Date Night for the Goldfinches
Date Night for the Goldfinches
After a long day of nest building, socializing and flying around just being darned cute, Mr. and Mrs. Goldfinch enjoy an intimate dinner and light conversation at The Thistle Sack. Children will come later in the season and they’ll be much too busy then.
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Well Camouflaged
Well Camouflaged
A goldfinch landed just for a moment in the river birch as the sun shone through all the new leaves on everything. The photo is taken through a double pane window at an angle into the sun, I’m shocked I could focus at all and glad I caught this little guy.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Sing Your Song
Sing Your Song
The wren may be the size of your thumb but she fills the morning.
I have been trying to get this photo for years, the wren standing up with her head thrown back and her mouth open, especially in the morning light. They flit around so fast and I’m often photographing through my window so I can’t follow their flight. But I heard a sudden burst of wren song and looked out to see this little one on the deck railing. I focused and caught one-two-three photos as she hopped a step or two between each verse and looked to see…that I had forgotten to change the filter on my camera from incandescent to average balance, so the three photos were tinted very blue. I can remove that, but I also noticed that the plastic bag I’d used to line a hanging basket on the edge of the deck railing (the cocoa shell liner is seen at the right edge) had been pulled up by either one of the squirrels or one of the birds, and it just wasn’t something I wanted in this lovely photo. I had one more chance before she hopped behind the post and flew off, and this was that one chance.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Make it Stop
Tufted Titmouse
This is a little tufted titmouse I photographed over the weekend when it was snowing and icy…again. The little guy got his wish! Today was in the 40s, and it’s getting warmer.
Photographed through my window.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Breakfast!
Just the three sparrows.
Breakfast!
The sparrows fill the forsythia, twittering until I fill the feeder on the deck and go back inside, though plenty of times they’ve “jumped the gun” and nearly landed on me in their excitement to eat. I managed to get this shot when I get back in the door and took a group photo of them waiting in the forsythia, and managed to catch three of them taking flight.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
It’s A Bird Bath, Not…
Buttwarmer
…a Buttwarmer! I put hot water in the bird’s winter water bowls each morning, and some birds use it for other purposes than drinking and bathing. The birds were very amusing today, almost as if one more snowfall made them as crazy as the rest of us.
Another dove came up to the three warming their butts and asked to use the facilities.
Do you suppose I can fit in there?
Guess not!
Guess not!
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
A Home on the Trail
A Home on the Trail
I took a few minutes to have a quick walk on the Panhandle Trail on this lovely sunny afternoon, just a light coating of snow in some areas, lots of birds singing. The new hand-painted birdhouses are really brilliantly colored in the winter landscape. Can’t wait to see who nests in this one come spring!
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Camouflage
Camouflaged
There really is a subject, or subjects, to this photo.
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First World Bird Problems
First World Bird Problems
This little guy was lucky enough to find the empty ice cream cone someone had put on top of the fence post by the Dairy Queen. He’s lucky to live in a place where food and water are plentiful not to mention the occasional treat, and it’s far more than he can eat, but when another sparrow comes along and takes a bite he doesn’t want to share, complaining to that other sparrow in typical sparrow fashion. Watch the slideshow below to see the rest of the action.
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All images in this post are copyright © Bernadette E. Kazmarski and may not be used without prior written permission.
Baltimore is Back!
Baltimore Oriole
I’ve heard his chatter and song off an on for a week or so and I finally spotted him. The Baltimore Oriole is back in the back yard, leaping from branch to branch high in the maples, looking for a good meal of bugs and other good stuff. I first spotted one in my yard nearly 15 years ago and it seemed to be lured to the wild black cherry. Since then I’ve let a few extra mulberries grow because orioles do like their fruit and will nest near a good food source. I had found the hanging way at the end of a branch in the maple in the front yard, then a few years later in the maple in the back yard; somewhere I have a photo of it, but I’ll be darned if I can find it.
Wild Black Cherries
Mulberries
The leaves are just big enough now that birds are obscured, and the females are about the color of new maple leaves, so though I scanned the trees top to bottom with binoculars I did not spot the female. I’ll keep a lookout for this year’s nest, and keep my hummingbird feeders full and add the oriole feeder this year as well as put out some orange slices and other tasty fruits. The mulberry tree directly under this maple has the biggest, darkest, juiciest mulberries on any of the trees in my yard, in fact, they look more like big blackberries. The wild black cherries are small and turn a deep black-purple. This seems to be the fruit varieties and colors the orioles like best, although both trees are often considered “pest” or “weed” trees because from blossoms to fruits to leaves to branches they are “messy” trees. I’ve no doubt, though, they are two of the reasons I have so many bird species in my yard.
They’re not named for the city of Baltimore, but both the city and the bird were named for the British Baltimore family whose colors are orange and black.
These were the best photos I could get from the ground and from the deck. The maple trees are 70 to 80 feet tall and this guy was happily hopping along the tops of all the branches. If I can get a shot from the second-floor window I’ll be so happy! And I may have to seriously consider fitting a converter onto my 70-300 lens, or getting a lens up to 500mm.
Baltimore Oriole
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All images in this post are copyright © Bernadette E. Kazmarski and may not be used without prior written permission.
The Belted Kingfisher
Fishing for dinner.
This bird has been teasing me for two years as I walk along this section of the creek on my way to and from Main Street. He blends in with just about any backdrop and waits until I just about stumble over him, makes his chittering little noise and flies off before I have a chance to even get my camera in position!
Closeup of kingfisher.
Of course, he’s protecting his territory, holding fast until the last moment, then leading me away. He’s still been impossible to photograph as I either haven’t had my good camera with me or changing lenses took too long, but in the process I’ve had a chance to observe more of his habits, which saplings he flies to, when he skims down to the water, and even dives in. And he is a male; the female has a band of copper on her chest below the gray band that both sexes wear.
View of the kingfisher from the side.
So today I followed this bird along one bank of the creek, then back, across a bridge and down the other bank for a ways, and across a second bridge. To explain, two bridges span the creek maybe 100 yards apart, and the creek itself is about 40 feet wide though the banks are high. The light can be tricky, but I finally got the photo I wanted along with a few extras, and two I didn’t expect to get!
Taking flight.
The temperature was about 20 degrees, about 4:30 pm, and this kingfisher was looking for a dinner of fresh fish, really remarkable for our creek which had once been so polluted algae wouldn’t even grow in it. I didn’t want to bother him too much, but I really couldn’t imagine voluntarily diving into that frigid water for my dinner, but this time he wasn’t concerned about me—and I think he got his dinner!
Splash!
Perhaps the kingfisher is a more accurate predictor than Phil the groundhog. Kingfishers symbolize sunshine, warmth, love and prosperity and presage new adventures.
Kingfisher on a branch watching the water for fish.
All this while two mallards were floating around on a date. More about the two of them and their shenanigans another time. Ah, spring.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Red-breasted Mergansers
Which way?
Even from a distance as I took my shortcut from Main Street under the bridge along the creek I knew these three water fowl were neither the common mallards I’m accustomed to nor the geese I’d seen earlier. Being able to look through a telephoto lens is almost as good as having binoculars sometimes—the crunchy snow and ice on the ground made quite a bit of noise and the birds, whatever they were, might easily be startled and take off before I was close enough to get a good photo.
Cruising along.
These are taken at 300mm, and from a distance of about 50 yards, but I knew those mohawks were something special! And the long thin beaks and red eyes. I took as many photos as I could and looked them up in my bird guide as soon as I got home and found they looked like the entry for red-breasted mergansers. A cross-check with a wildlife biologist confirmed it.
Through the rapids
They are far more common on larger or deeper bodies of water like lakes and rivers, not 18″ deep Chartiers Creek, but I was glad to welcome them here and actually get photos of their visit.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Animals
Kele, a barred owl
This is Kele, a barred owl who I met today at the Wildbird Recovery Fall Migration Festival, a wonderful way to celebrate the first day of autumn. The facility rehabilitates and returns injured wild birds and provides refuge to the ones too injured to return to the wild, as well as a few other animals. In May I rescued a starling that had been clipped by a car on my street, and took it to this facility; in thanks for what they do I donated a print of a painting to this event.
There were may more than I could share here; the sky was bright one moment and completely overcast the next, making photographs of some animals prone to constant movement less than successful.
Below, Kele makes an emphatic point with his wings and tail, showing some of the bars that make up his species name. If you look closely you’ll see the top curve of her beak is a little off-center. He was found by a hiker on a nature trail and had apparently fallen from his nest at a very young age which caused the unfixable beak injury as well as a wing injury. Whether or not the bird is returned to the wild is not the decision of the rehabbers but of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture through an application by the rehab facility explaining the animal’s health issues. Both of Kele’s injuries prohibit him from flying or hunting in the wild, so he got a job at Wildbird Recovery as an education bird, as did a few others below.
Kele shows off his bars
Below are Aleron and Lucian, two screech owls apparently waiting for dusk and ignoring the humans. Note how much their feather patterns look like tree bark. When the screech owl took up residence in my maple tree in the front of my house, I heard him but could not find him until I got out the flashlight after a few nights of hearing the whinnying calls. Now we have conversations at night sometimes; he has taught me well how to imitate him.
The feathers in the disk around an owl’s eyes work as a funnel to direct the sound to the owl’s ears. Each species of owl has a different disk around the eyes.
Aleron and Lucian, Eastern Screech-Owls
Below is Orion, an American Kestrel, the smallest falcon in North America. They are predator and prey—when they fly in search of food on the ground, their underside feathers are blue, white and tan, which disguises them against the sky to any animal looking up at them, yet from the top they are tan and gray and brown so they are disguised from birds of prey.
Orion, an American Kestrel
I didn’t get to know everyone’s name. For a few other friends I met today, here is a handsome colt trying to charm me into unlocking the gate.
A young colt having a great time in the paddock.
And here is a sweet donkey who probably thought I was digging in my bag for treats rather than for my camera.
One of several donkeys.
And if there was ever a bird that looked as if it was put together from the spare parts of other birds, it is the Muscovy Duck, domesticated for centuries from wild ducks and raised for meat. They rarely escape, but are sometimes kept as pets and abandoned.
