Wow...you guys are good! I enjoyed all the captions and added them to the photos. I had 4 people who offered captions for all 3 photos.....Aluajala, Dorothy, Becky and Bruce! Very imaginative! They are all so good that I will give prizes to all of you :-)
George offered a caption for just #2 and Denise had a caption for the last photo which wasn't offically one of the ones being considered, but was a perfect caption for the entire post. So.......if you 6 will email me your "snail mail" addresses, I will send you a prize sometime in the near future. With Christmas so close it might be after Christmas. My usual prize is a quilted "mug mat/coaster".....so don't get too excited about your winnings. If you have a favorite color you can mention it when you send me your address. I'll see what I can do. My email is: mvfreeman@juno.com
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Scratching for your dinner....
Winter always brings me more ground feeders than normal. All of these birds hang around under the feeders, the driveway and under my tree by the front steps trying to "scratch up" a meal from the droppings of the other birds and what seed I put there.
A House Sparrow giving me a friendly eye.
This was the FATTEST Towhee I have ever seen! I don't know if he is just really fluffed up or if he found a good meal somewhere.
He is so round, he looks like he was designed by wildlife artist, Charles Harper!
They have such pretty color. I don't see them often...usually just a pair in the winter. This is the male. I seldom see the female.
Sides so fat they stick out quite roundly :-)
The Wren is often down with the ground feeders, but also visits the suet.
I have several White Throated Sparrows usually at this time of year. I saw 3 males out there the day I took this.
A House Sparrow giving me a friendly eye.
This was the FATTEST Towhee I have ever seen! I don't know if he is just really fluffed up or if he found a good meal somewhere.
He is so round, he looks like he was designed by wildlife artist, Charles Harper!
They have such pretty color. I don't see them often...usually just a pair in the winter. This is the male. I seldom see the female.
Sides so fat they stick out quite roundly :-)
The Wren is often down with the ground feeders, but also visits the suet.
I have several White Throated Sparrows usually at this time of year. I saw 3 males out there the day I took this.Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Titmouse: personality plus.....caption contest
I'm busy trying to finish up last minute Christmas presents and get packages sent, so I don't have a lot of time for blogging at the moment. I just discovered that I have hit 1000 posts in this blog! To celebrate, I'll save myself some trouble by letting you caption the photos for me and giving some prizes :-) I'll select 3 of these photos of one of my favorite birds...the Titmouse...and you can leave me a comment with a caption for them. I'm sure I won't get prizes sent until after Christmas.....but I will select winners and add your captions to my photos. I'll give you 2 days...Wednesday and Thursday.
(The selected photos are above the photo numbers.)
^Photo #1.............
^Photo #1............. "I'm a magic bird! See this seed? Abracadabra!" (Aluajala)
"Would you please open this seed for me?" (Dorothy)
"Would you please open this seed for me?" (Dorothy)
"If I hold REAL still, you'll get a perfect shot of me and this seed, but hurry, I'm hungry!" (Becky and Gary)
"Wait...I can't smile with this seed in my mouth!" (Bruce)
^ Photo #2........."Now it's gone!...Hey, what are you waiting for?" (Aluajala)
"Does my fanny look fat?" (Dorothy)
"Lady, will you put that camera down and put out some food?" (George)
Psst "Does anybody else see that CAT down there?" (Becky and Gary)
"I think you would get a better picture of me if you took the lens cap off first." (Bruce)
^ Photo #3........."Ok, ok, um.... lets try it again?" (Aluajala)
"Mom says I'm shy and a little Pigeon-toed." (Dorothy)
"I know my feet are ugly, but how can you ignore this cute face?" (Becky and Gary)
"This is my pitiful, please put out more seeds, face." (Bruce)
Not one of the offical photos, but Denise offered a caption for this one:
"Are you still here?" (Denise)
Titmice have so much personality :-) They were being particularly cute and co-operative yesterday.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
This and That.....
Carrying the camera in the car at all times has become a habit and comes in handy. We were driving home from somewhere and saw some gulls in a field. We decided to drive by the landfill, which is close by, and there were more gulls sitting on a little pond there.
I think they are attractive with their black and white wing tips. I believe they are Ring Billed Gulls. I don't usually see any others.
I thought they looked rather cold sitting out there on the ice.
We were actually checking to see if any hawks hung around the dump. This one was in town near a shopping area. Somehow I would have expected it to be the other way around.....gulls in the shopping area and hawk at the dump! Ah, well...what do I know!
At home the usual are there...the Blue Jay is really an attractive bird, even if it can be a bit of a bully sometimes.
One of the Downys......we have a couple pairs.
The Titmouse picking the perfect seed.....
......and coming back for more.
I just liked this shot of the wren.
I think they are attractive with their black and white wing tips. I believe they are Ring Billed Gulls. I don't usually see any others.
I thought they looked rather cold sitting out there on the ice.
We were actually checking to see if any hawks hung around the dump. This one was in town near a shopping area. Somehow I would have expected it to be the other way around.....gulls in the shopping area and hawk at the dump! Ah, well...what do I know!
At home the usual are there...the Blue Jay is really an attractive bird, even if it can be a bit of a bully sometimes.
One of the Downys......we have a couple pairs.
The Titmouse picking the perfect seed.....
