Hoar Frost & Birds in a winter wonder land.

Beautiful pics Gary!

Thanks for sharing!

Marilyn

Thanks Gary! Then my March '08 visitors were Cedar Waxwings. We had a final snow storm and had the pleasant surprise visit in a crabapple tree.

I'm so enjoying this wonderful thread, Gary. Such beautiful birds.

Here are some mature male grosbeaks for ya Gary. I've got about 100 grosbeaks hanging out here now. You are welcome to come on down to Seward for a visit and picture taking anytime, my friend.

Happy Holidays Ava, so nice to here from you. We would love to come down, if there is ever a break in the weather. After, totaling the truck on the way home in February, I'm not going to make the drive through thew mountains, unless I have good driving conditions. (Too many fatal accidents on the Seward Hwy. recently.)
The only things coming to our feeders recently are Magpies and one pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches. This is a shot of a Magpie from this afternoon. They will clean up a cup of cat food in less than an hour. They cleaned up the ham fat trimmed, from Christmas dinner, in a few minutes.
So nice to hear from you.
Gary

Wow how much snow have you gotten Gary?

Today was the first sunny day, in what seems like forever. But, the clear sky brings cold weather. It was 2 below zero F. at noon, and we're expecting much colder tonight. I got a few pictures of Bohemian Waxwings.

We spent the three hours of good light driving around looking for birds to photograph. We saw quite a few flocks of Waxwings flying overhead, but had difficulty finding birds feeding, to photograph.

I only had a couple of minutes to photograph the Waxwings, in this flock, before they flew off.

Notice the berries have been striped from the tree tops. The only place berries were left, was down low next to the street. Every time a vehicle drove past, the Waxwings would fly back to the near by tree tops.

This flock of Starlings was feeding next to Wells Fargo Bank, few blocks down the street from my house. A flock of nearly a 1000 Waxwings kept circling the building, for over an hour. Every time the Waxwings started to land, a truck or bus would drive past, and the flock would fly up again. The Waxwings don't seem to be coming accustomed to the noise of traffic this year. Last year they didn't let the traffic noise bother them so much.

Hi Gary......Beautiful pictures, m'dear. You are a wonderful photographer. Having fed these birds at my feeders and had a super close-up view of them them, I've made a couple of observations that I've never seen noted in any bird books. For instance, although they all look the same in these huge flocks, you can distinguish the difference between sexes by the coloration. At close range, the yellow on the tail of the male waxwing is much brighter. I also observed that their eating habits differ from those of the pine grosbeaks. When eating mountain ash berries, the waxwings gobble down the whole berry, while the grosbeaks will spit out the pulp and only swallow the seeds. Have youever noticed these differences?

Great shots, Gary. The Cedar Waxwings are such beautiful birds.

Had a nice flock of 64 Bohemian Waxwings here today, feeding on white-berried rowans and the occasional bit of flycatching (just mild enough for a few insects to be about). No photo ops, unfortunately.

Resin

After another two days of ice fog, today was sunny. The trees have a fresh coating of hoar frost, a great back ground for bird photos. I'll share a few of the better shots as I have time to sort through today's collection.


A few Bohemian Waxwing in a frosted tree.

Unfortunately when the Bohemian Waxwings are roosting in to tops of mature Birch trees, it isn't possible to get many closeup pictures. However, the frosted trees are beautiful, even without birds.

A telephoto shot of a tree topped with Bohemians.

A few of the Waxwings did come down lower, for a couple of closeups.

This is the only other good quality closeup of Bohemian Waxwings from today. I did snap closeups of a few other species though.

I was able to snap my best shots, so far, of male Pine Grosbeaks. But, I'm still waiting for a really grate shot of a male.

Another male Pine Grosbeak. A bird against a blue sky always improves the quality of a picture.

The Spruce tree these Pine Grosbeaks are in, is next to a bird feed, in front of a residence. The tree is always in heave shade, which is not good for photography.

OH your pictures are truly beautiful Grasmussen!!

Beautiful picture Gary, that hoar frost is something else, and top with birds in them awesome. