Warm weather penguins.
SeaQueen and I went to Sea World at San Diego. Here are a few highlights of that trip - flippered friends.
Emperor penguins, among others.
Swimming penguin - doesn't he/she look cool! I love to see them swim.
Dolphins - many close up shots are coming soon to a Flickr near you.
I love this shot of a killer whale.
I think this photo helps you appreciate their (large) size. Can you imagine coming out of the water on a jumping whale?
Hope you have a good weekend. If I get to it, I'll be putting more pics on Flickr and creating a Sea World set. :-)
Posted by danielle at 08:39 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
The other night, HB called me upstairs to our dining room level because "There are DUCKS in the yard!"
I hurriedly grabbed my camera and sure enough, they were checking out the neighbor's hot tub.
You can barely see them between the two trees in that photo. Here is a close-up of the same shot.
It was dusk and hence the lighting was dim, but what you'll see there is the male mallard in the center and the female just behind him.
They hung around for a little while. And then another bird swooped down and scared them, and they flew off toward the lake. I figured that was the last I'd see of the ducks until I went on my next walk around the lake where I tend to see lots of ducks and geese.
But I was mistaken! The next morning, the female was checking out the neighbor's front yard and then our front yard!
She was hopping up onto the stones surrounding the landscaping and was touring through the landscaping. Then she'd hop down and check out the next section of landscaping.
I started to realize that this wasn't just some blind search for bugs or food, this was a search for a nesting site!
She was clearly leading the search and was wasting no time going from spot to spot.
I call that photo, "female duck - trekking on".
Eventually, I realized the male was following her. But our yard must not have been conducive to nesting, because they left.
Note in that photo, although the male shows up the best, the female is in it too.
At first I was disappointed that they didn't choose our yard for nesting, but then I started thinking about how before too long, we are going to have to mow and weed eat. And that wouldn't exactly be the type of activities that Mama Duck would want to have going on near her nest. So, it is probably just as well that they went somewhere else.
But it was still fun while it lasted. :-)
Note in these photos there was a glare on the window, hence the foggy appearance of some of them.
Posted by danielle at 10:58 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
I had this really great thing happen on Friday. It had seemed like the woodpecker, a Downy, that I'd originally spotted at my suet feeder was not coming back to eat, because I never saw it there. When I spoke about it with my parents who know quite a bit about bird feeding, they suggested I move the feeder to a tree for a while to get the woodpecker used to eating at it. Of course, that meant I was no longer going to have a birds-eye view (ha!) of the action, because the tree where I'd seen the woodpecker eating and where I planned to hang the feeder is quite far from the dining room. Oh well.
So, I went out there on Friday to move the feeder and she (the woodpecker) must've been nearby, because after I'd hung the feeder and walked back up to the deck, she was fluttering around the regular bird seed feeder!
Once I was up on the deck, she quickly flew to the tree where I'd just hung the feeder. After trying to figure out where to stand to get to it, she started pecking away at the suet! Success!
I grabbed my camera and swapped out the lens and took a whole bunch of photos before remembering that I needed to check the exposure! doh! They were all white. So, I hurriedly started changing the exposure and film speed in order to get a shot.
I just barely got this one before she finished eating at the feeder.
Then she shimmied up the tree, so I got a few of her in her natural environment. Here is the best one.
and in large
Then, I couldn't believe it, she came and perched on the regular bird feeder up at the deck for a second.
And then she went over by where the feeder had hung until just a few minutes ago! Which meant, of course, that she was REALLY CLOSE!
and in large
I love this shot! I can't believe I got it.
You can see that she is a female by not having any red stripes on her head. And it is really hard to tell the difference between a Downy and a Hairy by the coloring, but I'm pretty sure she is a Downy because of her size (6" as opposed to 9").
Heee!
I took all photos with Dee-Dee and my macro-zoom lens from Dad, the Vivitar 70-210 mm.
Posted by danielle at 08:34 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
It was a really dreary, rainy day last week when I happened to look out the front window and see a goldfinch on our birch tree.
Unfortunately, my camera batteries had run out and I had to recharge them before I could take any photos. But I was fortunate in that the finch decided to stay on the tree for a while. This gave me enough time to get my batteries recharged.
and in large.
It isn't perfectly in focus, unfortunately, but close. It is an improvement over the last photo I took with my zoom lens of a moving object (the squirrel) so I figure I'm making progress.
I've been seeing lots of birds when I go for my walks too. Last week was particularly exciting because I saw a woodpecker about 5 feet from where I was standing! I got to watch her for a few moments as she ate bugs and pecked at a birch tree.
I also saw a gorgeous hawk. Scared all of the other birds away, of course, but was infinitely graceful and elegant. Big white belly on that hawk. Really quite pretty.
And then just yesterday I saw 2 white herons. It is amazing how much they stand out from the land and water. Every other bird is kind of camouflaged, but not them. I guess maybe they are at the top of the food chain and thus don't need the disguise.
Lots of ducks and geese and lots and lots of robins on the ground. You can tell it is really spring here with all of the robins.
Oh, and the lake has officially thawed. It no longer has this huge patch of ice on it like it did on Friday.
I have enjoyed seeing these changes in the lake and watching the birds. It might be a bit mundane, but there just isn't a whole heck of a lot of exciting stuff going on in my life right now. And each one of these things really did perk up my day when it happened. So, I decided it was blog worthy.
Posted by danielle at 10:54 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
I just spotted this out the dining room door
Somehow, I just don't think that all those birds are going to fit at the feeder. Doncha think?
I guess they could always wait and take turns.
I hope to post about my weekend one of these times when I gather the energy to take some extra pics that go along with it.
In the meantime, my thesis defense is officially set for Feb 7th. Now, if we were to use Trainwreck's method of keeping track of dates, the 'anchor date' would be Valentine's day on Feb 14th, and we'd remember the 7th by knowing that it is exactly one week earlier.
There, now we can all remember.
Another key date is that in just under 2 weeks, I will be shipping my entire thesis to my committee.
Which means, that
A) this feels a bit like 'crunch time' and
B) the end is near.
hmmm... that may be a bit ominous.
How about "the light at the end of the tunnel is closer"
or
to build upon the mountain climbing analogy from before, I can see the peak, and am approaching the top.
There. That's better.
Posted by danielle at 10:52 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
Now that the weather is a bit warmer, we've been getting lots of action at my new bird feeder! This seemed a bit backwards to me, because I figured that when it was cold, the birds need to eat more to stay warm. But my new theory is that when it is really cold (single digits), that they huddle somewhere for warmth and don't go out looking for food.
Now, just in case you are wondering why there is so much snow in that picture, just ignore it. It is actually all melted today. I took those on the 30th.
How many birds did you see in that pic?
Did you see the three on the railing?
Usually there are many more when I grab my camera, but the ones who are camera shy fly away as I approach the window.
"Beeeeeeg skeeeery black thing!"
Then there are the little guys I can see out the kitchen window, waiting their turn on a different tree.
And the Girlie-girl watches and watches and occasionally makes these little "Meeorph! Meeerph." sounds that are quite adorable.
In fact, here is an up to the minute pic of us, with many notes (click the pic and move your mouse/pointer over it to read them)
I'd better turn the heat up though, the natives are getting restless.
Posted by danielle at 09:31 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
One day, a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at the dining room table and I saw a fluttering motion out of the corner of my eye. When I turned my head to look, I saw a black-capped chickadee. I noticed that it seemed to be looking into the windows as if to say "I'm out here, just like I was last winter. Where's the food? I just know there used to be food here. I mean, sure all the houses look a lot alike and all, but this one has the 3 conifers out here that I like to rest in."
Which got me wondering if our house layout here in Minnesota would be more conducive to a bird feeder than the one in MA. I started envisioning something that would hang off of the deck somehow so that it would be near enough for me to actually see the birds and to easily keep it filled without having to trek through the yard and the snow.
Now about this time of year, my parents ask for my Christmas wish-list. This would be the same wish-list that gets passed along to my seestor and my in-laws. And from years past, I've learned to not make any impulse purchases in Sept/Oct/Nov but to 'save' those things for my wish-list. And guess what item is perfect for the wish-list? You got it, a bird feeder!
I mentioned this to HB's parents while they were here visiting for Thanksgiving, and HB's dad looked at the deck and discussed the logistics/placement of a feeder with me. And when they all came back from their shopping adventure at the Mall of America yesterday they gave me my Christmas present early!
This is my view of it from the dining room table.
Yay!
It is made entirely of cedar. And the screws look like they are treated or something so that they won't rust.
Isn't it neat how the shepard's hook clamps onto the railing? I was hoping for something that wouldn't require permanent holes or anything in the wood of the deck, so this is perfect!
It was pretty late yesterday when we got it set up, and I wondered how long it would take the birds to find it. Everyone said "Not long." I sure hoped not.
This morning when I started to wake up, I thought "Oooo! I wonder if there are any birds out there yet?! I'd better get up and see."
Well, there weren't any as I was boiling water or brewing my tea. None when I was cutting the bread or making my first piece of toast. But when I got to the second piece, I got my first bird visitors!
And guess what! One of them was the black-capped chickadee.
I took these pics through the sliding glass window, 'cause it is cold, yo. And well, I didn't want to scare them off and stand there with the door open forever while I was waiting for them to come back just so that I could get a pic without the glass.
chickadee and finch (I think)
Guess I'm going to need to put a bird book on that wish list, huh?
I expect that I'll be taking lots of bird pics this year.
I can't wait!
Posted by danielle at 12:03 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack