Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Day 193: July 11th – Higley Flow


       
Sunny, warm and dry…..beautiful!


       We are in the beautiful Adirondack Mountain area and spent the day playing in the woods and water.  Our friends have some great feeders and butterfly gardens and we spent an awful lot of time just scanning the yard. 


       Last year, it took me until December to get my first Red-breasted nuthatch of the year.  Today, I would stand by the sunflower seed feeder and just wait for a few minutes until the next red-breasted would drop in for a bite.  The hard part was to get one out of the feeder and in the trees to make the shot a bit more natural.  Most of the time, the nuthatches were so close to me, I felt I could reach out and pick them off the feeder no more than 4 feet in front of me.  Occasionally, a White-breasted would venture in and it was amazing to see the size difference at that close proximity. 

       The other major population of birds at the feeders were the Goldfinches.  On the thistle sock, it was not unusual to have more than half a dozen on the feeder at any one time.  Again, I tried to wait until I could get one into a pine and make it more natural. Eventually, a couple cooperated and gave me a decent shot.

       The next bird in order of cooperative nature was a female Purple finch which stuck around all day.  Usually at the feeder as were the others, I had to wait her out to get a nice shot of the bird in a more natural setting.  She finally got into a decent position as she waited her turn for a station on the sunflower feeder to open up.


  Lots of birds up here, but tomorrow I have to try and get out into the forest instead of hanging out around the feeders……it’s just too easy when you can sit on the deck with a cup of coffee and wait for the birds to come to you!

No comments: