My Little Chickadee

Just because I can't keep myself from taking photos of my favorite little backyard birdies.

A New Family Moves In

For quite some time now, I've noticed there's a phoebe who likes to frequent our front yard. It likes to sit on the side of our garbage "corral", flicking it's tail as though it's a wee bit nervous. I'd noticed it, but hadn't paid it any particular attention. Phoebes are kind of neat little birds, so I was happy that it stuck around and it never really struck me that this might be the same bird, day after day.

That is, until we got home from Park Day on Monday. I don't remember now what made me look up at the peak of the roof over the garage. Maybe it was the telltale peeping coming from up there. But looking up, there was clearly a mud nest attached firmly to the house, under the overhanging peak of the roof.And from that nest, there was a faint peeping. I didn't have a clue what kind of nest phoebes make, necessitating an immediate trip to the ol' bird book. Yes, indeed, much like swallow, phoebes make nests out of mud. It didn't take much investigating to confirm that our phoebe...which is almost certainly twophoebe parents...has a brand new family living above our garage.

I feel honored. I also feel like I need to remember to pull the mommymobile into the garage from now on...knowing that the phoebes like to sit in the tree in the driveway when they're not out hunting for food. No wonder it was such a mess!

Birdies

I've never considered myself a "birder", although I spent a couple of years in college counting birds of prey in the Central Valley from my car. I know the names of bunch of birds, but it doesn't really compare to anyone who really knows birds. Still, now that I've got this great new camera with a telephoto lens, I'm all about trying to capture my little (or not so little) feathered friends on film...uh...on a memory card. Or whatever.

I started off with the little tweeties in the backyard. My bird book tells me this is an Audubon's Warbler.O.K., so it's not a great photo, but I'm just getting started... These guys are finches...not sure which kind...on our birch tree.Last week, while Aunt Karen was here, we went out to a park by the Bay where there were some beautiful humming birds... a vociferous mockingbird...a cute little ruddy duck...and a stick-legged wading bird. I never know just what these guys are unless they're more colorful than this one.Today, we went letterboxing out by the Bay again and had some great opportunities to photograph this Snowy Egret.There were a whole lot of wading birds out there, including this lovely avocet.I also caught another hummingbird out there. It must be mating season or something because the hummingbirds are just brilliant!I got up close and personal with this Canada goose. I used to think these were really magnificent birds, but it turns out they're pretty mean and rather large birds. They're still kinda pretty though and I loved all the water beading on its head!And yes, there was some letterboxing today too. I chose a box that was nearly un-findable. In the end, finding it involved impaling my arms on some extra wicked palm fronds. Did it make finding the box that much more sweet? Not sure. It's not like it was a million dollars, you know? But there was some sense of accomplishment there. Here we all are, doing our stamping. Check out my filthy coat!Do not check out just how grey my hair is. Geez! That's far from a close-up of my hair, but you can see the platinum "highlights" just fine from there. Just not sure what to think about that. I may be starting to look old, but hey, I'm out there letterboxing. Sure doesn't feel like I'm slowing down!