......and coming back for more.
I just liked this shot of the wren.Monday, December 14, 2009
New Friends and a LOT of Geese.....
I finally met another blogger! Dee and Mike ....from Mike and D's Life in the Hoosier State and Beyond...drove down from Indianapolis to see the snow geese in Henderson, Ky.
It was so good to meet one of the people who visit my blog and who have become friends on-line. And what really nice people they are! After lunch and some time to get to know each other, we headed to the Henderson Slough. I was a bit worried that they would drive all the way down here and the geese would not show up.....
....no problem! We no sooner got to the fields and we knew we were in luck! Thousands of Snow Geese were resting between the rows of corn in the flooded fields. The most we have seen this year so far. (I should have made it clear that this is just one row of the geese. There are more between every section of corn)
What a sight! Immediately we were all out getting out our cameras and getting shots.
Mike (the Indy one, not my Mike ) focused and clicking away. I can't wait to see his photos, because he is a much better photographer than I am. Since they had to drive back to Indy afterwards, I don't know how soon they will get their photos up, but be sure to watch for them!
I was amazed at one point to realize just how close the Ohio River is to that field! That is a tug boat pushing a barge up the river. I thought the river was a mile or two away......instead it looks like the barge is right in the corn field.
Don't know if it was the barge or the photographers or who knows what.....but suddenly they all decided to take to the air. My first shot is a too light, but that was the "lift off: moment.
Suddenly the air was being filled with 1000's of geese!
Even though I am poor at air shots, with that many, I couldn't help but get a few in focus :-)
They circled around a bit and then headed across the road to a different field.
The numbers just boggle my mind!
They settled back down at more of a distance, but all that white just stands out against the dark trees.
Another air shot. Small groups continued to go back and forth the rest of the afternoon.
Later in the afternoon as the sun was going down, they crossed over again and the light was good on the corn. I'll have to remember that time of day the next time we go. We were there between 2 and 4PM. This is a Greater White Fronted Goose coming down. I was hoping to get shots of all the phases of the Snow Geese.....There are white adults and dark adults that have a white head. Then there are juveniles of both kinds, giving a total of 4 color combos. Both adults types were obvious, but I don't think I saw juveniles for both. Hard to tell with all those grey White Front Geese mixed in.
As you can see, there were Mallards hanging around with them, also.
This is a group of the Greater White Fronted Geese.
The Snow Geese really stand out in the air when sunlit.
I liked this line with several variations in it.
I was trying to identify these ducks....Shovelers, I believe...and you can see the Snow Geese lined up along the top of the photo.
In another field, my Sandpipers are still there and I still didn't get a very good shot. One of these days.....
It was so good to meet one of the people who visit my blog and who have become friends on-line. And what really nice people they are! After lunch and some time to get to know each other, we headed to the Henderson Slough. I was a bit worried that they would drive all the way down here and the geese would not show up.....
....no problem! We no sooner got to the fields and we knew we were in luck! Thousands of Snow Geese were resting between the rows of corn in the flooded fields. The most we have seen this year so far. (I should have made it clear that this is just one row of the geese. There are more between every section of corn)
What a sight! Immediately we were all out getting out our cameras and getting shots.
Mike (the Indy one, not my Mike ) focused and clicking away. I can't wait to see his photos, because he is a much better photographer than I am. Since they had to drive back to Indy afterwards, I don't know how soon they will get their photos up, but be sure to watch for them!
I was amazed at one point to realize just how close the Ohio River is to that field! That is a tug boat pushing a barge up the river. I thought the river was a mile or two away......instead it looks like the barge is right in the corn field.
Don't know if it was the barge or the photographers or who knows what.....but suddenly they all decided to take to the air. My first shot is a too light, but that was the "lift off: moment.
Suddenly the air was being filled with 1000's of geese!
Even though I am poor at air shots, with that many, I couldn't help but get a few in focus :-)
They circled around a bit and then headed across the road to a different field.
The numbers just boggle my mind!
They settled back down at more of a distance, but all that white just stands out against the dark trees.
Another air shot. Small groups continued to go back and forth the rest of the afternoon.
Later in the afternoon as the sun was going down, they crossed over again and the light was good on the corn. I'll have to remember that time of day the next time we go. We were there between 2 and 4PM. This is a Greater White Fronted Goose coming down. I was hoping to get shots of all the phases of the Snow Geese.....There are white adults and dark adults that have a white head. Then there are juveniles of both kinds, giving a total of 4 color combos. Both adults types were obvious, but I don't think I saw juveniles for both. Hard to tell with all those grey White Front Geese mixed in.
As you can see, there were Mallards hanging around with them, also.
This is a group of the Greater White Fronted Geese.
The Snow Geese really stand out in the air when sunlit.
I liked this line with several variations in it.
I was trying to identify these ducks....Shovelers, I believe...and you can see the Snow Geese lined up along the top of the photo.
In another field, my Sandpipers are still there and I still didn't get a very good shot. One of these days.....It was fantastic to get to meet Dee and Mike and I'm glad the geese cooperated and showed up! What a day it was! Anyone else want to come to Henderson and see geese? I can't promise anything, but they hang around until March.
(I forgot to mention that Mike and Dee left us a great tin of Christmas cookies....yum!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
%2B(2).jpg)
