Turdus migratorius

As I've got lots and lots of images of Robin's here's a Turdus migratorius instead.

Hey! It's a very wet windy, Saturday and I haven't had my second cup of tea yet so I'm playing.

Turdus migratorius

A trio of Bathers Drying Off

With migration almost over there's only so many Robin, Indigo Bunting and Cardinal images you can take before it get's boring. Here's a few birds drying out their feathers after bathing in the waterfall. Soon be time for flowers and butterflies.

American Robin

Common Grackle 

Indigo Bunting

A Chipmunk Lifeguard on duty.

Chipmunk

Saturday at the Waterfall

This morning I spent and hour or so out on the upper deck power washing away all the Hickory catkins and bird crap now that the leaves are large enough to catch it on the way down. Well that's the theory anyway.  I got the cushions out, grabbed the bins and sat watching the waterfall for a while. At one point there was a Brown Thrasher, a Scarlet Tanager, an Indigo Bunting and a Robin all at the same time. The light was beautiful but I wasn't there. After lunch I set the blind and went and sat in there for a while. Initially it was pretty slow and I was photographing the more mundane residents  then I was invaded by a horde of newly fledged Starlings. What a racket, they were bathing for what was probably the first time, drinking, flying into the blind and squawking like banshee's. I endured that for a while and was rewarded with a Scarlet Tanager so that made up for it. I came in around 2:45 to make a nice cup of tea and see the results on my computer.

American Robin

Common Grackle

Indigo Bunting

Northern Cardinal

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

Cooling Off

I'm not cooling off, the birds are. A couple from today having a nice cooling bath in the waterfall.

Scarlet Tanager

Tufted Titmouse

Wednesday 88F (31.11C)

As it was rather warm out there yesterday afternoon I didn't go out to the blind to take (or attempt to take) pictures of birds at the waterfall until very late in the evening. Initially as the sun had crept lower than the tree canopy and was shining between the trunks of the trees behind me the waterfall was in perfect light. Only problem was a lack of birds. As it got darker I resorted to using flash which worked pretty good as you can see from the photo's below which all used manual flash at between 1/100 s and 1/60 s and 4000-5000 ISO.

The Wood Thrush was the last bather at a few seconds before 8pm when I needed to go inside to feed the beasties their supper and medicate Badger and Moose. 

Gray Catbird

Song Sparrow

Swainsons Thrush

Swainsons Thrush

Wood Thrush

Wood Thrush

Monday Afternoon

Very bright sunshine yesterday and I thought I'd give my woodland water drip that we set up in Brian's yard a go as it's out of the harsh light. On arrival up there he said that he'd had a Kentucky  at his waterfall. As I need Kentucky I set up the blind at the waterfall instead. It was a long afternoon, a long slow afternoon then whamo!

I photographed a Chipping Sparrow at 1:05pm, a Chipmunk at 2:26pm, a Blue Jay at 3:07pm. The soothing sound from the waterfall, the heat and the lack of birds made me very sleepy. The only thing keeping me awake was the loud bangs from his redneck neighbors about 1/2 mile away. Who lets off fireworks in the middle of a hot sunny afternoon?  All afternoon. Anyway that all changed very quickly. At 3:15pm a Warbler flew in, a Tennessee, I had just been shooting the Blue Jay and my focus point was way off where it should have been so I missed a couple of potential shots before he dived into the water behind a rock and splashed away out of sight. Then at 3:17 a flash of yellow and Canada Warbler flew in for a bath. I managed a few shots when at 3:18:01 another steak of yellow and white and Chestnut-sided Warbler flew in to the lower part of the waterfall and splashed away to his hearts content. While photographing him at 3:18:51 a red flash and a Scarlet Tanager flew in and liked the bathing conditions and proceeded to take the plunge. Finally at 3:26 a female Scarlet Tanager flew in for a bath. To say that I was now fully awake would be a huge understatement. Unfortunately I had to pack up and leave at 3:45 so I probably missed a Kentucky! Maybe.

Chipmunk

Blue Jay

Tennessee Warbler

Canada Warbler

Canada Warbler

Chestnut-side Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

Sunday Birds and a Chippy

The light was pretty good yesterday afternoon being almost totally overcast with varying degrees of light which made it nice and soft and diffused which is just what I like. It was a bit slow at times but there were some really nice moments as you see below.

American Goldfinch

American Robin

Chipmunk

Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting

Ovenbird

Ovenbird

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanger female

Roundup of the week

 Just a few more that I didn't include during the week. It's been pretty busy all week with at least 3000 photo's to go through.

Baltimore Oriole

Black and White Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Myrtle Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Scarlet Tanager

Veery

Veery

Wood Thrush