Posts Tagged ‘Bird’

I bought a seed bell and mounted it on the hanging chair frame. Looks like the local sparrows like it.

Sparrows on Backyard Seed Bell #1

Sparrows on Backyard Seed Bell #2

Still taking pics of the hummingbirds up here on Schengili-La Island up near Pointe-au-Baril. There’s at least two females and one male who keep chasing the other two away from the feeders when they find them there. Erika noticed that the two females seemed to be tolerating each other somewhat, waiting for the other to be chased off by the male so that the other could swoop in and get in a good feed.

Here are a couple of pics of them from earlier today:

Hummingbird on Branch with Back Facing the Camera

Hummingbird by Feeder

The cygnet (baby swans) mute swans in the pond at Woodbine Park are growing. Here are some pics I shot of them earlier today:

Cygnet and Female Swan

Pair of Cygnets

Cygnet Yoga

I took the dog out for a walk yesterday and brought along some bird seed with me, intending to take it to a spot near the lake where I know the chickadees tend to congregate, and hoping to get a shot or two of them. I went via the jogging path that runs alongside Ashbridges Bay, and remembered that there was a small, homemade bird feeder that somebody put a a couple of years ago in a small copse of trees. I went over there to see if there was any seed, and found that there was none. So I put in a handful of seed and within seconds a flock of black-capped chickadees were excitedly chirping and diving to the feeder to grab a beakful.

Black-capped Chickadee

This started to attract other birds, seeing what the sudden commotion was about. A pair of nuthatches came to take a look, and also started darting to the feeder for seed.

White–breasted Nuthatch

Then a female Downy Woodpecker appeared, and started looking for hidden insects in the bark of an adjacent tree.

Female Downy Woodpecker

But the best was when a male Cardinal flew in for a peek, and picked a branch which was bathed in sunlight, resulting in this picture:

Male Cardinal

Will have to head back there with more seed sometime soon, since these guys seemed hungry.

The following was shot using by “Bigma” lens set to about 450mm, as this pair of swan maybe 10 meters from the shoreline (and keeping a wary eye on my dog, who was along for the walk down by the beach).

A Pair of Overwintering Mute Swans

A couple of Dark-eyed Juncos have joined a local flock of sparrows, and they sometimes venture onto our deck when I put out some birdseed for them. Today was a rare day when there was some sun, making for an opportunity for some good bird photos.

What I find interesting are the touches of brown amidst their overall dusky colour, which comes out best in the final close-up photo.

Junco on a Branch

Junco Eating a Seed

Junco Close-up

While heading back down from Signal Hill to the Lower Battery in St. John’s, I ran across a small pond where a number of ducks had congregated. There were some ever-familiar Mallards, as well as some less familiar birds to me. Here are the better pics that I shot:

Northern Pintail Duck

Female Mallard Napping (But Keeping an Eye on Me)

Possible Male Tufted Duck (Without Much of a Tuft)

Male Green-winged Teal Beating a Retreat

Pair of Northern Pintail Ducks

Another bird that is common in Tommy Thompson park are Eastern Kingbirds, though most of the ones I saw were either too distant or flighty to get a good shot of.

Then, as I was making my way out of the park I spotted several in an adjacent tree, none of which seemed inclined to move from their perches. So I dug out the camera from my backpack and started taking shots. As you can see the light was going as the sky was beginning to get more overcast, but I did what I could with what I had. Here’s one such shot:

Eastern Kingbird on a Leafy Branch

Then I saw the reason why all of these birds were staying put: they were waiting for a parent to come and feed them. While best-known for eating insects, the parent bird I saw had some nice, fresh-looking red berries for its youngsters, as you can see in the following couple of shots:

Eastern Kingbird Feeding its Young 1

Eastern Kingbird Feeding its Young 2

This parent bird (mother? father?) then took a berry each to the other young birds perched in other locations in the small tree.

What helped clinch the identification for me is when I saw two of these birds chase after a much larger seagull that had wandered into their territory, a behaviour Eastern Kingbirds are well known for.

The chief reason I went to Tommy Thompson park was to put my Sigma 500mm lens to the test. I got that opportunity when I spotted a small flock of Arctic Terns relaxing amidst seagulls on one of the newly created spits in the park.

I find the focus at full extension to be a bit “mushy”, so most of these are shot between 400-450mm. Even so, for the most part these are not as crisp as I would like in terms of the focus, though to be fair things were beginning to get overcast by this point, and I did not bring along a tripod or monopod to help steady the camera and its heavy lens.

Here are a few

Pair of Arctic Terns

Arctic Tern

Pair of Arctic Terns Interacting