Even Later August Yard Birds

I spent another couple of hours in the yard this afternoon photographing birds.   It was a good day... in addition to the normal cast of characters I finally managed to get a photograph of the parakeet that's been hanging around the yard for the past couple of weeks and... I think I photographed a vireo, the first I've ever seen in our yard.

Here's a Black-capped chickadee...

 

This woodpecker was one of what I was after... a female Hairy woodpecker.  We've had both Downys and Hairys hanging around the suet feeder for the past couple of months.  At one point this afternoon we had two Downys and a Hairy playing "merry-go-round" on the tree at the same time!  

I was excited about the opportunity to photograph this male House finch against a colorful flower background, but in checking my focus I realized that he had the disease that causes tumors on the head.  Eventually they will result in his death, either by blinding him so he can't find food or by disabling his beak so that he can't eat.  Either way it will be a sad ending. 

And the star of the show, what I believe to be a vireo... the first I've ever seen in the yard.  I was lucky to see it with all the sparrow traffic.  Please contact me if you have an educated opinion as to the species!   I have other photos but none that show the beak as well.  

Postscript:

I've about decided, after checking additional references, that this must be a Red-eyed vireo. 

Late August Yard Birds

I had some time to spend in the yard on Sunday and wanted to give my newly-repaired camera a stress test so I sat in the yard for a couple of hours in the afternoon and photographed birds.  I experienced no further problems with the camera on this day. 

First up, this Chestnut-backed chickadee.  This one looks a little rough either because it is from this year's crop or because it was recently in one of the bird baths. 

 A Red-breasted nuthatch, always a challenge to photograph due to their almost constant movement...

A young European starling whose ilk have been gobbling my suet and dirtying my bird baths.  I've cut down on the amount of suet the starlings consume by first using inverted feeders and then, this summer, by hanging four pieces of sturdy wire from the bottom of the feeders.  The starlings are not clinging birds and they have to flap their wings to maintain their position on the suet.   The wires, to at least some extent, keep them from hanging on the suet for longer periods of time and therefore limit the amount of suet they get for their efforts. 

A juvenile male Downy woodpecker, a frequent visitor to the suet feeder and occasional user of one of the bird baths... 

A female Hairy woodpecker, also a frequent suet feeder... 

Of note... a pair of our California quail successfully raised about 4-5 chicks this spring and summer.  However the adult female apparently disappeared at some point and the covey seems to be under the watchful eye of only the male.  Recently we had what was apparently another pair of quail show up with a single, tiny chick, apparently a late brood if you can refer to a single chick as a brood.  Despite the vigilant eyes of the parents I don't give this single chick much of a chance of being raised to maturity. 

As I type this (about 5:45am) the Great Horned owls which have been in the neighborhood for this year are vocalizing. 

If Only Life Were Easy...

I was notified yesterday that my Nikon D300S camera had been repaired and was back from Nikon's repair facility.  I drove down this morning to retrieve the camera and, having learned from the first time I took it in, I performed a few field tests while at the camera store.  Everything seemed to function fine. 

I returned home and in the middle of the afternoon took my camera out into the yard to re-familiarize myself with it.  (It's been gone for exactly three weeks!)  I had no sooner settled into my chair to view our improved watercourse when a Yellow warbler flew into the yard.  While it never visited the watercourse it did show an interest by flying over it several times, and the bird spent 6-8 minutes in the yard while I took photos.  Unfortunately I hadn't really gotten settled and the first photos I took were not with the full 400mm resolution.  Even more unfortunately, I just now discovered that Nikon set the camera to JPG instead of RAW so I missed out on additional detail! 

I spent a couple of hours in the yard thinking just how good life was to me, when my camera suddenly started malfunctioning again... exactly the same problem I had when I sent it back the two previous times!  (Periodically the camera refuses to recall the image to the screen or if it does it won't take any action on the image such as magnification, going to the next image, deletion, etc.)  Nikon, for it's part, this time charged me $250 to clean the camera and return it to specs... apparently their term for ignoring my description of the problem and simply running it through standard bench tests.  The dealer's main repair person was out until Monday but I plan to call her and find out what I can do to have the camera evaluated and fixed. 

So here are the photos I took of the Yellow warbler in the yard this afternoon...