Appallingly Bad Pictures; Volume 22

Several here...

1. Female Cardinal, recently enrolled in Witness Protection Program

2. Tray of Purple Blurs and female Goldblurs

3. More of same - but better

4. Very clear view of the shrubbery beyond the Junco on the porch

ha ha ha ha!!!!

A few recent beauties.

1. American Goldfinch fight
2. American Robin fight
3. Western Meadowlark and Robin feeding in the same spot. There are too many things wrong with this picture, but I had to try.

If only birds wouldn't move so quickly!! The 2nd fight looks potentially bloody!

It was barely above freezing today, but I decided to sit outside and sow some seeds so that I could keep the starlings away while the blue birds were eating suet and maybe get a few good photos. I failed at both endeavors.

1. I couldn't wait to get this photo!

2. If I hadn't put that stick there to make it easier for the few bluebirds that still think they can't squeeze into the cage to hop in, this would have been a decent (ha ha!) rear view.

3. ..this one was doing something really interesting; can't remember what

4 and 5. At least I got the happy couple to look at the camera!

It's so nice you get Bluebirds at your feeders, muddy. Ours do not come very often. Are the domes to keep rain off or the squirrels? Thankfully, the only squirrels we have are the squinneys. I've tried different things to keep the feeders dry, but we get sideways rain much of the time.

My first chance to see Prairie-chickens and this is the best I got. We said they were blowing up their yellow balloons. :)

Those Prairie Chickens are so interesting! Are those things that look like ears feathers? Do they live near your house?

I use the domes to keep rain and snow away. Sometimes birds sit on the feeder perches without eating, just to stay dry. I never found them to be very effective at keeping squirrels away; I gave up and bought squirrel-proof feeders.

Bluebirds are nesting in one of my birdhouses; I took a peek and saw 4 eggs. The babies should be hatching soon!

Yes, they are feathers, but no, we do not have them around here. There are very few places in Iowa because of farming. These were at the very south of Iowa, just before the Missouri border.

Our bluebirds decided on another box after they build one nest. Not sure what is the difference. We will need to make other boxes, since we learned the Gilbertson's are really too small. We've had a hard time finding the right sized pipe, so it may have to wait until next year to do the replacement.

I've had the box they picked for quite a while and I can't remember whether the hole was "blue bird size" or not. 1.25-1.5 inches seems to be the ideal size.

Is the pipe a predator guard that goes on the outside of the box? I bought some of those, but the birds didn't use those boxes so I removed them. Apparently they don't like them, and the trick is to put them on after the 1st egg is laid. I read that even then, they might abandon that birdhouse.

I hadn't planned far enough ahead for that - I would have had to drill the holes before I put the box up so that I could screw on the tube later - so I put raccoon baffles on the poles in the hopes of keeping them from reaching the box.

I'm seeing ours frequently now. They seem to be nesting under the eaves of the house next door. I finally got a bit of a pose.

Muddy1, the pipe is the housing itself. I was about to post the link to the article about box sizes and well, it's down because the site exceeded its "traffic allotment". The size concern is not the hole so much, but the living space not being large enough to allow the birds to practice their wings.

Here's a picture of the pipe used for the Gilberton box. Our Kessie was just using it for a perch. She's wild, but was released at our place after rehab. She stayed until March. This pipe is 4 inches in diameter, but really should be 6 inches wide. The pole that it is on seems to be predator proof enough, at least there's been no sign of illegal entry. :) Some people will hang slinkies from them as a guard.

Those pictures are not too bad, Cville_Gardener. :) That's an interesting spot for BBs, under eaves.

Those are good photos, Cville....although the bluebird looks as tired, old and sleep-deprived as many parents of human babies!

Kessie is adorable!

Geez, I have no idea why, but my iPhone takes very blurry photos before I've had my morning coffee!

This might one of the Catbirds nesting in a Rhododendron in my front yard.

My catbirds look like that, too. Are you sure it's the phone? :)

ha ha ha! No, there's definitely user error involved.

I discovered once again that the iPhone (okay, user too) has limitations while taking these photos, which I honestly thought would turn out better than they did.

I agree with you, Muddy1. I'm disappointed with the quality of my iPhone photos.

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike (trust me).

Wow, that would have been a gorgeous photo if your phone had worked !

I took the shots of the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes with my Canon 7D and 400mm lens, so the blame lies entirely with my slow responses. Can't blame the iPhone for this one.

I could hardly wait to share this beautiful shot of a White-crowned Sparrow.

At least it's in the frame.

Ha Ha Ha...
I cropped it. Otherwise you couldn't even see it :o)

I see wings; what did you do with the rest of the bird ; o ) ??

Shy bird??

I was going through old photos and found this one of 2 Parakeets (?) at my bird feeder. This was when I lived in Belgium (although I know there are stray Parakeets in the U.S., too).

Why stop at just 1 terrible photo when I found 3 more? Maybe someone can ID them by these profile and rear shots!

Yes, Muddy, they fit the criteria for posting on this thread. Bad.

Ring-necked Parakeet Psittacula krameri.

Here's a headless bum shot of another one for comparison . . . :-)

Resin

Why thank you, Margaret!!

Resin, thanks for the ID. I sense that ID'ing it was easy for you, so here's another challenge....wrong forum, I know, but it is a wide shot of the same bad photo, which actually makes it even worse, so....

Do you know what kind of tree(s) this might be? I'm just curious. Others please feel free to chime in.

This message was edited Jun 7, 2015 8:59 AM

With nary a branch/twig to work with, and those multiple trunks with relatively smooth bark in Belgium...

I'm saying Carpinus betulus...

What? You mean you can't you see those dead leaves on the ground?!?

Thanks, VV.

I'll be interested to see if Resin weighs in - he might have more insight on potential species based solely on trunk character.

As with the fowl, you have Appalling Bad Focus on the plant parts...

I know, I know...I deserve an F for Focus.
You, on the other hand, get a well-deserved E for Effort.

Looks like Acer pseudoplatanus, stump sprouts from a tree that was cut down about 15-20 years earlier.

Resin

See?

I based my European Hornbeam choice on the same premise, though - coppicing that was/is commonly practiced across The Pond...

Interesting! Thanks, Resin and VV.

I cannot seem to ever get good shots through the front window, even though the Barn Swallow nest is just a few feet away.

These photos of the parents building are from last month, the eggs have hatched now. The last one looks like it would be saying, "I can't breath, I hab mud on my nose."

Those aren't all that bad! I think it's hard to get photos through a window when using an iPhone because it wants to focus on whatever is on the glass. My windows are never clean, so I gave up on getting shots through the window!

Thanks... it was fun to watch as I had never seen the building process so close before. A camera has just as hard of a time. This window is even harder because it is through the front door glass, plus the glass of the "screen" door AND we sometimes muddy our windows to prevent bird strikes. One of the children did an extra good job dirtying this one, even though it already has bird tape on it.

LOL!!! The kids must love that "chore"! What a great way to teach them to keep their priorities straight.

1-2 Flycatcher
3 Flycatcher's Nest
4 Flycatcher's nest photographed through Spotting scope

Nice silhouettes!