Bird Watching?

[kherrmann3]

I remember a time when you hardly saw them at all (I'm only 21, so fairly recent). That was in Wisconsin. This year, however, my parents had two pairs of them nesting in the parkway behind their house! Will and I were over at our roommate's parent's house this Spring, and we were watching three pair of them court each other across the road. That was cool!

 

[kirst3buns]

kherrmann3 wrote:

we were watching three pair of them court each other across the road. That was cool!

I would love to see that! They are supposed to be some of the best "dancers" in the animal world! You are so lucky.

 

[kherrmann3]

kirst3buns wrote:

kherrmann3 wrote:

we were watching three pair of them court each other across the road. That was cool!

I would love to see that! They are supposed to be some of the best "dancers" in the animal world! You are so lucky.

At one point, two males were courting the same female, and it reminded me of "A Night at the Roxbury"... I think the one just turned wrong and started courting the "wrong" female. I thought they bred for life? Is that just swans?





They are LOUD too! Their call is obnoxious! My parent's West Highland White Terrier (Brody AKA "Boogers") wanted to attack them. He gets to chase the geese out of the parkway, so he was all raring to go. I wish mum would have let him do it at the end of the breeding/nesting season. I just wanted to see what he would do when he realized how big the birds really were! :biggrin2: He's a chicken

 

[Bo B Bunny]

OMG that's the funniest scene!

 

[kirst3buns]

:roflmao: And yes, they are quite loud! And huge - taller than I am when standing and a wingspan of 6-7 feet I believe!

 

[kherrmann3]

Ugh. I have a family of blue jays outside right now. So... annoying...

They keep making this noise that sounds like a hawk. :grumpy:

 

[kherrmann3]

Here is a slideshow of some pictures I took of the birds at my feeders. I have to upload some others (I have a female cardinal with white feathers on her face!). I think it would be considered leucism. Although, leucism tends to be paler plumage overall. She just has white patches on her face. Maybe she's just a partial albino. *shrug*

Here is the slideshow (click to view)


I will post those cardinal pictures soon!

 

[tonyshuman]

kherrmann3 wrote:

People from Michigan don't think that Wisconsin looks *somewhat* like a mitten... Well, Will doesn't


He's right. As a Michigander born and raised, it doesn't!

 

[kherrmann3]

Fine! It's a chernobyl mitten!

 

[purplepeacock]

i love all the bird pics. when i was a little girl my mom had these "bird maps". pics of birds and info on how to recognize them. we'd sit by the back sliding doors and see how many we could find. we always had a bird feeder. we also had canaries in our house as pets. now i have a huge avairy with 4 canaries and 1 finch in it.

btw.....your pics are so clear and colorful...what kind of camra do you have??

 

[kherrmann3]

purplepeacock wrote:

btw.....your pics are so clear and colorful...what kind of camra do you have??

Thank you! I use a Kodak EasyShare C875 (I have the camera close, I don't have it memorized lol). It has a 5x optical zoom and 8.0 megapixels. When I take the photos, the birdies are farther away, and I use the "crop" tool that's on the camera to fix it. It also has a "perfect touch tech" which helps to adjust the color/brightness/contrast. It basically gets rid of the "film" I have over the pictures (from taking them through my porch-door glass). Some of them, I will admit that I put into Photobucket and touch up. I don't adjust the colors, though. I just click on the "auto-fix" thing and if it looks better, I keep it.

Oh! Before I forget, here are my pictures of the leucistic female cardinal!
Notice the white feathers on the face.


She should have a black mask over her eyes... I see bits of it, but not like it should be.


She's pretty, none-the-less. At first, I thought she had snow on her head! She doesn't, but doesn't it look like it?


For reference, here is the juvenile coloration. They lack the orange beak of the adults but have plumage similar to the female.


And the normal female coloration:


And the male coloration, just for fun

 

[purplepeacock]

beautiful!!!........maybe i just need to learn how to use my camra better. i know it does all sorts of cool stuff but i don't know how to do the "cool stuff" or really know exactly what the "cool stuff" is....lol I have the cannon powershot 450

 

[kherrmann3]

I've always been one for photography. I am not a pro by any means. I bought this camera because I wanted great clarity, a good zoom, and a macro (close-up) setting. Oh, and cheap, don't forget cheap(ish). So I know how to use the 20-some specialized settings, somewhat. I mostly use auto (with no flash for the birds, it reflects off the window), macro, landscape, or sometimes, "express speed" so I can make weird, trippy photos. I have a bunch of pictures from when I went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I got some nice snaps there!

Overall, I taught myself how to get my camera to do what I want it to. I just putzed around with it for awhile.

 

[kherrmann3]

We are supposed to be getting 4-8 inches of snow today, but it's not very cold. That doesn't seem to matter to the birdies, though! It's a feeding frenzy out there! I sat down on the couch about 10 minutes ago, and I've already seen tons of Goldfinches, Juncos, Cardinals, Blue Jays, an assortment of Sparrows, a Chickadee or two, and other finches, as well. It's going to be one of those days where I have to refill the feeder 2-3 times before dusk. lol

 

[purplepeacock]

i need to get feeders out for the birds......actually i need to clean up my back balcony. i should try out my camra and see if i can work the fancy details on it.

 

[kherrmann3]

It's fun to tinker with your camera while trying to get a good photo of a bird. They aren't exactly stationary models! lol

 

[irishlops]

i take in injered and abandoned birds....... i love them i ad a pet duck......

had 3 2 died, she was released and is doin well, she was abandoned by mother,....

 

[kherrmann3]

I had a woodpecker on my suet feeder! Yay! It was a little female downy woodpecker. They are just adorable! Sorry, had to share!

Here is the female. The males have a little red patch on the back of their head.

 

[kirst3buns]

I wish I got those. In northern Michigan we got Harry and Downy woodpeckers but where I am now I have red bellied woodpeckers. I love the pictures. I've tried taking some pictures but they don't turn out well through the window. The last batch I had all had my dogs big head in them too. She is quite the bird watcher too (labrador-bird dog). Our feeder is literally right outside the window so she can be inches away from them and they don't seem to mind.