Spring here already?

Crocus sieberi “Firefly”

This morning I was making my rounds in the garden and found the first crocus of the year! I was not expecting it, but under the leaves it was peaking out. Just one blooming that was it. Counted 9 hellebores with buds, last weekend there were only 5 with buds.

We also had our first cook out of the year yesterday. Meg had invited some teachers over for a small party and since it was in the 60s I grilled barbeque chicken on the grill while everyone hung out on the woods deck. 

Playing with the new camera I caught this Downy Woodpecker above and White-breasted Nuthatch near the feeders.

One very tricky bird to photograph the Carolina Wren below, seems I did get it pretty good. The new camera is tricky to catch birds as they move around a lot and you have to get them in focus with the right lighting.  I must have missed dozens of birds including a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which just recently became common at the suet feeders. I did get photos of the sapsucker, just nothing exciting.

Below is the bees at about 10 am today. The landing strip had 4 dead bees on it this morning, about usual for winter time. This photo shows a pollen laden bee and a dead bee, life in a mild winter in North Carolina.

Great Backyard Bird Count

This morning I took 45 minutes after breakfast and did the Great Backyard Bird Count by walking around the house and yard looking and listening to the birds. It was barely jacket weather and partly cloudy, a good time to look for birds. The website did not say if you could count birds by calls, they always do on the many Christmas Bird Counts I have been one in the past.

Here is the list which the GBBC mistakenly listed us as Durham County, our Post Office is in Durham County yet we live in Orange County. I could not find a way to correct this county error. A good list of 25 species of birds were found during my 45 minutes counting. While working in the yard later I saw 2 Pine Siskins on a feeder, heard a Mourning Dove and Pileated Woodpecker. I was happy to see 2 Hairy Woodpeckers and 2 Golden-crowned Kinglets during the count

Canada Goose	1 heard calling
Turkey Vulture	2
Red-shouldered Hawk	1 heard calling
Red-bellied Woodpecker	4
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1
Downy Woodpecker	2
Hairy Woodpecker	2
Northern Flicker	1
American Crow	4
Carolina Chickadee	4
Tufted Titmouse	6
White-breasted Nuthatch	3
Brown Creeper	1
Carolina Wren	1
Golden-crowned Kinglet	2
Eastern Bluebird	1
Pine Warbler	1
Chipping Sparrow	1
Song Sparrow	1
White-throated Sparrow	35
Dark-eyed Junco	15
Northern Cardinal	8
Purple Finch	8
House Finch	1
American Goldfinch	20

We planted in the vegetable garden today, stay tuned (ok stop back then)for a report of what
was planted. Three new crocuses bloomed and I planted another new hellebore.

Duke Gardens on Sunday

Headed over to Duke Gardens on Sunday to see if the camellias were doing much. I found 10-15 different species in bloom. Did find several new ones that should be blooming in a few weeks.

Camellia Japonica ' October Affair' one of my favorite japonicas!
'

Camellia X 'Dawn'  Clearly this is my favorite hybrid camellia! This 15 ft tall plant is in the back of the gardens. One flower was showing and a few flowers were on the ground as I walked by. I looked up towards the sky and noticed at least 50 blooms open! I'm sure many people walk by and never see all these flowers.

Snow drops, there were two patches of these in full bloom, easily missed if you were not looking down.

Duke Gardens did not have any crocus I could find, these are from our back garden. I counted 24 blooms. Believe these 4 flowers are from one bulb planted in the fall of 2009.

I ran into Bill Majoros of Third Bird From The Sun you have to see his site, he has some amazing bird photos! We both took photos of Cedar Waxwings and Bluebirds eating berries and getting water in the gardens.  The CF card lost my first shots of Cedar Waxwings. This shot was my best one, they moved around constantly.

 This male Eastern Bluebird had just taken a drink of water.

 Bluebird giving me the evil eye?

Shame the Bluebird was not in focus, this was a split second shot and hand focused to boot. Can you see the water droplet on the chin of the Cedar Waxwing?

Flicker visit new to feeders!

This morning is bright and frozen, the pond is iced again. I have been sitting here thinking we need a new bird to visit the feeders, Brown-headed or Red-breasted nuthatchs were in mind for what is next. Then later I notice a Northern Flicker siting on a knob of the big oak tree just over the suet feeders! Flickers are common in our parts but they rarely show up here at paradise. I can not recall the last feeder visit by one, sure I see them in the forest a few times in the fall and winter here each year.

The bad news is I must have scared it off with the camera from inside the house. It was curious enough I think it'll be back, maybe with friends.

 Northern Flicker, notice the tail feathers dug into the tree. It is a woodpecker in case you were wondering. They can be found in small flocks.

Red-shouldered Hawk dines at our pond

On Thursday while recovering from being sick, I managed to get these photos. These photos were taken from inside so the glass quality is reduced a great deal. If you did not already know I use a 400mm f 5.6 "toy" lens. I read it was called a toy lens because a real lens would be a  400mm f2.8 lens and they cost around $8000 and are very heavy. My lens is a toy because it cost just over $1000 and it is light enough to carry around without a Sherpa or a tripod, yet it produces some really sharp images.

