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Project FeederWatch- Week 3

It's been raining all day but that hasn't stopped the birds! They were a little slow to rise, but sure enough around 11:00 they were swarming the feeders. I couldn't believe how active they were even when the rain was at its heaviest.

It's been just the usual suspects so far, but I did see an interesting sparrow. Since I've been watching from the safety of my covered porch I wasn't able to get close enough to get a good shot, and had to rely on the strength of my Canon PowerShot's zoom. Fortunately I had the steadiness of my new tripod in my favor. It's not very tall, but I can set it up on the table in the porch. It works out pretty well.

The rain has added an interesting element to my shooting today. Some of the pictures make the birds look like they have white specs on them.

Dark-eyed Junco and Tufted Titmouse:
Male Northern Cardinal:

Blue Jay and Squirrel:
I know squirrels are a nuisance but I don't see very many of them (this is maybe the second time I've seen one at my feeder) and I thought this was a cute picture.

I also had a sparrow visit briefly, but I couldn't get a good enough picture because the rain was coming down hard when I saw it. The most distinguishing characteristics I saw with my binoculars were a dark grey underside and brown wings/top feathers. My best guess is a Swamp Sparrow.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I actually enjoy watching the squirrels, which is good since ours are daily visitors. Some days I'm more a squirreler than a birder. I like that jay/squirrel shot, btw.
Birdinggirl said…
@James- it's nice to hear you don't have any hostile feelings toward squirrels despite the fact they're frequent visitors. Some people actually have squirrel feeders, which I think is an interesting concept. I wonder how well it works at keeping them from the bird feeders.

Ours is catching on to the availability of food at our tray feeder. My boyfriend said he got a lot of seed the other morning. But at least we have the long cone feeder that he can't get into. And he visits only sporadically so for now I think he's cute :)
Anonymous said…
I have a squirrel feeder also, but they seem to know the birds can't get into it so they work the bird feeders first and then hit the squirrel feeder. Clever devils!

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