Something different

This is not a sewing post. How 'bout that? I just happened to see something that I thought was so interesting that I just had to show you.

Last night I saw several of what looked like young baltimore orioles trying to get grape jelly from my feeder. Some did well, but there was one that couldn't seem to figure out how to get to the jelly in the feeder. A bit later, one of the parents came, sat on the feeder, and fed that baby the jelly! I was amazed, as I'd never seen that happen before. I wasn't quick enough to catch them on camera, but this morning it happened again, and this time I got it! So cool!

Now I'm wondering just how those babies knew to come to the feeder in the first place. Did the parents bring them earlier, or is it instinctual that they just know to go to something orange???

Another first

I saw something new today. I happened to glance out the kitchen window (as I do a bazillion times a day), and this is what I saw on top of our light pole.

No, it's not a turkey, but it's nearly that big. It's a buzzard! A.K.A. vulture, turkey buzzard or turkey vulture. I've seen them before, but usually either flying high in the sky or along the roadside having some yummy roadkill for lunch. But I have NEVER seen one on top of our light pole before.

This one posed very nicely for me and gave me a great display of its huge wings.

Then off it went...

......

... high in the sky...

... to sniff out some more dead stuff, I guess. I read that they have a terrific sense of smell. All they eat is stuff that's already dead. They're good for cleaning up roadsides, etc. They don't hunt live prey, so I don't have to worry about my cats/kittens.

They have majestic wings... but such ugly heads. Look at this cropped pic of its head below. You can see right through that hole in its beak.

I was amazed to see it up there, much less get a chance to photograph it!

Something new

These were fun shots. We have killdeers around here every year, but I usually see them in the distance and moving too fast to get a photo of them. Yesterday there happened to be one right outside the house - and I was lucky enough to see it! It seemed to be out for a first-day-of-spring stroll and came nearly up to the garage. It hung around long enough for me to get some good pics through the glass in the door, and it was none the wiser. But I was very happy. 

There were a few juncos around, too.

My pattern test is complete, but I won't be blogging about it until the pattern is ready for purchase, which might be up to 2 weeks. Meanwhile, I'm working with this gorgeous fabric!

Spring is springing

We've had near 70° temps in the last week! The snow is all melted except for what were huge banks in groves and shaded areas, but they're shrinking fast. There are signs of spring appearing all over the place!

Remember the huge flocks of blackbirds I showed you last fall? They're back! Okay, I don't know if these are the same ones or not - probably not - but there sure were a lot of them on our lawn yesterday. And in the trees.

If you look closely below, you can see that most of them are redwing blackbirds.

In the full-size image, I could also see a few plain blackbirds and maybe a few starlings amongst them.

They made quite a black mass upon takeoff! A noisy one, also.

(No, that's not snow below them. It's milkweed seed puffs that have blown across the driveway.)

This shot below looks like some kind of weird painting, but with the wings spread, you can see lots of red throughout it.

I'm almost done with my sewing pattern test project. I'm not sure whether I'll be blogging it right away or if I'll wait until the pattern is ready to be released. But there will be pics on Instagram right away, if you're really anxious to see it. ;) Again, my ID is GRANDMA_G415. Now I'd better go finish it up.............

Junco bath

Juncos are only around here during the late fall and winter, then head farther north in the spring. I guess they like cold weather. They must like cold baths, too, because it was a really chilly day about a week and a half ago when I happened to notice this one in the birdbath. I'd never seen one in there before. He really seemed to be enjoying himself!

Blackbirds by the bazillions!

I was on the phone with Jess this morning when I happened to look out the window, and there were blackbirds everywhere! They were flying around and in the trees - thousands of them. Then all at once it was like I was in the middle of a blackbird cloud! They were just thick flying past the house on both sides. The photographer in me made me get off the phone and grab the iPad, hoping for a video of the "cloud", but they were gone too fast. So I grabbed the DSLR, snapped on the zoom lens, put on a winter coat and headed out the door.

These first two shots were taken from by the house, out across our bean field to the southwest. I wanted to make sure I got some kind of shot before they got away.

The birds kept heading west, so I ran out past the cattle shed to try and get some closer shots. They were very thick in the trees back there, too.

They were up and down - in the air and on the ground, and back up in the air again, and boy were they noisy!

As I was culling my 100 photos(!) later, I noticed there were a few red-winged blackbirds in the flock, too. I cropped this next photo so hopefully you can see some. I also uploaded everything in quite a large size, so click on any pic to see it bigger.