I've been seeing this Red-shouldered Hawk perched on the willows over the pond, usually if I move it flies away instantly. This day it had its prey locked in. Our feeders were still buzzing and there were two squirrels on the porch out in the open. Do the birds and squirrels know something we don't or just oblivious to this hawk.

The Red-shouldered Hawks diet consists of small mammals like voles, mice and chipmunks. They also eat amphibians and reptiles. They will eat birds at feeders, I think they can not chase birds as well as the Sharp-shinned or Coopers Hawks can.  Our cat does pretty well getting voles and mice, and I don't think we have chipmunks. The pond is full of frogs and painted turtles, so to a hawk like this it is a diner.

The hawk grabbed something.

Looks like a small frog to me, a quick snack for a large hawk like this one. We have been known to get Broad-winged Hawks here, they live on frogs practically. It a month the pond will be deafening with Spring Peepers and Upland Chorus Frogs calling by the thousands it sounds like.

I've got things to do, thanks for the snack!

Yes, Brown Creeper Photos!

Since Monday I have not been well. My body has not been able to regulate temperatures well, either cold and can't get warm or I break out in a sweat. Then there are the body aches and head aches.  Hoping today it'll be kicked. Yesterday I watched a Brown Creeper visit the suet many times on the big oak tree. It was 70 outside and I could have tried to get photos of the Brown Creeper, just could not find the energy.

Today I wanted to go to work until I broke out into a sweat, so I'm staying put. The creeper was lingering on the tree trunk below the suet, so I grabbed the camera and went out the door. It flew around the tree. I grabbed my coat and tried again, it let me take several flash photos this time! I was about as close as I can focus with my 400 mm f5.6 lens.

Here the Brown Creeper has its tail fanned out, you can see how stiff the tail feathers are. The tail feathers help it to walk up trees, just like woodpeckers.

Meg celebrated her birthday recently, now 107. Anyway I made her a bird feeder she could enjoy from her favorite chair in the living room.

This bird house is made entirely of cedar scraps I had left over from a big job I did. The odd support is attached to a deck railing post. The elongated hole is designed to lighten the load and cut back the wind load. I was thinking the birds might like it too.

This female Northern Cardinal seems to approve. Where did she get her nails done? This was taken from inside without flash.

The squirrels like the new bird feeder as well. They grab onto the support and slide back down it as I sanded it pretty smooth. They can just jump onto it if they like.

The first day the feeder was up it was visited by honey bees, 4-6 at a time, it was a warm day. I saw bees yesterday when it was warm as well. I looked this up and found that bees can emerge early and without any nectar sources they will seek secondary nectar sources which can be found in bird feed.

Titmouse Crash and Crocus

Beautiful sunny day here expected to reach 43 degrees today! After my post yesterday a Tufted Titmouse crashed into the big window, then landed on one of the iron chairs on the porch. Valentine the cat woke from her sleep inside and knew what had happened. In minutes she was out there, I went out and chased her away. The titmouse stayed put so I grabbed the little camera and took a few close ups from an inch away. After I took maybe 10 photos I coaxed her into flying to a safer place.

 Here is the Tufted Titmouse perched on the chair, notice the tail is turned down. Never seen a tail turned down like this on bird, must have been hurting pretty bad!

 Such a cute little bird. The feather details really came out good with my G11 camera, I hear there is now a G12. I purchased the G11 just after it came out, so far I have taken almost 5500 photos with it.

No fear here....

 Carolina Wren on the oak tree. These guys are very curious, yet for some reason they are one of the hardest birds to photograph.  They visit the compost bin much more often that the feeders.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, you can see the long claws very well here. I took this photo through the window without flash as the flash bounces back on the glass. This was a full f stop under exposed so I adjusted it in raw format using Photoshop CS5.

 I bet most of you that feed the birds get tired of squirrels raiding the feeders. I do as well, but when you capture a few photos like these one might think it is worth it to have them around.

These were taken by poking my camera out the screen door of the porch.

While spreading mulch yesterday I found this under some leaves. I looked it up from last year it is Crocus ancyrensis "Golden Bunch" For those of you that are new to the blog this crocus was on this post.

FYI the mulch yesterday ended up being 35 or 36 large wheelbarrows full. If I calculated correctly that comes out to 60 cents a wheelbarrow load. I spread it in more paths that any previous loads we have received.

Birdy Day with a Milestone!

Bird activity is high this morning, cloudy skies and in the low 20s out there. I worked at two jobs this week, one I saw a Brown Creeper out the window. The other job has a feeder right outside where I'm working, it had 2 Pine Siskins and a Brown Nuthatch on it.  Not sure if we have ever had a Brown Nuthatch here before, they like lots of Lobolly Pines. I can see 4 Lobollys out the window here in the neighbors forest, a few years ago the huge property behind them had most of the Lobollys timbered.

The Pine Warbler has been to the suet three times already this morning! I heard it calling a few minutes ago when I was outside, the call can be heard here. In 12 years of living here I have never seen more than one Pine Warbler at the feeders. BTW their favorite habitat is Lobolly Pines.

