Backyard and frontyard

 Backyard

Frontyard

I've begun to try improve my front yard photos. I put my camera and big lens on the tripod. These are all shot through the front window. My birds are a bit flight, plus it was cold yesterday!

"So how is it going?"

"Ah, not bad. She keeps trying to take my photo, though!"

The cardinal is so pretty in the evergreens.

Goldfinch, redpoll, chickadee!

Shy nuthatch!

And, the female in the horse chestnut tree. The first photo, retouched, and the second  not. 

I enjoy the redpolls, to add to bird variety. I've switched up this feeder food from a mix, to adding nyger seed to the mix. Redpolls are supposed to like it. 

This is a photo, well worth a post. Pfft. The downy male woodpecker and the chickadee in full take off!

My back is bad, still. Sigh. This old age... Surviving by keeping careful, Advil, and Voltaren. I know I have to work on getting comfortable in my chair. I think the muscles have to heal. Standing up to take photos was good.

I booked some massage therapy. JB is still getting physiotherapy for his neck. Despite lockdown, they have amazing protocols.  We shall carry on.

Winter birds – take care large and small

Our feeders have been mad with activity, what with -20 C. temperatures, there have been feeding frenzies. 

We delivered a loon to a bird centre in Napanee last week. heaven knows what happened to it, frozen in the cold, stuck in a field, with a hurt wing.
The Goldfinch lose their yellow in winter, but s/he had me fooled with the beige!

a pair at the feeder

woodpecker

sparrow

junco

Pileated woodpecker

Pileated after those bugs!

   ♪♫ ♬ Say a little prayer for me!

chickadee

Wild turkeys in snowstorm

House Sparrows: an invasive species

Yes, they were brought to the Brooklyn, New York, USA, in 1851. They are native to Europe and Asia.

They write of pest species birds, but I find the House Sparrows are precious little critters. They are absent from heavily wooded areas, grasslands, and deserts, preferring to live in the vicinity of humans, most often I see them when we eat outside in city restaurants. They are ubiquitous in our local municipal parks. For an excellent information piece by uCornell, click here.

They compete with house finches, and there are many 'pest' species that compete at feeders: grackles, starlings, pigeons, as well as the house sparrow. The more aggressive birds take it out on the less aggressive. I have noticed the chickadees being harassed by the blue jays, for example.

The crows are getting more aggressive at our feeder, as well.

Eating out is a whole new challenge when patrons feed them. Giving bread to birds is like giving them sugar.

Sparrow species:

• White-crowned Sparrow
• Harris's Sparrow
• Dickcissel
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow
• Black-throated Sparrow

chipping sparrow

redpoll

Camera Critters: #240

They are English SPARROWS (not related to North American sparrows but rather to African weavers) and were introduced 1850-52 from Europe to Brooklyn, NY, to control INSECT PESTS.

This little one was looking for food, too!

crow

grackle

seagull