Feeder Friends

The downy woodpecker and northern cardinal shared some seed bell yesterday:


They were mostly polite in sharing... mostly.

The woodpeckers are such cool looking birds.


Here's the red-bellied woodpecker visiting again:


Of course, I can never resist a cardinal shot. I wouldn't mess with this guy if I were you! He looks like he could whoop some arse.

A Woodpecker Day

Wow! Out of nowhere, I had not one, but TWO woodpeckers in my yard today! They're so much fun. I'd never seen a real woodpecker before I started bird watching. (My dad would argue, but Woody Woodpecker doesn't count).

The Downy woodpecker has visited me once before. He stopped back today for a nibble on the nut/fruit/seed bell that I hung out last night.

These first two shots were digiscoped with the Canon PowerShot A570IS point-n-shoot camera.



Look at that head go!!


This next one was taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and the 300mm lens.



I was pretty excited to see the Downy - I mean, who wouldn't be? I'd have called it an awesome back yard birding day as it was, but as I randomly scanned my tree with the binoculars, a red head popped out at me - and it wasn't a cardinal!


Digiscoped - point n shoot

A red-bellied woodpecker!! Woohoo, new bird! These shots were taken with the Rebel and the 300mm:







Pretty exciting bird day for me - and I didn't even have to leave home :) That's good, because it was pretty darn cold out today. It has been warming throughout the day, but it was hardly in the teens when these photos were taken.

Aside from the fun birds, I had a mouse in my house today. That was a first! Slightly traumatic, but I caught the mouse and let him free outside. He was a cute little mouse, but I'd rather he and his friends stayed outside.

Messenger Woods and ILBirds

Yesterday, I headed out to Messenger Woods with my new digiscope setup. It's a really nice forest and nature preserve. The trails are rustic (ie. not paved) but easy to navigate, even with the heavy leaf and mud/ice cover combo we've got going on around here. There are 2 main trails - a mile and a half south loop, and a half mile north loop on the north side of Spring Creek. I walked the entire south loop, and part of the north loop, though the trail didn't look as clearly visible past the creek, so I didn't venture up that way. I hear that there is a red shouldered hawk that nests on private property north of the preserve grounds. That would be a life bird sighting to check off on my list, should I ever find it.

The trails were quiet but there were other people at the park. A father and son sounded like they were identifying trees on the west side of the trail while I was on the east side. Several people were in the parking lot as well. I was almost through the south loop when I came across a man walking his dog, Buck. We chatted for a bit and he asked if I had seen the white deer. I said I hadn't, and he told me that there is an albino deer near the front/south part of the woods that has lived there for a few years. That definitely gives me reason to go back!

I didn't find many birds - only a few woodpeckers, and I was too slow getting my gear set up to get any photos. I've learned one thing very quickly with this digiscope: I should have followed the advice in all of my photography books and invested in a good tripod. My uncle said the same thing - one of the first things he suggested I invest in. Well, photography is an expensive hobby with a pretty high entry point as it is (in terms of initial investment required), so I skimped on the tripod and got the $35 variety. (An entry level "good" tripod is around $200). I'm having a very hard time locating birds in the scope with this tripod because the head is a 3-way pan head, not an any-way ball head. I can move left-right or up-down, or can tilt the camera sideways (which is useless if it's a scope on your tripod and not a camera). Following birds or even scanning a tree to find them is very difficult when you can't pan around the tree freestyle. I have to scan left to right, then move down a bit, and scan left to right again. Plus, the motion of this pan head is anything but fluid. It's jerky and resistant even with the tension completely disabled. Oh wise ones, you were very right about investing in a good tripod. I see the err of my ways.

I carried the digiscope setup mounted to the tripod over my shoulder, and had my camera backpack on my back and my binoculars around my neck. I should have had my camera around my neck too, though it's pretty heavy with the 300mm lens attached and likely would have been uncomfortable. I had my smaller camera attached to the spotting scope, but since my dSLR camera was in the backpack, I didn't use it either (not wanting to put the backpack down in the mud to get the camera out).

Learned some lessons... get the scope set up on the tripod BEFORE heading into the woods, lest ye miss a golden opportunity to catch a bird photo while noisily trying to set the gear up. Keep the camera handy, even if it is uncomfortable to carry around the neck.

It was a lovely afternoon, though - even if I didn't get any photos - 47 degrees and sunny. The sun was a bit annoying, as the one chance I had to get some woodpecker shots, I was looking into the direction of the sun - but we haven't seen the sun in a while so I couldn't find it in me to complain.

The bird feeders are still pretty quiet. A few finches and juncos are out there, and a couple mourning doves have stopped by, but nowhere near the mobs I've been used to with the rather early arrival of winter weather this year. Tomorrow, more snow is headed our way - up to 7 inches, early forecasts say - and the temperature is supposed to tumble to arctic lows for the new year before popping back up to more mild numbers. I'm already looking forward to the mild!

