Snow Birds

Feeder Time

Now that the pine tree has lost half it's branches we get a lot more sun on the birdfeeders.  Most of my birds are acclimated to my camera leaning out the bedroom window through my vertical Blind.  Some of them more than others.  It took over a year for the Red-bellied Woodpecker to allow this and the Hermit Thrush, who just appeared two days ago, was having none of it.  So he's shot through the window and during the snow storm.  But the rest were shot in the brilliant, pine treeless sunshine.  The snow makes a great light reflector.

New Start

After half a day of impossible anticipation my new camera arrived at 11:57am weighing 7.3lbs.  Well okay that's the weight of the box with it's extras but don't be surprised if I send out announcements for my new gender neutral baby.  The UPS guy faked me out around 9am when he stealthily dropped off my new bank card without hanging around to explain where my camera was and if it was really coming.  I nearly passed out.  Having been without a bank card for several days you'd think I would have been happy to have it.  But I just tossed it aside.  Despondent.  Seriously.  When he came back around noon the UPS guy explained that the card had to be delivered by 10am and the camera was too hard to get to at that time.  I forgave him.  But only because I was too distracted by my new box to care.  So at long last these are a few new photos (test photos if you will) from my new camera.  The spectacular thing about them is that they were taken with ISO 3200.  A setting my D80 didn't even have. 

Picking His Brain

This is one way to get seed from a snowman.  The chickadees will hop all the way into the belly.  Looks like this Tufted Titmouse is considering a similar move but he's a bit bigger. 

Some Birds I've Ecountered Lately

 Huh?  

I personally think Tufted Titmice are a bit shrill.  Not that I don't love them anyway, but whenever I check to see who is out at the feeder making my ears bleed it's always a titmouse.

I did not know that Brown Creepers visited feeders until I saw this guy happily climbing all over it and pecking away.  A tiny little bird with an awesomely long tail.

This White-breasted Nuthatch reminds me of an old cartoon we used to see on Nick Jr. when Olivia was little.  I just spent 20 minutes trying to find it and failed.  But essentially the pig didn't want to share or take turns and was hogging the rocking horse.  All the while singing at the top of her lungs.  

Kind of like this...

And then there's this guy, a Carolina Wren.  Such a loud song for such a little bird but much more enjoyable then the titmouse.

And finally, a Downy Woodpecker and an outrageously blue sky.