I cropped this next photo to show how some of the birds looked like round dots as they happened to have their wings tucked in at the split second I snapped the shutter. Then, after cropping, I noticed that there's another bird in there. Click on the pic to enlarge it... you'll see it just slightly above and to the right of center. What is it - a duck?

Update: Grandpa says it's not a duck but more likely some kind of a hawk who is out to choose one of those blackbirds for his lunch!

The air was just crazy-thick with the birds! (Anyone think Alfred Hitchcock?) I've never seen so many at one time!

Gradually they kept getting farther and farther away. I thought this next shot of them against the wind towers was kinda cool.

So that was my adventure for the day. I went back in and called Jess back and we finished our conversation!

Hmmmmmm.......

It's that time of year again! I put out my hummingbird feeders on Saturday, and the first migrating hummer showed up the next day. The day after that and ever since, it's been rainy, misty, chilly and just plain yucky out. The tiny birds arrived by the hordes and have stayed ever since, apparently not wanting to travel in this weather. I don't think I've ever had so many at one time before! It's been really hard to not stand by the windows with the camera all day. I just culled through 175 photos. Ha! Not an easy job. It's been hard to get good pics, not only because of the bad lighting due to the dark weather, but of course because the hummers are almost constantly on the move, and they move FAST. I did get some halfway good shots, so here are a few of them for you. Enjoy!

They're such territorial, fighting little things. They waste so much time fending each other off, when they could be enjoying their meal. I did manage to get a shot of four of them together at the feeder at one time, though. It's a rare sight.

Mid-air shots are hard, too, because you never know where to focus. This silhouette shot was just plain lucky.

I tried so hard to capture the ruby throats of the males, but again the lighting and movement were against me. Here are the best ones I got.

This next one is just weird. Not the bird... just the shot. Ha!

Finally, a little collage I put together with an iPad app.

I'm sure I'll be taking more hummer pics... always trying for that 'perfect' (lucky) shot!

Meanwhile, sewing is taking place! At least this chilly (60°!) weather is good for something!

Mystery solved

I happened to notice a new (to me) bird a few days ago. I may have seen it before, at the birdbath even, but not for long enough to even take note of what it looked like to try and look it up. This time I got a good look at it. It stayed in the shadows a lot, and being such a dark color, it was still somewhat hard to see, though.

Can you see it?

How 'bout now?

But occasionally it hopped out into the sunshine, and that's when I got my good look. THEN... oh, this is so great... I looked it up on my iPad via my awesome Merlin Bird ID app! It gave me description options to choose, and then it gave me birds to choose from that fit those descriptions... and violà, there was my bird!

It turned out to be a gray catbird. That's a pretty common bird. I'm sure, after googling and listening to their calls/songs, that we've had them around here for years. They make sounds a lot like a brown thrasher, so what I always thought was that bird could've been the gray catbird at times. BUT, it makes one other sound... and that brings me to the mystery that got solved.

For years, I've heard a bird call that sounded like a dying kitten. (If you've ever heard a dying kitten's cry, you know what I mean.) Many times I wondered if it actually was a dying kitten, but I could never find one so figured it had to be a bird. Yep, it was the gray catbird. Now I know! And because they're such elusive birds that also blend into their surroundings because of their dull coloring, I could never see it. But now I have. And this one graced me with a couple of better photos shot from the opened-with-screen-removed bathroom window. :)

I have yet to see the rust-colored feathers under his tail, though. :)

Big bird & little bird

I happened to glance out the window one evening and saw a huge bird flying up into a tree across our driveway. Can you see it... center of photo about 2/3 of the way up?

That was just so you know how high it was. Let's zoom in...

Yep, a turkey... waaaay up there!

It appeared to be settling in for a night of roosting.

By the time the sun was going down, it had gotten all comfy.

Crazy bird. But only ONE - yay!!!

Here's a little bird visiting my birdbath.

It's an eastern bluebird. If I'm lucky, I get about a single glimpse of one a year. I did see the front of it, but in the few seconds that it took me to grab and aim the camera, it had turned around, and this was the only shot I got before it flew off. I haven't see it since and probably won't again this year. I think they only pass through here.

On the other hand, my blue grosbeak has been back, for the third year in a row! It must nest around here every year now, as I saw it several times last summer. I didn't get a new photo from this latest sighting, but maybe I can get one later. He's such a pretty bird, and I love every glimpse I get of him. His mate, not so much... she's pretty blah-looking. ;)