More photos going back to January.
A nutty little upside down nuthatch. :-)
nuthatch
Critter of the day: nuthatch
Take-off
I was able to get some in-flight photos recently, and will be posting them over the next few days.
Here is a chickadee at our hanging feeder, just as it’s taking off!
Love that pose! :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Bird feeder
I recently picked up some more mixed bird seed and added it to our feeder.
I find it interesting, which seeds get eaten right away, and which get left behind.
And the lengths some birds will go to, to get their preferred seed, while ignoring other seeds that are easier to get to.
Like this nuthatch.
All the birds seem to prefer the same seeds. Which is weird, as the seed blend is designed to appeal to a variety of birds. Our visiting birds don’t seem to want variety in their food!
The above photo was taken yesterday, before the snow fell. (I got some others, I will post over the next few days.) Today, they were digging through the snow to get at the seeds.
They were being watched, as they did so!
The Outsider was very interesting in what they were doing up there!
Gosh, he’s an adorable cat.
When it gets dark out, we can still see the white of the hanging bird feeder, but the rest of the platform and stand is barely visible.
Last night, while sitting in my crochet corner, I noticed the hanging feeder swinging away and thought it was getting quite windy! Then I saw some movement, as the stand itself seemed to move. We’ve had wind gusts strong enough to knock it over, so that got my attention.
Which is when I saw the black shadow, moving around on the platform feeder. A splash of white came into view, and I found Doom Guy, looking back at me though the window!
Too funny!
That makes three of the kittens that we’ve seen up on the platform feeder! Makes me wonder how often it happens, when we’re not there to see it. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Got it!
After many months, I finally got it!
Good photos of an upside down nuthatch!
I love it when they do that… :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Just for a moment
I got a serious of photos while the birds were flitting on and off the feeder, including several of a couple of nuthatches. This one came and went quickly, so it wasn’t until I uploaded it to the computer that I found myself wondering.
Is this really a nuthatch? In all the other photos, the nuthatches are completely white around the eye, but this one is different. It was there for just a moment, and it looks just like any other nuthatch, except for how the black is on its head.
Now I’m curious.
The Re-Farmer
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Aren’t I pretty?
While it might be hard to get photos of them as they do their upside down thing, the nuthatches otherwise seem rather okay with posing for the camera. Right side up, at least. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Caught ’em
I have finally uploaded the photos from the DSLR today, and some of them even turned out!
And some, I’m just going to make do with the best I got. :-D
The first, is the deer we saw yesterday morning.
This morning, my husband saw two of them, grazing near where we had been leaving feed for them last winter. We’ve started to pick up deer feed instead of the mixed bird seed we tried over the summer (the birds don’t seem to like it as much as the deer feed!) and will start leaving small amounts out for the deer over the next while.
When I told my mother about the deer coming to eat the apples on the ground, she was quite happy. It was not something they used to do, and she’s glad they feel comfortable coming here, now. :-)
One of the things I’ve mentioned before about the birds, is seeing the nuthatches going along upside down. I’ve been trying to get a photo for months. Yesterday, I finally caught one upside down …
I’d say this is the best photo I’ve managed to get, but I think it’s the ONLY photo I’ve managed to get!
They move fast! :-D
I found some other ones I’m happy with that I will post over the next few days. I hope you enjoy them, too.
The Re-Farmer
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Busy Birds
I almost got a photo of the nuthatch upside down, but it flipped around too quickly!
It’s been a while since we’ve seen white throated sparrows. Nice to see them back. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Trees: first quote
Goldfinch on our platform feeder.
I called two companies to get quotes about clearing our power lines, and removing the two trees that are a risk of falling on our roof. One called this morning and will be coming out on Monday. The other came today, so I have one quote now.
There are a LOT of trees that will need to be cut back. There are the first group of trees in the south yard, the ones in the maple grove to the north of the house, the ones by the second power pole in the main garden, and finally the ones at the fence line as the lines exit the property. One of the dead spruce trees will be taken down completely, as it is a risk for falling onto the lines, plus the two maples at leaning over the roof will be taken down completely. They will be bringing a chipper for clean up, and after talking to him about that, I’ve said that we will keep the chippings. He said the size of the chips are appropriate for composting, so that’s perfect for what I’ve got in mind for various areas.
Altogether, the quote is $1500 (plus, I assume, taxes, to about $1700 total). For the number of trees they’ll be working on, I find this very reasonable, and we would be able to come up with the funds to get it done in the fall, rather than have to wait until spring. Though when he saw the maple with the rot in it, he was visibly surprised that tree is still up, and was saying it might be better to not wait until fall! I told him it’s been like that for years, and yeah, I’m in agreement with him on that. But we will do it when we have the money.
So that’s one down!
Nuthatch on platform feeder.
After we get another quote on Monday, we will make a decision on which company to use and start setting aside funds.
I will be much relieved when this is finally done!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 