniest noises and are very active with one another. The camera often takes blurry motion shots so this clear photo was a lucky shot. I love these little guys. February is a rare one, an American Tree Sparrow. The spot on the chest gives it away, otherwise they look a lot like Chipping Sparrows. I see these birds rather rarely, and almost never on the cameras, even though they are around, also mostly in the cold season. I liked this shot because the bird looked so confidently into the camera and you can nicely see all the details in his plumage and face. You can find my calendar shop here and there is also a link on the starter page on my homepage here.
When the waves of life roar wild,
I find solace and peace and joy outside. The birds, critters, sun and trees are a constant that calms me. The Blue Jays were eagerly waiting for refills all day, as they always do, and that gave me a comforting feeling of normalcy. I feel lucky to have that and share some of it.
Bird royalty visited today!
A couple of Purple Finches! I only ever see these guys during migration times, and usually only for one or two days. This video starts with a female House Finch who is then joined by the Purples. If you look closely, you will notice differences between the species. Especially the male has some features that clearly distinguish him from his House Finch counterpart (dots instead of stripes on chest and belly, red on the wings, a pronounced darker bar on the face and a very active crest). I hope they stick around, I want photos too!
A group of Redwinged Blackbirds
is currently visiting while traveling to their winter quarters farther south, and I am loving the sight of these immature birds. Redwinged Blackbirds are a favorite to begin with but the immatures have all kinds of golden patterns all over their bodies, which looks really nice. The more streaky looking one is a female. Bonus is a Chickadee. There is quite a group of them around, and they are working the feeders and baths all day and also check out the nestbox occasionally. Some may be part of the family that was raising young there in the spring.
When I am talking
about lacking diversity, I am also talking about these guys who used to be regulars - Tufted Titmice. They are one of the cutest birds we got here, and they have made themselves so rare that every visit is an event to me now ❤️ It is so nice to see them coming back.