I found a discussion group online of Illinois birders called ILBirds. I joined it and posted an introduction along with the photos of my common redpoll visitors, and have received a wonderful response! Many people have suggested places to go birding in the area, and I was invited to join the DuPage birding club on Jan 6th on a field trip, birding several locations starting in Bolingbrook. I'd like to go! Also, the Will County Audubon chapter meetings start up Jan 10th, and while I haven't received confirmation in the mail yet, I did send in dues to the IL Audubon Society to join their group. They do some local birding field trips, too, and I'm looking forward to that. The Will Co. group meets at the Pilcher Park Nature Center. I probably won't be able to make the meetings of the DuPage Co. group, but I might join them to take part in their field trips, which are mostly local to me.

House Arrest

I'm quarantined to the house today, as an ice storm has begun and they say that a difference of 1-2 degrees will determine whether we get a quarter inch of ice cover or just snow. It is currently falling as freezing rain, which does not bode well for the worst case scenario!

As I paused at the end of typing that sentence, I caught a bird out of the corner of my eye that looked unusual. I grabbed the binoculars, and... OMG! NEW BIRD!

This time, I had the long lens on the camera and all I had to do was pop off the lens cap and fire away. I grabbed some through-the-screen crappy shots, just to make sure I got something for identification purposes. Then I ran to my bedroom, where it's easier to get higher up to shoot through the non-screened glass. (My desk is in front of my office window). I should put a step stool in my bedroom - then I'd have it made! (Or, I should just figure out how to remove the stupid screens - *still* can't figure it out).



I think he's a Downy Woodpecker. At first I thought Hairy woodpecker, but apparently Downy's have much smaller bills. I didn't get a good profile shot of this guy, but his bill seems pretty small. The Hairy's bill is as long as its head, and this guy's bill doesn't look that long. So I'm going with Downy. I've submitted the photo to Flickr's Bird ID group to see if I can't get some help from the experts.

I was excitedly editing that photo when I heard the tell-tale swoosh of birds departing en masse, which only means one thing: a hawk is nearby. I stood to get a better view out the window, and sure enough, a hawk was weaving in and out of the brush, chasing a bird. "Fly away, guys, fly away!" The hawk swooped down to the ground and... yup. He caught one. I think he caught a junco. I watch in horror as he came out from the brush to the lawn. He stood there for a few minutes (probably squeezing the bird to death - I read that's what they do). I was frozen, staring. He didn't seem to be going anywhere, and I figured I should probably grab my camera. This is all part of it, right?

I grabbed the camera from my desk and ran back to my bedroom. I snapped a few shots, and as the hawk started eating the bird, I broke into tears. I've never been very good at the whole food chain/circle of life thing. When I was little, I loved watching nature shows on TV, but inevitably, there was always a scene where the featured animal became prey to a larger animal, and I'd burst into tears and run to my room. My dad would try to explain that it's just nature, but I couldn't help but sympathize with the poor victim, the underdog. Eventually my mom said, "You have GOT to stop watching those shows!" after one show had me practically hyperventilating in tears. I did stop watching them for a long time. I'd flip past a show on TV with some cute animal and think, keep flipping... he's just going to die anyway.

Then, I went to see March of the Penguins at the movie theater. All of the previews were adorable and funny! I didn't realize it was an actual documentary. Poor Randy. By the end, after seeing the baby eggs freeze and the predator birds attacking the baby penguins, I was a running snot faucet, nearly sobbing as we left at the end of the movie.

I realize that it's probably a good life lesson to come to terms with the food chain. Even as I watched the hawk eating a bird that was here because I lured him to my feeders, I was thinking in the back of my head that the hawk was having a meal, too, and he wouldn't starve today.

Still, I cried through the whole affair, snapping a couple pictures then watching through the binoculars. I apologized to my feeder birds as I watched.



The hawk was taking forever, plucking the bird and eating it, so I decided to try to go outside to get a photo. A couple weeks ago when the hawk was in the tree, it didn't fly away when I went outside, and this time the hawk was much farther away. So I went outside onto the deck and lined up a shot. Right then, the hawk saw me and flew away. I hope he was done eating, but at the same time, I'd like him to think that this isn't the safest place to find a meal.

Every time I see a hawk around here, I think that my feeder birds will never come back. Why would they keep coming to a dangerous place? Well, by the time I got upstairs from trying to take a picture of the hawk outside, the juncos were already hopping around on the ground, out from their hiding places. Within a couple minutes, the finches returned, and within 10 minutes or so, the place was hopping again with house sparrows and mourning doves. That made me feel a lot better. I may lose a bird to a hawk every so often, but I am helping SO many more birds than I lose. And even in losing a bird, I'm helping another - all part of Mother Nature's plan.

Here's a cute shot of a male and female house sparrow, to end this post on a happy note: