DAILY BIRD PICTURES, VOLUME 365

Teddy, yes, pelle's guess is correct,homemade peanut butter suet. Although, I just use lard in the mix, because suet is extremely difficult to come by.

This message was edited Dec 23, 2010 6:21 PM

LOL, Sorry got your names mixed up. :-)

Well, we have been having quite a bit of hamburger, and I have some that is solidified, if I just used that, mixed bird seed and sunflower seeds, do you think that would entice some birds to come and check it out? The suet feeder is right beside the shepherds hook which is right beside the door. I have a small cake pan that I can pour the mixture in when I get it mixed up. I don't have any peanut butter, and I don't have rolled oats. So please let me know if you think that will make the birds happy, because I can't afford suet cakes from the store for awhile. This is the suet feeder we have, do you think it will work?

Have any corn flour?

bad pics

Chickadee yesterday

Mourning Dove.....

Pileated watching something????

no, we don't have any corn flour, why?

Teddy, lots of recipes call for flour, corn meal, etc. you can often ask the meat department at a store for some fat trimmings, usually pretty cheap.

Can't imagine what a HUGE pileated would be worried about. LOL>

Re. the Pileated, perhaps the little Wren from the other day brought Big Bird and they are hovering above him!!

This was a bad hair day for birds. Here is a bad picture of a female Cardinal, but had to show you this "doo". Had to shoot right into the sun!!

And another,

And, a little Tufted Titmouse with a similar problem.

Elphaba - never worry about interrupting me. I was amazed at your "hip shot" of the flicker - I thought it was marvelous.

bsharf - what a cool capture - the Heron with the Snake.

reddirtretiree - neat capture of the two finches

nanny_56 - I like the Cooper's hawk

gardenpom - nice, the way you focused on the buntings and not the limbs is front. Did you have to use manual focus?

Dave, the stocking is a great idea.

teddy_8905 - you are getting better with each post. The tweaked titmouse was great. That program is doing a good job for you. AND teddy, I gave making suet a try - too messy for me. Now, I just buy it at Tractor Supply of $0.99 a cake.

thebestmissy, goodness, you sure do have a bunch of GOFINs.

Hack

Got me a few to share from today

Here's a Brown-headed Nuthatch. Shot this one with the new 70-200mm lens.

Hack

Carolina Chickadees were in abundance. On this one, I used the 70-200 with a Tamron 1.4x TC. Just today my new Canon 1.4x and 2x TCs arrived. Looking forward to trying them out tomorrow.

This message was edited Dec 24, 2010 2:05 AM

The Carolina Wrens are always at the suet feeder or on the ground beneath it.

It may be that Chipping Sparrows are my most numerous birds now. Naw, HOFINs are the most.

The female Downy Woodpecker returned today.

My favorite, Pine Warbler, was back, too.

That's all for now.

Hack

Nice shots everyone! Good to see the Brown-headed Nuthatch Hack.

No, Hack. I always use auto focus. Just took a while for the camera to settle on the birds and not the branch.

This message was edited Dec 24, 2010 8:09 AM

lionhrt9 - nice pix, not so bad. I've always wondered how a bird can get peanuts out of a feeder like the one your Chickadee was on.

I gave it a try but it was spoiled, whew! Did that smell! I will just wait for now. I did not know that stuff would spoil, but it does. I think buying it will be better in the long run, I did not have all the ingredients anyway, we got some more pics of the tufted titmouse this morning, will be posting them soon.

Dave, that stocking is way too cute!
Teddy, excellent tweaking! Isn't it amazing what you can do now?
Bestmissy, love the Pine Warbler. You and Hack have some beauties.
Nanny, love the Cooper's Hawk!
Bsharf, very cool heron with the snake!
Red, love the finches. If I had a feeder like that though the only thing on it would be house sparrows. My house finches have to settle for safflower seed.
Hack, love that chipping sparrow with his crown up! I've been trying to identify more sparrows in the backyard, but I'm pretty sure that they are all house sparrows. My backyard count is at 89. If I could just get 11 more species!
Hey Nanny, remember when we were racing to 100 (or were we just racing in my mind?)? Last weekend, I went over 200! I'm at 208. Only 92 more to to get to 300 haha!
GG, fun hairdo shots. The dogs and I are all getting groomed today!
Lionhrt9, no bad shots there!

