Our birdbath is only about 8 feet away from us when we sit on the deck. The birds are getting fairly used to us being out on the deck and are starting to come to the birdbath more and more while we are sitting out there. It’s fun to watch them land on the deck railing, hop down to the birdbath, and then take a drink or a bath before flying off.
Last weekend we were sitting out on the deck eating some dinner and watching all the wildlife activity in our yard. Birds were coming and going from the birdbath but were a little skittish. They’d land, chirp a few times, and then fly off without really using the birdbath. That was until our local pair of Cowbirds showed up. The male boldly landed on the deck rail and immediately plopped into the birdbath:
After sitting in the water for a few seconds, as if he was testing it, he hopped up on the edge of the birdbath.
He looked over at us very quickly then hopped back into the water. For the next minute or so he was happily splashing away.
Water was flying all over the place. He wasn’t holding back. There was no way he wasn’t going to get clean!
He finally stopped and flew off after splashing all the water out of the birdbath 
We like our birdbath.
This past weekend Atlanta, and most of the Eastern half of the country, got a fair amount of snow. In the two years we’ve lived here this is the largest amount of snow they have had. While it was a “significant snow event” for Atlanta, it barely qualifies as snow for our old hometown of Chicago! Either way, it was nice to see some snow in the yard. I took a few pictures of the feeders and yard to prove that there actually was snow. Here they are:
A Winter Wonderland
This first picture is of the backyard at nearly the “height” of the storm. There was a bit of slush/ice on the roads for a few hours. The snow stuck around on the grass for a day or so and in the shady areas for nearly 3 days. We ended up with maybe 2″ of accumulation.
Carolina Wren
here is one of our regular Carolina Wrens sitting on the snow covered platform feeder. You can also see the beak of a male Cardinal peeking out from behind the tube feeder.
Cardinals And Yellow Rumped Warbler?
Here is a picture of a couple of cardinals along with what we think is a Yellow Rumped Warbler. There’s a little bit of yellow under the wings along with the “wing bars”. What do you more experienced birders think?
Another Picture Of The Warbler (We Think)
Here’s another picture of the bird we think is the Yellow Rumped Warbler. See the little bit of yellow on his head? The only place we didn’t see yellow was on his rump
Winter is on its way out here in Atlanta. March is usually when things start to warm up a bit here in the South so the late snowfall (March 1st) was a nice treat. Pretty soon we’ll be complaining about the 90 degree days with 90% humidity.
January 18, 2009 – 8:26 pm
This week was one of the coldest weeks Atlanta has had in a few years. The birds were eating seed like crazy. They also discovered our heated bird bath in large numbers as well as the little feeder we stuck to the sliding door to the deck. I tried to take pictures of as many birds as I could but they were always the same birds! Here are a few of the better ones I got:
Our recent invasion of Pine Siskin is a little unusual from what I understand. I guess they don’t usually appear down here in such large numbers. Here they are on our thistle feeder:
Here’s one of my favorite pictures to date. I got lucky with this guy who was sitting on the bird bath.
Here’s one of the Pine Siskin eating in our “stick on” window feeder.
This Eastern Bluebird was very interested in what was going on in the house.
I’m getting better at this bird picture thing but I still take a bunch in order to get a few keepers. Hopefully you enjoy the pictures as well
January 16, 2009 – 9:03 pm
Today was one of the coldest days we’ve had in Atlanta in a few years. Cold is relative thing however and our low to mid 20’s high temperatures, while “dangerously cold” for Atlanta, are barely cold at all if you live in the upper midwest. So, if you are reading this and your thermometer is -20, I’m glad I’m not there- Try to stay warm!
When I came home from work there was a lot of activity at our heated bird bath. I went upstairs to get the camera and when I got back downstairs all that was left were a couple of Mourning Doves:
They looked a little cold, all puffed up and just sitting there. The temperature was about 28 degrees so it was a little chilly. Pam and I get teased by our friends who live “up North” that we are becoming wimps by living in the South. I wonder if “Southern birds” get teased by their Northern relatives just like we do
January 10, 2009 – 6:47 pm
This evening, right before darkness settled in, a Pine Warbler came to our feeders. I’ve seen it a few times in our front yard but not at the feeders before. Pam has seen it a few times (early morning) on the feeder.
I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures hoping one of them would be OK. I didn’t have the tripod so I braced myself on the desk in the upstairs office. This was the best of 5 that I took:
There is a lot of noise in the picture, due to the low light I suppose, but at least you can see what the bird is.
This makes 10 or 15 species I have photographed at the feeders. I enjoy trying to photograph the birds in our backyard. I really would like to improve the quality of the pictures but I think I will need to get a decent spotting scope and good camera adapter to do much better. We’ll see, maybe sometime later this year we can get a spotting scope and try “digiscoping”.
What kind of camera setups do you use to take nature/bird photos. Any suggestions for affordable setups that work well?
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