Migrating Again!

Hey everyone, so after a few trips into the woods lately, it's plain to see that some of the birds that already came and went, are coming back and going again! Most of the spring time birds that are really fun to look for that have gone away since May have started making appearances again on their way south for the winter. These are some of the coolest looking birds and the most diverse ones as well for the area. I have gotten a few pictures of some, but nothing to awe inspiring as far as I'm concerned! These are some of the birds I have gotten so far. 

This is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, which is really small and hard to spot. What makes them easier to pick out is their bold white eye ring! Otherwise, unless you know what they sound like, they just kind of blend in with the others.

 This is a juvenile Blue-headed Vireo. This vireo is one of the coolest looking vireos during the spring time because their colors really stick out! Unfortunately, this guy is young and doesn't have all of his colors yet. This phase of his life is called molting! 

This is another juvenile bird that was very curious about me called a Wilson's Warbler. He is all yellow and when he gets older, there will be a dark black cap on the top of his head that contrasts boldly against his body. But like his friend above, he too is too young to have all of his colors yet. I had a great chance to get some awesome pictures of this guy, but getting a crisp, spot-on focused shot of a 3 to 4 inch bird that is constantly jumping around through the tree branches is not the easiest thing in the world. Actually, it extremely difficult and frustrating sometimes.

 

Then of course there is this guy! What would a nice stroll in the woods be without coming across a very large, snake. If you would have asked me last year if I took a picture of any snakes I had seen in the woods, I would have said, "NO WAY!" But, this year I have tried really hard to overcome my "fear" of snakes and to actually try to understand more about them. Before I knew it, I actually could see one on the ground and WITHOUT having a mild heart attack, I could manage to just look at it and appreciate it. Well, in this case I was on a very narrow path when I could sense something right next to my feet. When I looked down, I instantly knew what kind of snake it was from my studies and I was completely calm. It was about 3 to 4 feet long and very thick, but I knew it was a Black Rat Snake and that they were non-poisonous, which equals harmless to humans. So I got down in a squat and about 4 feet from it's face and took his picture. I'm actually very proud of myself! I couldn't get him to move for a better picture and when he did, he bolted away from me, cut across the path and vanished. LOL 

More pictures to come.....

A Couple of New Birds!

Hey everyone, I finally got a few pictures of some birds that I have been chasing all summer long. It is not easy to be in the right place at the right time, without being gone all the time, everyday! Being that I would never want to do that to my family, I feel that whenever I get photos like this on a short trip, I am as lucky as EVER! SO, here are the few photos that I liked best! 

I got out to chase around some of these Eastern Towhees, and because they love being on the ground in the woods, it usually is really bad lighting, and hard to get pictures. Out of 120 photos of these guys bouncing all around me, I came out with 3 that weren't blurry! This is my favorite one! What a cool, mean looking bird! I love the red eyes on these things!

One of the coolest birds around in the summer is this guy, the Indigo Bunting! They are everywhere during the summer when they are here, but they only stick around for a little while. I had several failed attempts to photograph these birds, until one Sunday morning as I was getting out of the car in my church parking lot, I heard about 4 of them chatting in the trees around me. Needless to say, I came back the next morning and sat in my car, as they bounced around in the trees, getting closer and closer to me. It was one of those moments where I asked myself, are you serious?? 

I caught this guy in my brother's back yard, as he was munching on a green wormy snack. It's a House Wren.

Here is one of my favorite shots I have taken so far. I got really lucky in getting this Red-eyed Vireo to come close enough to me to get some good shots. It was a fun family photo shoot!

This picture is one of my favorites, actually so much that it is already on my wall! I just love how he is turned and the red eye just pops out at you! It almost makes me look like I know what I am doing, almost!

A Slow, Hot Summer!

 Well like I said, it has been too long since I have created a new post with some photos, but sure enough, here is another! Here is a collection of the past couple of outings. With the weather being hotter and with the summer months upon us, things tend to slow down, and birds become scarce. Having said that, I have been lucky to see a couple of cool summer time visitors though. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures! Enjoy!!

