Close-ups April 2024 — Part 2b

On April 7th, I again sat outside with my coffee and Nikon D7500.

I snapped 345 images, trashed a few, and picked 209 to share. That’s too many for one blog post, so I’m splitting them into four posts with 50 to 55 images each.

This, then, is the second of four posts about what I photographed that day.

Honestly, it’s gonna get repetitive and boring, so if you have something else to do, perhaps you should get to doing it. On the other hand, if you want to procrastinate — like, for instance, delaying doing your taxes until the last minute — you’ve come to the right place.

Right, so here we go . . .

Once again, I offer up squirrels. Squirrels were once popular pets, but most places these days ban the keeping of wild animals as pets. Still, you should look up Mungo.

As a reminder, I’m presenting them chronologically instead of grouping them by subject, so I’ll be jumping around pretty much as my attention did at the time.

Still, I at least try to capture interesting poses.

Maybe even see behaviors not previously observed.

Most birds flit hither and fro, but a few seem focused on their task—eating. One such bird is the Carolina Chickadee. They really put their heart into it.

But occasionally, one will sit and ponder the meaning of life, with a faraway look in their eyes . . .

If there are peanuts on the ground, Blue Jays are not far away. They announce their presence with loud shrieks that allow me to get my camera ready.

I’d not previously observed American Robins coming to get a few seeds. I typically see them in the yard, presumably hunting for worms or other prey. When I’m lucky, they visit the birdbath. But this is the first year I’ve noticed them eating seeds.

. . . maybe this is the first year they noticed the abundance of seeds I put out.

I often mention I try to snap birds in flight or when they launch from a perch. I have my camera set at 1/2500 sec and in burst mode . . . and still the birds often come out blurry, especially when launching.

I keep the shutter that fast because while I can still get a decent image of a stationary bird even with a fast shutter, the opposite isn’t true. A slow shutter speed consistently produces blurred images of birds because they are seldom immobile.

As I said, even with a fast shutter speed, many images have motion blur . . .

Luckily, modern processing tools can sometimes recover the detail.

I’m generally not fond of blackbirds because they come in flocks that crowd out other birds. However, they have their own beauty and behaviors that make them interesting. This Brown-headed Cowbird was on its own as it foraged on my patio.

I dislike Cowbirds in particular because they are parasitic birds. They don’t build nests, and instead focus on producing as many eggs as possible and lay them in the nests of other birds. Essentially, they fool other birds into raising their young for them, often to the detriment of the bird’s actual offspring.

Nature be cruel, it be . . . but then, having observed the way some humans raise (or don’t raise) their kids, I can’t be overly judgmental about what animals do.

Other birds that will often avail themselves of other bird’s nests are Mourning Doves.

But they at least wait until the original owner of the nest is done with it. When they build nests, they are little more than precariously thrown-together platforms, so I understand why they prefer other birds’ nests.

Robins build pretty good nests (see THIS post), and at least on two occasions, I witnessed doves using the nests after the robins fledged.

I mentioned robins coming to look for seeds . . .

. . . but their beaks aren’t made to crack open seeds, so I’m not sure what they’re eating. I’ve seen them eat whole berries, but I’m not sure that would work with seeds.

American Goldfinch also usually come in small flocks, anywhere from four to as many as ten birds. They are particular about what they want from the feeders and will empty half the feeder in just a few hours as they scoop out stuff they don’t want to get to what they like. Other birds wait below for the falling food.

Have you ever seen a Robin doing the sidestep? No? Well, you’re in luck today.

I mentioned that Goldfinch flock, so I have a good number of photos.

Of course, they all look the same, so it might be boring to all but the most avid fan of Goldfinches.

They’re in for a shock, I tell you what!

Anyway, I know this is pretty boring, but I processed these images and, by golly, I’m going to share them even if I’m the only one looking at them.

The SmugMug Gallery is HERE, and the slideshow is linked below.

Slideshow

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

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