Late April also gets the birds

Only forty-one photos in this post. What can I say . . . I’m older and slowing down.

Anyway, we begin with a small gallery . . .

For them not interested in reading my words but interested in the full-size versions of the photos, you can see the bird photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery and the other photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery. 

When you click the links, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button near the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: Above the play/pause button there’s the option to go full screen. Most of these look really good viewed full screen. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
3) If you click on the photo, it will zoom to full-size (1:1 view). Depending on the size and details of the photo, it might take a few seconds.

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

Remember When I rested on May 2nd? Well, I also did a bit of resting on April 30th. Yup! Got me my camera, a cup of coffee, and sat outside watching for photo opportunities to present themselves. You already saw the first . . . a bug. Specifically, a Crane Fly (LINK).

It landed about ten feet away and it sure looked like it wanted inclusion in this post. I mean, at one point, I even got up and walk right by it (and back) and it didn’t even blink. Well, OK, it might have blinked. I mean, they gots them compound eyes and, for all I know, it blinked a few hundred times. 

Why did I get up, you ask? Well, I wanted to check out the nesting Mourning Dove (LINK). One of two nesting doves within about twenty feet of each other; the other is nesting in our wisteria plant. How do I know? It scared the crap out of me (not literally, fortunately) when I reached the top of the arbor so I could “train” the tendrils reaching for the gutter, and it flew off in a tiff.

What about the other one? . . . well, this next photo is from the phone a few days ago (May 10th), after the dove left . . . after scaring me a second time . . .

Obviously, that’s from the Note 20, processed in Snapseed and resized using Pixlr.

Warning: the Block Editor is still a pain to work with and can cause stress levels to spikes. Use with caution. Avoid if possible.

By the way, other than the above photo, all the others were processed using DxO’s PureRaw. They are making it very tempting, despite the high price. Mind you, you could accomplish the same thing using DxO’s PhotoLab 4.0, but it would be a pain to manually process 41 photos.

So, most of the remaining photos will be in galleries since I need to get cracking with writing about Lust.

Photo as shot (200mm zoom, 350mm equivalent)

Crop of previous photo.

Bird is trying to figure out why I went back to using the 70-200mm lens as opposed to the 70-300mm

Well, curious bird, it’s all about the f-stop. Sure, the 70-200mm is 4x the weight of the 70-200mm, but them be the sacrifices we make.

That’s a House Finch (LINK) at one of our birdbaths.

This next bird gave me pause. The white around the eyes threw me off, but I think it’s a non-breading female American Goldfinch (LINK).

The size of the photos . . .

Crop of previous photo.

Cropped photo.

Cropped photo.

Next, I watched a Common Grackle (LINK) having a conversation with itself . . .

“Find some bugs for the young’uns,” she said. “Or worms.”

How the heck am I supposed to find anything here?

I’m up to my knees in grass, and it all looks the same.

Heck, I can’t even see the ground! How am I going to find bugs!?

But, man, if I don’t come back with something, I’m gonna hear about it, alright!

Man, looking for bugs is hard work . . . I’ll be eating the first one I find, I tell you what!

. . . which better be quick, or I’ll never hear the end of it.

Well, I got something, but . . . it looks weird and its legs are all over the place. On second thought, I’m giving this to the young’uns.

As I sat there contemplating if it was worth getting up for another coffee, I looked up . . .

That’s an interesting moth . . . and I couldn’t find it in the list of Illinois moths (LINK). I’ll send it in and maybe it’s a new moth and it will be named Disperser Ceiling Moth.

As I sat there hoping Melisa would peek out the door and ask me if I wanted a fresh cup of coffee, I looked over at the crepe myrtle and then the flowers we bought. What the heck, I think they’re worth a couple of photos . . .

Of course I didn’t do a conversation for the plants! I mean, that would just be loony!

I kept hearing a Song Sparrow (LINK) but I couldn’t quite locate where it was . . . until it hopped up from the middle of a bush to a place where I could see him, and he started grooming. I’d replicate our conversation but the bird got a little raunchy and I want to spare readers with delicate sensibilities. Let’s just say I’d never before heard a bird list all the places it was touching . . .

Finally, I decided I’d get me a cup of fresh coffee, but just as I was about to get up, a Ruby-throated hummingbird (LINK) landed not two feet from me (a female). A male was chasing her, and the male kept swooping down toward the female while it flew from side to side, like a frantic pendulum. I put the empty coffee cup down and fumbled the camera . . . which scared the male and it flew back about twenty feet. The female saw her chance and tried to fly off, but the male swooped back and blocked her path. The following is the only photo I got before they flew off . . .  

That’s the first hummingbird photo of the season. I hope to get many more.

Anyway, that’s it . . . here’s the parting gallery . . .  

OK, OK, I lied . . . again. There are 41 photos from April 30th, but I added the egg photo from May 13th, so . . . 42 photos; sue me.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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