This is my only shot from yesterday. It's been very cloudy although no rain what so ever for months now. A female house finch looking very sweet.

I need to count up my life list. That's a sweet looking finch there indeed.

speaking of sweet, I now have TWO Carolina Wrens! Missed the shot, but ready now!

I have gotten a case of suet cakes, my hubby went out after my bad attempt to make one. He also got some more sunfloer seeds, black oil sunflower seeds. I can't see the suet cake from my cameras point of view, but I can go intio the entry way and pull back the curtain and see the suet feeder quite well. The squirrels were busy this morning as you can see.

Just saw a bunch of black birds eating with the sparrows, they were not touching the suet cake or the ledge, they seemed to prefer eating on the ground. I will try to take a picture of them later, right now my camera and my hubby's camera are recharging their battery. The nuthatch and the tufted titmouse have found the suet cake, the titmouse was really chowing down on it, but when hubby tried to take a pic, you guessed it, he flew. The birds have now got quite a selection, suet, sunflower seeds, sweet bread. That is why a couple of minutes ago, it looked like a scene from the movie The Birds!!! But I love 'em.

This is a picture we took this afternoon, if you look close, you can see a little bit of suet on his beak, I did not tweak this because I did not think it could get any better, my hubby calls it the picture to top all pictures we have gotten so far, I don't know if I agree with that, but it is a very good one.

Awe right! Your hubby was right, excellent capture of a White-breasted Nuthatch. Have you started a "Lifer" list yet.

I was curious if it was tweakable and here's what I got.

Hack

Elphaba...yes the I remember the race to finish my 100 birds in a year ...NEVER do that again!! lol

Teddy, very nice nuthatch shot!!

Nice ones GG!

Great series Hack! I love the Brown-headed Nuthatch too!

Lots of House Finch here right now!

Still enjoyng our fussy male Hairy Woodpecker too. This is the longest we have had a Hairy come on a regular basis!

When we had suet cakes up before we had Downy woodpeckers, I'm wondering if we will get them to come back. No, I have not started a lifer list yet, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean a list of the ones we see all the time? If that was the case, the nuthatch would have to be number 2, the finches being number 1 of course, we see the nuthatch in the summer as well as now. I tweaked this one, I had posted before, I hope he comes back.

Hello to all my friends from DG, Merry Christmas and happy Newyear too.

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gives to me, a Redheaded Woodpecker, and a pear tree....:)

Okay, okay, let me try that singing again; On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gives to me....lalalala lala...

lalala la .... and a Pear tree...

Love each and everyone's posting. Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas.

Lalalalala. Love that birdie in your pear treeeeee. You make me jealous with that lake and scenery!

Teddy, any picture is tweakable, you just have to know what it is you want to do with it. And that is really a matter of taste.

Just got back from a friend's house. I have proclaimed him king of the juncos. My word there were tons. I'll download pix later though.

Nanny, I remember that. And you had to go get Rock Pidgeons to help make it to 100. Too funny.

Sweetie.

nanny_56 - great snap of the Hairy Woodpecker, I see one every now and then, I mostly have Downy's.

teddy_8905 - you have amazed me, Your pix are terrific. That tweaking program is nice, huh? A "Llifer list" is a list of the birds you've photographed. When you snap a pic of a bird for the very first time, it is called a Lifer. I love to see a Lifer. The longer you're at this, the longer your list grows, but it grows slower and slower as time passes. I haven't seen a Lifer is a good while.

Ditto to what Mrs_Ed said about your background Lily. Nice R-h Woodpecker, too.

Hack

I went to the lake today and will share later.

Hack

This message was edited Dec 24, 2010 2:13 PM