A Muscovy Duck
You can read more about Wildbird Recovery, other education birds and their programs on their website.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Fledgling Blue Jay
Fledgling blue jay
A fledgling blue jay hopped onto the deck rail, not sure what to do, so he talked about it. The bird water bowl is right there and no doubt it’s a regular stop for the bird’s parents, but he didn’t seem to get the idea, instead flying off.
I photographed this through the screen on my back door which softened the focus and added a little refraction to the highlights, and I kind of like the effect.
White-throated Sparrow
White-throated sparrow
Lots of sparrows visit my feeders right outside the windows, and while I’ve heard white-throated sparrows I’ve not seen one, at least not up close. I know they are ground feeders, and in winter I will often hear their little “tseeet tseeet” at dusk and see them deep in one of the dense bushes. But those stripes on his head, the yellow markings and especially that white spot really stood out—this one was right up in my lilac, not coming to the feeder just above it, but scouting the ground underneath before diving down for a prize seed.
White-throated sparrow
Couple of Finches
Couple of Finches
Looks like they’re an item! Both are nearly finished molting from their winter coats to their summer coats, the male bright yellow, the female more of a dull olive, all the better to blend in with the scenery when it’s egg-sitting time. They don’t actually nest until later in the summer, when the thistles are blooming, but that doesn’t mean they can’t stock up at the thistle feeder.
I couldn’t get my telephoto lens on my camera fast enough, so this was taken with the regular portrait lens, it’s a little grainy.
Great Blue Heron: 2011
Great Blue Heron
I found her in her favorite morning fishing spot, though she grew angry and flew farther downstream before I had my camera ready. I readied my lens and crept to the top of the bank as off she flew!
This isn’t in a park or conservation area, this is right in the middle of Carnegie. I dropped my car off for service and walked back home, dipping down by the creek, studying a few industrial areas, walking down a few alleys instead of main streets and then walking on Main Street itself.
Chartiers Creek winds through the middle of town and beyond in both directions, and a colony of great blue herons nests about 11 miles away, considering the entirety of the creek’s channel as their hunting ground. For the most part the creek is less than a foot deep, and today the air turned slightly warmer again, warming the water and bringing out the small creek fish, carp and darters. The heron stands on the gravel on a shallow edge of the creek and as the fish swim between her legs she just reaches down with that long neck and picks them out of the water with her beak like tweezers.
When the heron is standing still in the water, she is so slender that she looks like a twig or thin tree branch standing up in the water. But when she decides to fly she is hard to miss as she looks like a prehistoric creature, some sort of pterodactyl, with her long beak, long hooked neck and immense wingspan, plus those long gangly legs. Not to mention she is quite blue.
Those big, long wings are so graceful that I can’t even describe it.
I’ve been playing in this creek since I was a child. Both the heron and the fish she eats are signs that a creek horribly polluted by industrial waste has found a new life. I’m glad to see it coming back.
Disagreement
Starlings
The starlings made a mess of the bird feeder, but they were certainly entertaining while they were at it. Heavens, the drama!
Spring Bath
Spring Bath
It was not warm today, but this sparrow couldn’t wait for his bath! His buddies were next, but actually thought better of it after being splashed pretty liberally. Or perhaps they didn’t need to actually get into the birdbath after that.
The birds are truly preparing for spring, singing away, pairing off, looking for nesting sites, and eating anything in sight.
Silly Wren
Silly Wren
Wrens always have to be different. I think this little one was overwhelmed by the choice of feeders on the deck.
Waiting for a Thaw
Waiting for the Thaw
Two doves are a little disappointed to find the bird bath is frozen with overnight temperatures below freezing. I guess they’ll just wait for it to thaw.
Instead, I’ll head out there with a teapot of warm water soon.
Wren Returns, 2010
Wren
This bossy little wren is likely a return from last year, finding the two feeders as soon as I hung and filled them. Here, she is on the post at the bottom of the steps to my deck debating which one to visit next. Whatever she decides, we are sure to hear about it.
I put out two more feeders today in the back yard and it was as if the birds had been hanging around waiting. They were immediately in the flat feeder with the mixed nuts, and then in the feeder out under the trees.
This usually means they are returning birds since they are well-acquainted with the accommodations. Welcome back!
Find the Killdeer in This Picture, 2010
Find the Killdeer in the Picture
There are six killdeer in this photo, cleverly camouflaged in their natural living and nesting habitat of rocks and pebbles in moving water.
I had focused on one of the birds, and saw a few others, but it wasn’t until I downloaded the images and opened them on my monitor that I saw all the others. Clever camouflage!
I took the photo along Chartiers Creek in Carnegie.
A story about killdeer actually inspired me to set up this daily photo blog, and they are the subject of my very first post on this blog: https://bernadettestoday.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/a-fathers-day-drama/. All birds are the centers of their own universes, but the killdeer’s self-absorption is comical—the parent birds do the “broken wing” routine with suspected predators, and it’s not at all convincing, especially when they are nesting in the gravel of the train tracks that run right through town. But I will admit, they are darned difficult to spot if they’re not moving.
Today 