Some Local Residents and an Unexpected Visitor

I received the gift of a new folding chair last night and wanted to see how it would work for birding. It works great.

Today we had a lot of young folks at the feeders. Also some regulars and a very unexpected guest.

Either an Immature or Molting Male Cardinal.

Common Grackle (Immature)

Common Grackle

Black-Capped Chickadee

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Red Squirrel

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Immature Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Immature Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Immature Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

April Break: "I Take Better Pictures Outside Than In" Edition

Today we had tickets to the Frank Stella exhibition at The Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT. If you haven't gone yet, you must. I took a whole bunch of pictures inside for which zero came out. I missed a setting or something. I'll figure it out.

I did get some quick and reasonable shots outside when we returned. Clearly I'm an outside kind of guy.

I believe that this is a Common Grackle.

This is what he does when he doesn't want to continue sitting for a photo session.

And here he is with his neighborhood watch group.

Another neighbor back for the season. A female Downy Woodpecker. 

This lovely couple of Northern Flickers have been surveying different properties in the neighborhood. They seem to have settled on this tree. They may just be here for take-out though.

This little Tufted Titmouse was jumping and flitting his way all over the place.

Mother's Day Birds

Male Cardinal

Cardinal Inbound

Female Cardinal

American Robin

White Throated Sparrow.

White Throated Sparrow

Red-Winged Black Bird

House Finch

Male Hairy Woodpecker. The white steaks are bits of seed.

Female Hairy Woodpecker

Chipping Sparrow. "Are you looking at me?"

Chipping Sparrow. "You look like you're looking at me."

Tufted Titmouse with a bit of fluff

Tufted Titmouse inbound.

Bird Shots: Freezing Time edition

I was lucky enough to have been gifted with a new Nikon D850 recently, although Laura will tell you that we're already $600 into this "free" camera.

The ability to freeze time with the camera, should the lighting conditions be within certain guidelines, is amazing. Here are some shots from the bird feeder over the past couple days including some cropped shots in which time almost stands still.

Two female Goldfinches go at it while a male and a pair of Purple Finches look on.

This is cropped from another picture of the feeder like the previous shots. The D850 shoots at an astounding 45mp so even cropped there's still a lot of pixels to work with here.

Two female Goldfinches go at it while a male and a pair of Purple Finches look on.