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When it gets really cold I keep the feeders inside at night. The sun was not up at 7:25am this morning (2-6-19), but the hummer was at the feeder as soon as I hung it up. It did not even wait for me to back off before it perched on the feeder to feed. It is about 12*F according to the thermometer on the back deck, so the fluid will freeze in about an hour. I will have to swap feeders until the sun is shining on the feeder and keeps the fluid from freezing.
It's been getting pretty cold at night down here as well, 29-30 degrees with 28 expected tonight. I was going to set up my telescope since it was a day after the new moon, having dark skies and no clouds for once, but I was buried with work and with the cold conditions I chickened out. I have a couple of bird feeders plus the hummingbird feeder, the birds are devouring the seeds like crazy, must be to counteract the cold and build up energy stores. A couple brave ones still manage to take baths in the water dish, despite the cold.
Varied thrush continue to show up in my neighborhood. Tuesday (2-5-19) I saw two in my neighbor's front yard as I pulled into the court, but I could only get a shot of one from my pickup.
Thursday morning (2-7-19) one perched on top of my storage shed.
Later that afternoon one flew across my backyard and perched in a tree in the yard behind mine before flying off again.
The hummer continues to camp out for most of the day at one of the feeders on my back deck. A second one flew in while I was photographing the first. Unfortunately the camera did not lock on to the interloper before the "resident" hummer chased it off.
A tree in my front yard is one place where the resident hummer hangs out when it is not occupying the feeder.
More snow is predicted for this weekend starting as early as Friday afternoon.
Snowmagedon has been forecast this weekend for the Puget Sound Region. It began Friday afternoon (2-8-19), so I went down to the marsh for photographs. The herons were the only birds visible.
As you can see, woodpeckers are making good use of the the two habitat stumps in my backyard. This female pileated pounded away for a while, then flew south towards Pine Ridge Park.
Flocks of juncos have been feeding at my seed and suet feeders. One is perched on top of a rhododendron bush.
Varied thrush continue to show up in my neighborhood. Tuesday (2-5-19) I saw two in my neighbor's front yard as I pulled into the court, but I could only get a shot of one from my pickup.
Sunday afternoon (2-17-19) I heard the unique sound of a male Anna's hummingbird as I was up on Pine St. photographing the Pt. Edwards eagles. After photographing the area's largest bird, I turned 90* to my right and photographed the area's smallest bird.
Next stop was the marsh, where Wesley put on a good show.
One male hummer was dive bombing another. I don't know if Wesley was the bomber or the bombee.
The herons took off for the marina at sunset. It is much safer for them to spend the night on the roof of the boat ports than to remain on the ground at the marsh, where they risk a run-in with a coyote.
A Bewick's wren was looking for insects on my back deck early Wednesday morning (2-20-19). They are very good hunters. It caught and ate a stink bug that was in a bucket full of twigs and pine cones picked off the the deck. I took this shot through the glass of the sliding door before the wren took off.
At noon I dropped by Sprague Pond in Lynnwood while my son was working out at the gym. The pond was still frozen over in most parts. As many as nine crows were out pecking on the ice.
I have no idea what they were looking for in the ice
We have all seen videos of birds sliding on ice as they try to land on a frozen pond. The crows were very good aviators and did not slide while landing. The ducks avoided the problem altogether and landed in the patches of open water.
A few years ago I screwed a suet feeder into the railroad ties that outline our backyard "garden" in the hopes of creating a ground level, squirrel proof feeder for varied thrush, winter visitors to the Puget Sound region. I found no evidence of the thrush eating the suet and had not filled it since.
This winter has seen a varied thrush invasion of the Puget Sound region. A pair has been visiting yards in my court and their shrill cries can be heard in the morning at sunrise. After the snow melted I decided to give the suet feeder one more try and placed a cake of suet which contained insects and nuts inro the feeder.
Thursday morning (2-21-19) I saw a varied thrush eating at the feeder. I did not get photos of the thrush, but I took a photo of the feeder in case others want to try installing one in their back yard. You can see where the thrush was nibbling away at the left side of the suet block.
Later that afternoon my son and I paid a visit to the marsh. A small flock of geese flew up from the old Unocal grounds south of the marsh and headed northeast. It wasn't until I examined my photos on the computer that I noticed a greater white-fronted goose in their midst. It may have been the same one I photographed earlier in the week at the playfield next to the Frances Anderson Center.
The greater white-fronted goose is last bird on the right.
Last stop was Brackett's Landing North, where I set up the 5DIII + 500L telephoto + 2x III teleconverter. Everything was perfect for good photos, just very few birds. A pair of Harlequin ducks were sharing the tethered log at the underwater dive park with some cormorants.
The ground level suet feeder continues to get used by two varied thrush. One thrush has "claimed" the feeder and hides under a nearby low-lying rhododendron bush. It flies out and chases the second thrush away when it flies in to use the feeder. I'll try to photograph the action from my second story back deck with the big telephoto setup. It won't be easy as they are fairly skittish birds.
Saturday (2-23-19) I did get a few shots of one at the feeder with the 1Dx + 100-400L telephoto zoom. They could be better as I was shooting through the glass of our basement sliding door.
The saga of the backyard thrush continues. I wanted to photograph one of the birds in the act of eating the suet in the ground feeder. A few minutes ago (Sunday morning 2/24/19) I was able to do just that. Although the shots border on grab shots, they are good enough to document the behavior. I was photographing from behind the glass of the sliding door and through the railing supports of our upper back deck.
All shots were taken handheld with the 1Dx + 100-400L telephoto zoom in M mode @ f/5.6 with auto ISO.
1/1000, ISO = 8000
1/1000, ISO = 6400
1/500, ISO = 3200
Unlike Saturday's bright sunshine, it was overcast Sunday morning and much darker. I am glad the 1Dx can handle high ISO settings as the bird took off as soon as I cracked the sliding door to try for shots with lower ISO settings.
A female red-shafted northern flicker was feeding at the ground suet feeder shortly before sunset. Although they feed on ants, I was still surprised to see one at the ground feeder as they usually feed at the hanging suet feeder.
I was shooting 1/500 @ f/5.6 with the auto ISO at an insane 12800.
I dropped by the marsh Thursday afternoon (3-7-19) to see how preparations for Marsh March Madness 2019 were progressing. I was not alone, for the Pt. Edwards eagles watching the proceedings from their usual perch above the new condos at the top of Pine St.
As official greeter, Wesley was sprucing himself up in anticipation of the arrival of his many admirers.
The frenzied activity of crows at the far south side alerted me to the presence of a predator. In this case, it was a red-tailed hawk.
Like the eagles, one of the sentinels of the marsh was surveying the proceedings, only from ground level.
A black-capped chickadee was checking out the nest box near the #1 viewing platform where a pair nested last. I was not quick enough to photograph the chickadee flying in and out of the box.
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