Here are a few shots of a Eastern Wood-Peewee. Funny name, but he is actually part of the flycatcher family. That basically means that he sits perched like this, waits for some sort of bug, fly, butterfly, dragonfly, etc. to come by, then swoops down and grabs it and comes right back to the same spot and perches again to eat his catch. They are fun to watch! 

This is a Green Heron! They are all around right now by the lakes, and are hard to spot because of how well they blend in with their surroundings. They sit on a limb above the water, then fly down and spear a fish to eat. They have crazy long necks, that are kind of freaky looking but keep them retracted most of the time. Oh, and they swallow their fish whole!

One of my favorite looking birds is this one, a Common Yellowthroat! They are small, quick and have a really neat song! Jason and I have this little guy circling us a couple of days ago looking for the sound that my phone app was making, and only managed to scrap up a few good shots of him. He is that quick! These photos are a little too grainy for me, but it was all I could get! 

Summer = Hummingbirds ! These are one of the hardest birds to get pictures of by the way. They are the fastest, smallest and most skiddish of all the others! I am still working on getting some more pictures of them without the feeder in the picture! 

I will do my best to make sure that I don't wait as long to post some more photos!

A Week of Birding and a Very Up-Close Raccoon Experience!

After a busy week of school starting again, we haven't had much time to get out and enjoy the weather. With the past few days having been so nice, it has made it especially hard staying inside. I can speak for all us here when I say we were going a little "stir crazy". But, we eventually got out and took a walk around to enjoy the weather, and of course the wildlife. Here are a few shots from our last few trips out!

 This is an Eastern Kingbird. It just finds a place to perch then flies off and grabs an insect then returns to the same perch. It is really cool to watch. As we drove along the shore of a lake, we came up on him and he was really open to getting his picture taken.

We came up on a group of Least Sandpipers that I have never seen before in this area. They were so cool because they let me get within a few feet of them as they just ate and walked around all calm. These things are tiny standing tall at about 4". This photo shoot was definitely worth the goose crap I got all over my jeans as I crawled around the mucky ground getting these pictures.

After our photo shoot with the Least Sandpipers, we turned the corner and ran into this guy. It's a Solitary Sandpiper! I have attempted several times to get decent pictures of these birds, but they are very nervous when approached. I got closer this time, thanks to some geese and seagulls that were kind of distracting it from focusing on me. Once again, army crawl was necessary otherwise I wouldn't have gotten half this close. But no goose poop on the clothes for this bird, thankfully! 

 

 The next time we got out, we had a few other new birds come really close to the spot we were sitting. The only problem was that they are so small, and fast, that they are extremely hard to get pictures of. But, we did have a few perch in front of us just long enough to focus and get some pictures. Here's what we got.

Cedar Waxwing - Probably one of the coolest looking birds ever!

These aren't the greatest pictures ever, but this is the first Wilson's Warbler I have ever seen. Cool looking and sounding bird. 

This is a Northern Flicker that was chasing around another N. Flicker and just happen to land about 20 feet from me. He stayed there long enough for 3 photos, than took off! Another really cool, and large bird.

Last but not least, another not photo trip of the Yellow Warbler. This bird is so hard to get to come close that it's driving me crazy! 

 

 So lastly I am adding the pictures of our adventure from a family drive out to Kingsbury. As we were leaving the Wildlife area, a raccoon was on the side of the road, so we stopped to take a look. Well when we stopped the car, it looked at us and ran right at our car. I couldn't believe it, so I gave the camera to Kelly and told her to get some pictures. She rolled the window down and took a couple, and it kept coming closer and closer. It finally stopped after putting its paws on the side of Kelly's car door! We were laughing so hard, and we thought for sure that it was going to jump in her window. She would roll it up in fear of it coming in. It was so funny, even the car behind us was stopped and taking pictures of it touching our car! Wow, apparently we were driving through a petting zoo and didn't even know it! Note: The first picture is Kelly trying to get a picture while rolling up her window! LOL