Sunday, January 10, 2010

Backyard birds

This afternoon after I got home from church, filled the bird feeders and watched the fun and games. About 50 birds were fighting for the food.

I saw this single Hairy woodpecker working on the suet feeder and as I approached with my camera I was able to capture him on a limb.
A lot of American Goldfinch were working the niger seed sacks.

Black capped chickadees kept coming to the feeders, but the House finch and House sparrows kept chasing them away. So I stood by the feeders to allow the chickadees to feed. These little darters kept coming in and stealing a sunflower seed and flying off.




After the sparrows and finch had emptied the sunflower feeder, I went out to fill it again. The chickadees followed me to the shed where I keep the food. After filling the feeder, the chickadees followed me back to the feeder tree, flying down and taking a seed as I carried it back.

Just another wild day in the snow covered ground of Idaho.





23 comments:

Betsy Banks Adams said...

The Chickadees know who their friends are, don't they???? I love those little guys--and you got some great pictures. Luckily we don't have sparrows and not too many House Finches. We do have a TON of Goldfinches this year though.

Great pictures, Bill.
Betsy

Regina said...

Amazing!
Great captures.

Have a great week.

JTG (Misalyn) said...

Great bird shots Bill. It is really amazing to see and watch the birds flying and spreading their wings.

By the way, can you recommend a website that I can browse to find the names of the birds? Thanks in advance.

Have a great day Bill. Stay warm.

Monts said...

Great photo's Bill, the Woodpecker is great.Everything here is taking all the food they can find at the moment during our cold snap.

Redzlan aka Tabib said...

Love that Hairy-pecker.

Mary Howell Cromer said...

Lovely little songbird images. Got to appreciate their spunk! Between those Chickadee's and possibly Wrens, in the winter, they do not get much smaller, so they have to act larger than they are~

Carol said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog...did you know they have heaters for birdbaths? Mine is frozen over again this morning..I remember 5 gal water pails frozen solid when racing horses in VT...never thought I'd be chopping ice in FL

www.wildlifearoundus.blogspot.com

Small City Scenes said...

I like all the birds but Chickadees always seem so cheerful and that makes them special. MB

Evil Twin's Wife said...

Those are great pictures! I love hearing about the birds and their habits. They're so fun to watch.

marianne said...

great bird captures! you've inspired me to try and better photo birds myself.... maybe even head over to lake lowell and see who's wintering there...

Anonymous said...

Hey Bill thanks for stopping by my blogs. You have some really good pics on here. I love seeing 'new' birds even though you probably see them every day! Pop over to my blogs around Southern Africa again.

Thanks for sharing.
Janet

Anonymous said...

Hey Bill thanks for stopping by my blogs. You have some really good pics on here. I love seeing 'new' birds even though you probably see them every day! Pop over to my blogs around Southern Africa again.

Thanks for sharing.
Janet

Warren Baker said...

Hi,
Bill thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comment,

You feeders seem to be as busy as mineare, birds are the same all over the world eh?

Sunny said...

You truly take the best bird pictures!
I have had Chickadees eat out of my hand.
Sunny :)

Janie said...

Sounds like a very active day at the feeder. Your bird photos are great!

troutbirder said...

Gotta love both kinds of eagles. I'll be participating on Sat. in a golden eagle survey in the Mississippi valley. It's sponsored by the National Eagle Center in Wabasha Minn. The goldens are quite rare here compared to the balds but we do have them. The trick is telling them apart from the immature balds.

FAB said...

Frantic feeding everywhere at the moment Bill, although you seem to have far better light for capturing your visitors. FAB.

troutbirder said...

Great action shots. We love our chickadees here too.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Bill: You got some beautiful captures of your birds.

Dagmar said...

Oh Bill how graet you made friends with the chickadees.
You've captured the beautiful as always.
I specialy love the hoovering one, just lifting off the branche. Sweet little ones they are I think.

eileeninmd said...

Awesome shots of the birds, Bill!

Anonymous said...

When the chickadee's are that hungry, you can get their trust to land on your hands to feed directly from your palm as if you were the direct feeder. No intermediate platforms are therefore needed. Have fun always.

Sue McGettigan said...

Great photos of the birds, especially the open wings! I see you have buds getting ready for the spring.