My Yard January 18, 2009

I had some free time but no good scouting reports mainly because all of the lakes and ponds in the area were frozen. I decided just to sit in the yard and see what I could get from the bird feeders there. It was cold so I layered up and sat under the deck with the camera.

I got some good shots of Song Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Tufted Titmice, Black-Capped Chickadees, Mourning Doves and Northern Cardinals.

I was patient enough to watch the song sparrows to see where they were going. It turns out that they had some roosts or nests under my neighbor’s deck. Each time they would come back out to feed they would perch on the lattice on the edge of the deck before going to the feeders. I was lucky enough to get a few shots of them sitting there, staging before their snack.

My House 12-31-2008

Last summer I did a small bit of landscaping in the yard between my house and my neighbor Joanne’s house. I removed the sod, put in scalloped border stones, lava rock and posts to hang bird feeders from. It looks quite nice really. I have four feeders there for the winter and many smaller birds are visiting the feeders regularly.

I decided on this last day of 2008 to sit under my deck with the digiscope to see what kind of pictures I could get of my visitors. I was in for a busy morning.


I dressed warmly due to the cold weather, grabbed my folding stool and the digiscope and moved the area under the deck.


I had plenty of opportunities while I was hiding from the birds which were only roughly 22 feet away. I got many shots of Song Sparrows, House Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos and even a Cardinal. While I was out, some snow fell on my hilltop, making most of the pictures that I got quite scenic. I was surprised by the Dark-eyed Juncos; I’d never seen one in my neighborhood before today.


A few unexpected surprises even fell my way. Another neighbor pulled into her driveway while I was taking the pictures. Even though I was in plain view of her, she never saw me because of the dark clothes I was wearing to hide in the shadows. I thought that she was going to jump out of her skin when I said “Hi Sharon”. We had a good laugh about it after she calmed down. A short while later, Sharon’s daughter Kaitlin brought her dog out for a walk. Evidently Sharon didn’t tell Kaitlin about me being out there because I scared her almost as bad as her mom. Kaitlin watched me take some pictures and was fascinated by it, she wants to know when I’m going to do it again.

As usual, the pictures can be seen on my Picasa page...
http://picasaweb.google.com/richwiz34