First up, the bane of my existence in the summer and early fall season... the extremely gregarious European starling. As soon as the young leave the nest they somehow discover the suet feeders in our yard and manage to go through my suet at alarming, and expensive, rates. I use the inverted suet feeders which slows suet loss and I've also come up with a modification to the feeder which seems to help, but I still resent the amount of money and time I have to spend restocking the feeders.
Once the birds have matured (by just about this time of year) the problem is greatly diminished and I seldom have a problem until the following breeding season.
At the other end of the spectrum I had this Yellow warbler visit the watercourse this past week. (I also had a Yellow-rumped warbler visit but the photos I obtained were not as good.) The warblers are always welcome but are attracted only by other birds and the habitat we provide (as in water). Most of the warblers that visit the yard are only here for a few minutes before moving along, so I feel fortunate when I'm out with my camera and have the opportunity to photograph one.
]I just noted that my Lightroom software indicates that I have just over 200 warbler photographs cataloged. This wouldn't be all the photographs of warblers I have. I have some high-quality photos I took with my Panasonic 'point and shoot' camera and some other unprocessed photos I have taken with the Nikon D300S, but if you'd asked me a couple of years ago how many warbler photos I would have by now I couldn't have anticipated this many. They're generally difficult to find and even more difficult to photograph. My inventory was aided substantially by the driving trip I took through Oregon and Arizona this past spring.
And finally, if you do any bird-watching you'll understand when I say that there is no bird like the American robin that so enjoys a good bird bath. This one has popped up for a safety check before really getting into things!
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