Been busy.

I haven't been doing much in the way of photography the last week or so. I've been busy redoing my waterfall and stream. As the warblers will be arriving soon I've been waiting for everything to defrost before I could start so I've got to get cracking now it's warmed up a bit. I did get home the other morning after buying a few extra bags of top soil and walking indoors looking out the window there was a stunning Red-winged Blackbird on my bird table setup. I couldn't resist having a go for him but the bastard never came back down. He was just sat in this tree making that horrible squawky noise. Mockingbird came down for me as did at least one of the 3 male Bluebirds.

Eastern Bluebird

Northern Mockingbird

and now for something completely different.

Yeah I know, stolen from Monty Python who stole it and used it as a piss take from Blue Peter. If you haven't got a clue what I'm referring to then tough shit. 

Anyway. I was out front this morning filling up some feeders by the severely depleted Winterberry bushes by the ravenous Robins. A slight movement in the dead leaves caught my eye and little Toad came hopping towards the always shady Pachysandra patch along the North facing front of the house. We hear them at night in the spring but rarely see them. 

American Toad

After the Storm

 Lots of Winter Storm Warnings the last few days but the forecast 6-8 inches of snow never happened, at least not around these parts. We got about 3 inches and as it had been quite warm the day before the black driveway retained sufficient heat to melt the snow so no need to get the snowblower fired up. Yesterday during the storm I was out regularly to feed the birds as the falling snow quickly covered it otherwise. The poor old Mockingbird who has been guarding his Winterberry bushes all winter against all comers was severely outnumbered yesterday with about 50 Robins scoffing as many as they could reach. There's still a few left for him and a suet feeder which he's quite enjoys too. He also is quite partial to the odd dried mealworm as well. I have mixed feelings about the arrival of the Robins, they are the most aggressive, argumentative birds in the whole yard. On many occasion I've been photographing a nice bird when the bullying Robin flies in and scatters everything.

American Robin

Blue Jay

Northern Cardinal

Northern Mockingbird

Song Sparrow

A bit of firewood.

 I’m always on the lookout for interesting perches to use in my setups. They could be fallen branches, old roots (one of my favorites), cuttings or just bits of twigs. Yesterday while shifting some firewood I came across an interesting lichen covered log that looked very promising. This morning I drilled a hole in the bottom and hammered in a short bit of rebar to mount it, I then drilled an 1 1/4” hole and shoved some of my peanut butter/lard dried mealworm mixture in there. No sooner had I got back in the house there was the resident Mockingbird filling his face. Promising indeed. 

In less than an hour I'd taken 1200 shots and whittled them down to these few. The light wasn't brilliant so my shutter speed was lower than I like and trying to catch a woodpecker with his head still is not easy.

Blue Jay

Downy Woodpecker

he's a bit agitated as there was another Downy on the same log.

Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird

House Finch ♂

House Finch ♀

House Finch ♀

Mourning Dove

Northern Mockingbird

White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Tuesday Birds

After yesterdays continuous blue skies Tuesday dawned heavy overcast with snow flurries on and off. It brightened up a bit around lunchtime but now it's overcast again. The good news on the weather is that it's currently 48F. I've actually been out to start redoing the waterfall and stream. 💩 I can't lift some of those rocks I placed several years ago. I have to remove them before I can lay the new liner down. Getting old sucks. I had to come in for a cup of English Breakfast. I've got to get it finished before the middle of April because then it's Warbler time.

Edit: Because then I’ll be able to photograph something other than Blue Jays, Bluebirds, Cardinals etc.

Dark-eyed Junco

House Finch

Northern Mockingbird

Blue Jay