Think Spring!

This is probably the first sunrise we've seen in over a week. It actually stayed sunny most of the day, which was a treat.

Even though the sun was out it didn't do much in the way of getting some of the heavy snow off of the tree limbs, especially among the pines. But, it sure was pretty.

I really don't think I know who Bobby is, but my kids tell me he had his own show.

I took this picture out the window next to my computer.

While I was standing at the window in the family room looking out at the gray Monday afternoon sky, this Titmouse flew into the window and wound up laying head down in the snow with not much more than his wings and his tail sticking out of the snow. At first I didn't see too much movement, and I assumed it was a goner. But when I saw it's tail twitching I threw on a pair of sweatpants and mucklucks and went out, retrieved the bird, cleaned the snow off of it and tried to keep it warm while it tried to revive itself. Of course I had to take the time to get these portraits while it was sitting on my hand.

After about ten minutes of regaining it's composure, the Titmouse took off and returned to feeding.

Close-up of a slice of orange that was dried in the oven and used as a decoration over the holidays. It still hangs in our workroom window.

Mourning Dove sitting on a sassafras branch.

Nuthatch keeping its eye on a rival sitting about two feet away.

Male Downy Woodpecker and a Nuthatch sharing the suet feeder.

Normally, once woodpeckers take up residence in a particular piece of forest, they tend to stay around. But, for some reason, our Hairy Woodpeckers have seemed to disappear for awhile. They just returned on Sunday.

So far, I've seen three of the females and a male, but unfortunately I haven't had an opportunity to get a good shot of the male, yet.

This female is preparing to take off for the suet feeder and unfortunately my timing sucks because I missed the takeoff.

Another shot of birds sharing the suet feeder. Normally, this little Downy would have chased the Nuthatch off.

People are always asking me how close I am to the birds and what kind of lens I use to get the photographs. Shot at 170mm of 200 available, these two birds, a Red-bellied Woodpecker on the left and a Hairy Woodpecker on the right, are approximately 14 feet from the camera. The Red-bellied's feeder is 16" from the pole, and the Hairy's feeder is 12" from the pole.


Coming Attractions!
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html