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A Cold Day At The Bird Bath

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:

Mourning Doves At The Bird Bath

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 :-)

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By Mark | Posted in Bird Behavior, Bird Pictures | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Pine Warbler At The Feeder

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:

Pine Warbler At Feeder

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?

By Mark | Posted in Bird Pictures | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

The First Bird Of 2009

January 1, 2009 – 9:07 am

Happy New Year!

It’s the first day of 2009 and Pam and I hope it will be a great year for all of you!

We also hope it will be a year of many new birds for both of us.  But, we all have to start somewhere each and every year.  So, as I posted yesterday, I thought I’d start off 2009 with a post about literally the 1st bird each of us see, whatever it is and wherever it is.  I think this bird qualifies as a significant bird for us because it will be the 1st bird of the first full year of birding for us.  It will hold the cherished spot atop our 2009 list and will be seared into our brains forever because of the circumstances in which it was seen.  The bird should be very proud of itself :-)

And The Winner Is

Pam woke up a bit before me and spotted a female Northern Cardinal as her first bird of 2009.

I got out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen to make some coffee and as I was walking back to the living room I saw a male Eastern Bluebird, all puffed up against the cold, eating some suet.

Here’s a picture I took a while back that shows the Cardinal and Bluebird hanging out together:
Eastern Bluebird and Cardinal

How About You

So, the Cardinal and Bluebird were our first official birds of 2009.  What was yours?

Please participate and post a comment about the first bird you saw today.  It will be neat to see what everyone found as they opened their eyes on January 1st, 2009!

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By Mark | Posted in Birdwatching, Significant Birds | Tagged | Comments (5)

We Finally See The Great Horned Owl

December 26, 2008 – 10:11 am

Over the two years we’ve lived here in Atlanta, we have heard, but never seen, a Great Horned Owl.  We could sit out on our deck and hear them calling to each other back and forth through the pines, especially in the Fall/Winter.  A couple of times we’ve seen a brief glimpse of a big shadow flying between the trees but never saw the entire bird.  Well, yesterday that changed!

Sitting On The Deck Minding Our Business

It was a beautiful Christmas day with temps right around 62. We were sitting on our deck watching the birds come and go from the feeder when we heard the familiar call of the Great Horned Owl.  He seemed to be way off in the distance, a few yards over.  A couple minutes later the sound was much closer.  Most of the time we hear them at dusk, when it’s too dark to see anything.  This time it was 3PM and still very light outside so I kept my eyes open in case I might actually see something.

A Big Shadow In The Corner Of My Eye

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big bird flying to the top of the neighbor’s pine tree.  I said to Pam, “over there” and we looked over in the direction of the shadow to see the owl perch on the tippy-top of a pine tree, about 100 feet up in the air.  Fortunately we had the camera with us out there so I was able to take some pictures:

Great Horned Owl On Pine Tree

Great Horned Owl On Pine Tree 2

I had to use maximum (12x) zoom on the camera and crop the pictures quite a bit to get these but they came out great as far as I’m concerned :-) The owl sat up there for about 5 minutes turning his head from side to side to listen to the other owls call. We heard two others besides him. Finally he flew off the tree towards one of the other owls. We saw him again a bit later sitting partway down a tree right before dusk.

Worth The Wait

While it was frustrating hearing the owls for two years without seeing them, it was worth the wait!  We were able to get some good pictures of the Great Horned Owl as well as fantastic views with the binoculars.  There was enough light and it was a nice clear day.  That was the first time I had seen an owl in the wild since I was a kid and the 1st time ever for Pam.  She was very excited to finally see one somewhere else besides the Zoo!

Now that we’ve seen the Owl we hope to see him again very soon.  They are magnificent birds and I think it’s neat that they are living amongst all of us people like this.  It shows how much nature is right in your backyard if you listen, and look, long enough!

By Mark | Posted in Bird Pictures, Birdwatching, Significant Birds | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Our New Bird Feeder Setup

December 22, 2008 – 10:58 am

This past weekend Pam and I added to our feeder assortment by replacing a feeder that was falling apart and adding a couple of new ones to the mix.  Hopefully this will give us a wider variety of birds.

Out With The Old

Here is a picture of our old feeder setup. Old Birdfeeder Setup You will see that we had a “tri-tube” feeder along with a finch feeder and a suet cage.  We were getting a fair amount of birds.  In fact, the feeders were always pretty busy.  But the triple tubed feeder was on its last legs.  Most of the feeding holes were chewed away, the result of squirrels getting on the feeder before we raised the feeder.  The seed would just fall out of the holes and the feeder was almost impossible to clean.  The finch feeder didn’t get much action.  We think maybe it was because it was so close to the other feeder and the goldfinches supposedly don’t like that.

In With The New

We set out to get a new tube feeder to replace the one we had.  New Feeder Setup We went to a couple of  stores that sell bird feeders and found one we liked, the BirdQuest Spiral Feeder.  Instead of perches it has a “spiral” that runs from top to bottom.  It is easy to clean and holds a lot of seed.  In addition we got a Going Green Platform Feeder which is made from recycled plastic and should last a long time.  It has a perforated grate at the bottom to help keep the seed dry.  We also pulled a feeder “off the bench” which my parents gave to us a couple of years ago.  It is a tube feeder with a cage around it to keep big birds out and allow the smaller birds in to get the food.  The suet feeder stayed at the same spot.  We took the finch feeder off the feeder pole and put it on a hook attached to our deck, away from the main feeder by about 20 feet.  Hopefully that will help the goldfinches come back.

The Results

We set the new feeders up late Saturday afternoon and by Sunday morning the birds were swarming the feeders.  They seemed to like the feeders, especially the platform feeder, which had a bunch of nuthatches and cardinals all over it.  So far, so good.  Another benefit that I didn’t consider is that the new feeder setup makes it easier to get photos of the birds.  I took a bunch on Sunday and will post some when I can get through them.

So far we are very happy with the new feeder arrangement.  The birds have a wider variety of options which will hopefully attract some new species and the feeders are better positioned for viewing from the house.  We are looking forward to seeing all of the birds that will come to visit.  Now, I just need a second job to afford all of the seed we are buying! :-)

By Mark | Posted in Bird Feeding | Tagged , | Comments (1)
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