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...

A New Look

No photos with this post. 

A couple of months ago a friend pointed out that I was photographing many of my yard birds on the same perch.  This was absolutely correct... I had a distinctive (as in forked) perch mounted perfectly above my water feature and many of my visitors would take advantage of that perch.  Once this was pointed out to me I realized that I had photos of many different species... all on the same perch.  I resolved to vary my habitat somewhat and to that end began canvassing friends for pieces of wood that I could rotate in and out of the watercourse landscape.  That I've done and in the process I've come up with a wonderful root that may serve as a permanent fixture adjacent to the pond... along with several other smaller pieces of wood that I plan to rotate in and out of the immediate environment. 

My wife had recently contacted a landscaper about doing some other work around the house and while those negotiations were occuring our original watercourse company left a couple of brochures on our door.  I contacted them yesterday and they came out and gave me a bid for some watercourse changes.  I accepted their bid and all the work is to be done in one day... today, Tuesday. 

Since the watercourse was installed I've had to photograph from north to south... ie, into the sun.  In addition, the roof shades the watercourse in the late afternoon.  I'm having the watercourse changed so that the water, instead of falling off the north face of the rock, will fall off the south face of the rock.   In addition, instead of a straight cascade it will have a curve in the cascade.  The upper and lower ponds will remain as they were... it's only the direction of the water that will get changed. 

This change will have several advantages.  I will have an access rock installed (actually I've pretty much already done that myself) that will allow me to more comfortably access the upper pond and watercourse.  The watercourse will now be much more visible from the kitchen so we'll be more aware of when it's being used and by whom.  I'll have the landscapers build in a few plastic pots so that plants can be more easily grown among the rocks.  And finally, I will be taking photos of watercourse visitors with the sun behind my back and for longer periods of the day since the roof will not be as much of a factor in terms of casting a shadow on the watercourse. 

The landscaping will be disrupted although the landscapers have promised to remove and replace the plants that have to be temporarily moved for the project.  So things will be rough for awhile but the way things grow in the PacNW the area should be back to normal by spring.  I'll try to take photos of the new watercourse and post them on this blog, but I've found in the past that such things don't lend themselves to displaying details in photographs.  If you're a friend feel free to stop by during the work or in the aftermath to view the new landscape.  And in a couple of weeks I will have my good camera back from Nikon and should be happily spending time in the yard again. 

And speaking of Nikon, if you use one of their cameras that utilizes a Compact Flash card you need to contact me for some money-saving suggestions!  

Fresh News and More Arizona Birds

Before I get to more birds of Arizona, I have a little yard news to announce.  Yesterday I was out in the yard and happened to look up to see a Peregrine falcon gliding overhead.  It landed in the top of one of 'our' trees!  To my knowledge this is the first Peregrine falcon that has landed in what I consider the yard. 

I can't remember whether or not I've mentioned this before, but since last Sunday we've had a green and yellow parakeet visiting the yard daily.  On the advice of a friend who has birds, we placed a bird cage (with food) in the yard under its usual area of interest but we never saw it land on the cage.  I tried edging a little pond net up near it but it was too skittish for that so we've pretty much given up on capturing the bird.  It is a very agile flyer but we never see it coming to a feeder and we worry what will happen to it when winter comes. 

I'm happy to be able to display four different species of warblers in this posting... with at least one more species to come.  All of these birds were photographed on the same day (5/1) in eastern Arizona near the small town of Portal.  at one point this general area was threatened by wildfires earlier this summer but I believe that Portal escaped the danger. 

This is a Black-throated Gray warbler, the first I had photographed...

What I assume is a Townsend's warbler, although the very similar Black-throated Green warbler has occasionally been seen in the general area. 

The Wilson's warbler, photos of which have previously appeared in this blog.  This specimen was displaying and I obtained several interesting photos.  

A Yellow warbler...

My skills with the use of Adobe Lightroom have improved which allows me to process my photos much more quickly, but I'm slowed in the case of the birds I photographed in the Southwest in that I'm out of my area of familiarity with the various species.  I don't consider that I have any identification skills beyond what I would term 'moderate', even in Skagit County.  Identifying these birds from my photos takes a lot longer and in some cases I have to rely on help from more experienced birders... when I can find dependable help.  Added to this is the frustration that many of the excellent photos of flycatchers that I obtained will probably never be able to be positively identified by anyone!  If you disagree with any of my identifications feel free to post to the blog. 

I received an update regarding my Nikon camera which has been in their repair facility for the past 2+ weeks.  Apparently in inserting a Compact Flash media card I bent some of the small wires in the camera body so that connection mechanism has to be replaced.  The same thing happened to a friend who has a similar camera, though a professional photographer friend of mine says that he has inserted the CF cards thousands of times and never had a problem.  My camera has a second slot for an SD card which is a much-improved design over the CF card so I'll be using SD cards for my primary storage and will download CF cards through the cable system instead of removing them from the camera.  A few more of those kinds of problems and I could purchase a new camera!  I've been missing the camera to document some of our summer visitors! 

BIrds of Arizona

First a little 'yard' news and then back to my spring trip to the Southwest.  Since this past Sunday we've had a garden-variety parakeet (also known as Great Horned owl food!) frequenting the yard, surely an escapee.  This birds is a very agile flyer and although it seems somewhat curious about human presence I doubt we have any chance to capture it.  I've taken some photos with my small Panasonic 'point-and-shoot' but since my good camera is still with Nikon I don't plan to post any photos.  If you want to know what it looks like just visit your nearest pet store and ogle the green and yellow variety! 

First up, from Cave Creek Canyon just outside Portal, AZ, is this small flycatcher.  These small flycatchers are very difficult to definitively identify without vocalization and even had I heard any it wouldn't have helped me.  If anyone wants to hazard a guess as to the species let me know. 

I photographed this bird from the car.  I drove up on it and it immediately flew to a brand just outside the passenger window, so close that I was surprised my camera would even focus on it.  I managed to get two photos before it flew off. 

Again from Cave Creek Canyon, this from the upper walking-only part of the canyon.  I sat by the creek for an hour or more hoping for an Elegant Trogon, but it was not to happen.  However I bagged this fine consolation prize... a Painted Redstart.  

Just outside Portal, AZ, I encountered hoards of migrating warblers.  I made several trips up and down the road photographing them from my car, then returned on foot later in the morning.  This is a Wilson's warbler, one of the more common warblers we have in Skagit County in the spring.  If you've been following this blog for long you may remember one (or more) I photographed in our yard.  

And finally, also in the Portal area, a Yellow warbler also found along the road.