Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I'm looking forward to learning how to use the new camera Mr. Johnson gifted me with for Christmas. I see a little bit of a problem coming up here with learning to divide my time between 2 enjoyable activities........so far, I haven't knitted a stitch this morning, but I did manage to take these wonderful pictures out the dining room window.

An abundance of peanut-loving bluejays are my best subjects so far!

When I die, I want to be reincarnated as a bluejay!

Don't even think about trying to get this last peanut Dude!

The Victor!!

Chilly doves!

Chickadees are good subjects too -- esp. since this mealworm feeder is right outside the window.

Oops! Almost got that one!

OK, let's eat!

K. TKS. BYE!!

Who needs TV when you've got Bluejays!

Last Saturday morning, I decided to whip up a batch of pancakes for breakfast. Before we sat down to eat, I filled the peanut wreath and hung it from a tree branch a few yards outside the dining room window. I think the bluejays actually watch for me to refill and hang that peanut wreath in the tree because they're flying in already before I even get back in the house. Once our pancakes are buttered and syruped, we're ready to sit back and enjoy the show right outside the big dining room window. Hope you enjoy this series of photos too!

The bluejays are greedy and hungry, but only 1 bluejay at a time is allowed to pick a peanut from the wreath. The rest of them must wait their turn.

It's not always an easy task to get just the right peanut out of that coiled wreath.

Selecting a peanut becomes even more difficult when there's only 1 left and it's securely lodged at the bottom of the wreath! This bluejay eyes the peanut and plans his strategy for securing that final peanut.

Now he's perched on top of the wreath, but obviously there's no way he can reach the peanut from there.......

well, maybe he can if he just streeeeeetches over the edge a little bit........

hmmmmm, no luck with that. So he decides to try it the way he's seen the nuthatches get a peanut........

Crap! that's not going to work either! Having a bluejay audience laughing behind you makes this especially difficult!

Bluejays are just not well-suited for clinging upside down to feeders! But they are persistent when it comes to peanuts......

Oops! So close....... Wonder what that other bluejay is thinking?

One of the bluejays eventually snatched that last peanut out of the wreath and the show was over. I especially like to fill the peanut wreath on weekends when I have time to sit back and enjoy the show. Early mornings seem to be the best time to attract the bluejays in large numbers. Once they spread the word that peanuts are being served, they all flock in to enjoy this special treat. This entertaining bluejay display is definitely worth the the price I have to pay for peanuts in the shell.

More Trail Camera Photos

If you don't have a backyard trail camera of your own yet, here are some photos taken during the daytime. This will give you a good idea of the capabilities of this camera for detecting and photographing birds and critters much smaller than deer. This particular camera is motion and heat activated, and as you'll see from the photos below it doesn't take much motion to activate.

A flock of sparrows comes to eat

The flock of hungry sparrows flies away & the camera catches it

More sparrows at the feeder & flying away

Bluejay & bunny

Mr. Cardinal

Bunny checking up on supper

One of my fat little squirrels

Another bluejay

Something I don't often see -- bluejay & sparrows at the same feeder at the same time!

Solitary MODO

Sophie!!

Two Bluejays -- they love corn!

Bluejay & Dove

And here's three more great shots from early this morning....

Looks like it's getting a little crowded around the corn tray -- maybe I'll have to think about getting a small feed bunk to accomodate these larger groups!

Wild possum dash -- we've gotten a few photos of a single possum, I had no idea there were two out there!

These 2 bunnies look a little startled by the bright flash

Project FeederWatch Season Concludes

April 9th marks the conclusion of the 2009-2010 Project FeederWatch season. I haven't been very faithful in my FeederWatch activities for the past few weeks, but decided since I was off work yesterday I would make an effort to watch for and document the birds visiting my backyard birdfeeders. I even filled the peanut feeder for my bluejays who rewarded me with their presence less than a minute after I'd hung the peanut wreath back outside. I know there are some people out there who like bluejays as much as I do, so enjoy these photos!

One of my fondest wishes would be to have a bluejay take peanuts from my hand, but my bluejays are much too shy for that. I even have to be careful to avoid any sudden movements near the window when I'm taking pictures from inside the house.

Although I'm not a fan of the Common Grackle, they find my backyard habitat and food offerings particularly appealing, so unless I stop filling my birdfeeders and cut down all the evergreen trees, I just try to tolerate them for a few months. If nothing else, they're interesting to watch.

And I'm always on the lookout for something unusual to show up, like a Rusty Blackbird or Brewer's Blackbird. The blackbird on the right side of this tray was a little bit different looking than the others on the feeder at the same time, but I think it was either a late juvenile or maybe a "bronzed" Common Grackle. And as much as I hate to admit it, the iridescence of their feathers is really quite beautiful.

Cardinals continue to visit the feeders throughout the day. I haven't noticed any males and females paired up yet and there still appears to be quite a lot of territorial battles taking place among the males. Fortunately (for me and my camera), this handsome male was able to enjoy a few minutes of peaceful dining at the feeder outside my dining room window.

I haven't had a chance to clean out my little backyard pond yet, but the leaves and debris still in the pond doesn't seem to bother the birds. I was delighted to see Mrs. Bluebird stop by for a visit to the pond (apparently she hasn't noticed the 6 other clean birdbaths strategically located throughout the backyard!)

The nice thing about the long FeederWatch season is that there is usually some overlapping between the winter and summer birdie visitors. I saw the little Red-Breasted Nuthatch at my feeder yesterday morning and still have a few Dark-Eyed Juncos hanging around too.

Red-Winged Blackbird is also a summer bird for us here in Minnesota. I previously recorded my first one for Project FeederWatch on March 10th. I usually think of them as grassland and wetland birds, so I'm always happy to have them come to the birdfeeders close to the house. I never get tired of hearing their pretty call and seeing that showy patch of color on the male's wings.

The Goldfinches are really starting to show their summer colors again now. He's especially beautiful in the sunshine, don't you think?

When I was editing the pictures for this post, I found this one I had taken last week when we were out looking for ducks at the reservoir. There was a Bald Eagle across the lake that had just caught and was eating this huge fish! We could see through the spotting scope that the fish was still alive and squirming around, so the eagle was really having to hold on tight to the fish and the branch at the same time. It was really neat to see this and the eagle managed to eat that entire fish in about 10 minutes.

More Backyard Birds

It was pretty chilly this morning (about 9 degrees when I got home from work at 10:45), but the wind wasn't blowing too hard and the sun was shining, so all in all, it was a pretty decent morning. (I can always tell when I've finally adjusted to winter when I'm happy about a daytime high in the 20's!)

So I had just gotten home and let Sophie out the back door and was getting ready to fill the birdfeeders when I had a "holy crap" bird moment: A robin in the backyard! Some of you may already know that I'm hyper aware of bird calls and when I heard that robin's chirp, I said to myself, "Holy crap, that's a robin!" and then I saw it fly away from one of the apple trees. I know some really hardy robins spend their winters in Minnesota, but I've never seen them in my backyard on December 29th! I ran in the house for the camera, but the robin was already gone. Oh well, as long as I had the camera out, I decided to take some more backyard bird pictures to add to the ones that I've been saving for the last couple weeks and I'll inundate you with bird photos today.

I have a bunch of little house finches hanging around again (no purple finches though). This old stump is a great birdfeeder in the wintertime.

The American Tree Sparrows started showing up in the backyard about 10 days ago. They're so cute that I had to take pictures of 2 different ones!

I really like their little two-colored beaks and watching them hop backwards when they're looking for seeds! I'm always amazed by such tough little birds like these guys and the juncos who call Minnesota their "southern" home for the winter!

Since the snow, I'm starting to see more of the goldfinches back at my birdfeeders again too. No Pine Siskens or Common Redpolls yet though.

Last Sunday morning I was amazed to see a Common Grackle at the backyard feeder.

And then I was even MORE amazed to see two! There was still one here yesterday, but haven't seen any today. I'm really hoping they stay around at least through the weekend so I can count them for my Project FeederWatch and one of my birding buddies has a chance to count them on his New Year's Big Day bird count.

About a week before Christmas when we still had some mild weather, there was a flock of Cedar Waxwings in the backyard cleaning off my crabapple trees one morning. I was lucky enough to capture this shot of a pretty little juvenile Cedar Waxwing who landed on the deck railing on her way to the birdbath. It looks as though the bird is looking at me through the window, but I think she's actually scoping out the birdbath on the deck just below her. Regardless, I loved the fact that I can see one of the little red "waxy" red feather tips on her wing. Cedar Waxwings are one of my favorite birds!

I think I posted this picture for Christmas, but you'll see it here again just because it's one of the best cardinal pictures I've ever taken. It really looks fabulous as my desktop wallpaper too! We've got bunches of cardinals in the backyard again this winter. Late in the afternoon, it's not unusual to see up to 15 total at the different birdfeeders around the house!

Silly Corvids.......Suet is for woodpeckers!

Hope you're all enjoying winter and seeing some good birds in your backyard too.