This is the Brown Creeper photo I took on Thursday. It jumped because of the flash. See the long toe nails? Pretty amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing Janet's photo of the Brown Creeper. These guys are hyper active and never sit still. I did see one this morning near the suet feeders, then it as always climbed up the tree.

Female Cardinal perched on a persimmon branch.

 This morning I did manage to stick my camera out the door and get this photo of a Downy Woodpecker. I wanted the Carolina Wren, but it vacated as soon as I stepped outside.

Yesterday I took 1.25 tons of debris from a 3 x 6 tiled shower I'm re doing to the landfill. I could not believe this shower had so much weight to it. Anyway while I had the trailer at the landfill I bought a scoop of mulch made at the landfill for $21. The mulch was piled 3 foot higher than the scoop and dumped into my trailer. I had a knock away about 2 wheelbarrow loads after he loaded it too full. Pretty good deal don't you think? The compost is $28 I think, that is my next mission while at the landfill. Guess what I have on my agenda today? Making those garden paths so we don't get mud on our feet.

My blog got a fair number of hits this week linked from a tattoo design site. I went to check it out and found you had to pay to subscribe to enter the site. I wrote them and hope they will take down the link to my site. I have a lot of butterfly and dragonfly photos here, I don't mind if someone writes me asking permission to use my images for a tattoo. Charging them to see my images/pages it not at all agreeable to me.

Oh one last thing, this blog will be soon hitting a new milestone, 3000 comments. never could have imagined we'd ever get this many comments. Yours might be the 3000th comment! In 3 weeks our 2nd blog anniversary. A very warm thanks to all of you that have left comments!

Pine Siskin and Pine Warbler Revisited!

Today the suet feeders attracked a Pine Warbler. I grabbed the camera and took one photo before it left. But to my good fortune I saw a "House Finch" at close range in the cedar tree. I took three photos then realized after seeing more than just its face it was a Pine Siskin in my camera sights!

This is the second Pine Siskin here this season, very can be very rare most winters. If the seed crops they eat further north fail they head further south to us. Guessing all the snow that everyone has or had north of us has brought them here. Later I went out for over an hour and never saw another siskin. And I had been watching the feeders on and off all day from inside.

I saw a Brown Creeper three times today, the first time at the peanut suet feeder, so it is a NEW BIRD on our feeders! I did get one photo of it on the side of the oak tree, but it flew off mid click and all I got were wings. Would have made a great photo, guess I'll have to keep trying.

 My first shot of the Pine Siskin, looks like a deer in my headlights doesn't? Hard to make an ID on just this look.

 See that finch  beak on the Pine Siskin.

 Here the Pine Siskin on my very old feeder, you can see the yellow feather under the mid section of the wing.

Here the Pine Siskin was about to fly off, the yellow under its wings is displayed.

 Here the Pine Warbler is grabbing some take out peanut suet!

 First visitor to the new suet block. There is a peanut suet right under this one.

 My favorite photo of the Pine Warbler.

Pine Warbler on the side of the tree. They are also tree walkers.

 Just a lucky shot of an Carolina Chickadee about to take off.

Today we had some pretty hungry Tufted Titmouse, normally they stay clear when I'm out with the big camera. I had 4-5 of them coming in and out a lot.

It should be raining soon, most of out snow is gone and the pond is watery and the edges. The hellebore I posted photos of recently have grown maybe an inch in the stems.

Tree Walkers

This morning about 8AM I saw 2 Downy Woodpeckers on the oak tree near the deck. While watching the Downy Woodpeckers a Brown Creeper appeared on the oak, number 7 if I recall correctly. I was not fully awake and wearing jeans, tee shirt and socks, I grabbed the camera, memory card and battery and walked out on the deck. Still winter this was not the best discussion to be out there in a tee and socks, but I managed to get a few photos of the Downy Woodpecker and the Brown Creeper was on a higher limb and I got 2 photos of it also.

 Here is the Brown Creeper, it is tiny so don't let the photo fool you.  Notice the tail, the feathers are stiff and the creeper uses the tail to help it walk up trees. Creepers almost always spiral their way up trees and rarely(if ever) do they go down the tree. This guy I was hopeful it would check out my suet feeder as it got 3 inches from it and just kept climbing the tree.

Here is the White-breasted Nuthatch, they climb up and down the trees at will. These are very curious and can make a lot of noise. 

Downy Woodpecker a tree walker also. I love watching this small woodpecker edging its way along the tree. See how tiny the bill is? The Hairy Woodpecker looks a lot like the Downy but it is larger and the bill is about 50% longer. Hairy Woodpeckers tend to visit very dead trees and they like to knock off the bark while searching for beetles under the bark.

The other tree walkers we have here not shown are Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers(winter resident only), Yellow-shafted Flicker, Piliated Woodpecker and rarely during bad winters Red-breasted Nuthatches.

Other small birds like Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren and Tufted Titmouse to name a few will once and a while walk a little on the sides of trees too.