You’ve probably seen images like this before.
It’s the imprint made by a raptor when it nails it’s victim.
Grant said he found dove feathers blowing around. As someone pointed out, having a feeder is going to attract raptors. But there are so many birds and this time of year so little for them to eat.
Which includes raptors, of course.
They too are noble creatures.
Birds just love to tease me. Photographing them is never going to be easy. Much time and patience required.
It isn’t just that I have not much of those requirements.
There is also the problem of wobble!
Which became very much more noticeable when I acquired a longer lens. Grant asked “isn’t there a correction built in for wobble?”
Em, yes, but not for lurching all over the place!
So the man produced a tripod which would seem a good solution, except…
There is a list of items: umbrellas, walking sticks, tripods, for example, that, as far as I am concerned serve only one useful function: self defense. Otherwise they are a liability. Something you can too easily fall over and generally are apt to lose. I know the latter to be fact, judging by the quantity of said items that used to turn up in our lost and found office at the airport.
I believe I heard once that a prosthesis had been turned in. How can you not know you are missing a leg? Perhaps it was a spare, or perhaps the passenger was using a wheelchair. But I digress.
So I’m stuck doing the best I can, hoping to focus before the birds flee. In this case a junco (snowbird) Lots of them around these days!.
Not everyone likes starlings. I do, of course. Whatever “bad behavior” a bird has, it’s what Nature provided.
Starlings amuse me. Mozart had a starling. There’s a book about it, called “Mozart’s Starling”! by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. I just went looking for it, and while I could find no trace of it, I found two other bird books that I recommend:
Red Tails in Love by Marie Winn, the story of a Red Tail in Central Park
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner about parrots in San Francisco (more tears)
Just now I was in the kitchen and spotted a bird I’ve never seen here before. It flew off into a tree and I looked through my bird book to see if I could find it.
Then I thought I saw it sitting on a branch so I pointed and snapped, not even knowing what was out there.
What do you know…it was him and it’s a mockingbird.
How cool is that? I hope he stays around.
While I was at it, I got this little chap:
White-breasted nuthatch
The smaller red-breasted nuthatch is out there lately too, but so far has refused to be photographed.
Earlier I saw Mrs Cardinal through the screened window and managed to catch her amazing colours:
While not in focus, I rather like the blur of colours on the right.
Yesterday it must have been a different Mrs C in the hedge, watching her husband disport himself in the snow:
Then she had to join in:
What a very handsome husband Mrs C has.
But I think she’s gorgeous too:
Am I not lucky, to have these beautiful friends just outside my window?
Such vibrant colours! Yes, you are indeed lucky to have all these birds around you ☺️.
You have so many wonderful creatures in your part of the world!
You are very lucky. I love starlings, especially that they have so many little hearts to carry around in their plumage!
Have you tried searching on Abe books for Mozart’s Starling, it is a huge database where booksellers both second hand and new list available books. I have used it successfully a few times to find that hard to track down title. Try this link: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=&tn=Mozart%27s+starling&kn=&isbn=&sortby=93
Thanks. I actually have the book here…somewhere…I just need a big book case so I can put everything in one place instead of here there and everywhere!
I have read The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill and loved it, even more so because I grew up in San Francisco and for those who don’t know Telegraph Hill is in San Francisco. Great book and I just love the author. Great pics, Caroline. I love to read your blog and enjoy your photography. Blessings
Thank you.I loved the book too.