A teenage Starling
looking into your soul. (They do have quite “human” eyes somehow, don’t they?)
More hummingbirds!
And I think this might be a young male because I see a teensy hint of red coming in at the neck (I added an arrow pointing to it in the second photo). I love his fuzzy little legs. I am not sure if the second one is the same bird. The light was different and I cannot see the red but otherwise they look pretty much identical with the little bulge on the neck and the black feathers in front of the eye.
Madame Queen Red Eyebrow
Even ruffled, she is a beauty. I love it that the Cardinals have started to come back a bit more. They have been mostly camera shy all summer.
This Grosbeak lady
is as good with her beak stick as I am with lip stick. Or maybe she is just trying to distract from the little molt around her eye.
Video: Ruby-throated Hummingbird
What a weird day today. It was hot and humid and looked like 5 pm all day, and the lens fogged up. But a Hummerman came! I slowed the video down a lot to show off his cool manoeuvers.
Long time no see!
Goldfinches are usually mostly absent for me in the summer. They are the latest nesters, I have heard, and they seem to spend some fun time out in the wild before they start building families. Right now, I see one or the other return, here a male in his glorious summer “clothes”. I have some shelled sunflower seeds out that they seem to like a lot.
The Blue Jays
and their babies are all over the yard at the moment. The funny thing is that they really don’t care where I place a camera, they will come and explore it as soon as I turn my back. Here, we have a baby, an adult and a baby with adult.
The smallsies
are slowly returning from their baby break. I have seen Goldfinches, Nuthatches and Chickadees more frequently in the last couple of days. They all look a bit rough around the edges, molting and parenthood are taking their toll.
This Grack
has a case of the Mondays. He also somehow reminds me of Maynard James Keenan.
(He is just molting.)
Bruuuce
had some good eyebrows last night. The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are also bringing their babies near the feeders now, I can hear their cute little whiny noises in the trees. I always found it funny how a bird that looks so impressive has the most adorable little sounds when it is begging. The complete opposite of a European Starling.
The Orioles
are back in full force, with babies calling everywhere, and parents busily taking jelly from the feeder into the trees. This year, it is somewhat interesting in how many different shades and states they come. It feels like in the past, they were more homogenously colored. These, I think, are two females.
The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
have been coming steadily, but I haven’t seen any of their offspring yet. They must have a nest close by, a nest by spider webs, because this guy always has them on his head. The photo is partially blurry but I thought it was cool because it shows the red on the underside of the wings. The female is much more camouflaged but beautiful nevertheless. I love these birds.
The Meow family
also seems to enjoy their time here. They are finding plenty of bugs and caterpillars, enjoy taking baths and judge you hard while sitting at the jelly trough.
No Blue Jay babies yet,
but I spotted the first molting Blue Jay today. The birds are shedding their feathers and grow new ones. This is part of why I am happy to feed them also during the warm season, to help them staying healthy and looking pretty soon again. I also love the photos from molting time because they present cool insights into bird anatomy and give some really cool dramatic looks.
The Hummingbird situation this year
is so different from previous years. Usually, by now I would have regulars. Few, but still. This year, I am seeing very little Hummingbird activity at all. I don’t know if it is because of the big storm that happened when they migrated or because so many more people are home and putting feeders out, but I have been missing my hummers. Today, though, I have seen a female and a male! And the female was brave enough to go for the camera feeder. I hope they both return.
The nectar is fresh and the feeders are clean here - spread the word!
I am looking for the little surprises
when I go through the photos each day. There are many factors that determine who I might see. Time, placement of the camera and the kind of feed are some. Today, I played around a bit. And I got Mr. Meow, the Catbird who I now decided is my favorite bird this summer, a young Redwinged Blackbird whose markings I loved, and a House Wren that would refuse to be in focus or in full frame.
I haven't been posting many photos recently,
but that is just because this is basically what the feeders look like right now most of the time. The Starlings and their babies have taken over a bit. These “takeovers” happen each season, and they will mellow at some point too. And no matter what one thinks of Starlings (Europe and the US perceive them a bit differently), the interactions between the youngsters and the parents are funny to watch. They do sound a bit like haunted witches, though.
During nesting season,
the birds bring all kinds of food to the feeder too when they make quick stops on the way back to their babies. I always find those photos interesting because I get to see more of the insect diversity of my backyard.
These babies.
The Bluebird babies seem to be much more alert this year. Usually, once the parents bring them down to the yard, they sit on the cameras while the parent flies from the bowl to the baby to feed it for a couple of days. But these babies are jumping down on the bowl themselves on their second day in the yard. I have a very good feeling about them, and I still don’t know how many made it so far. But I am madly in love.
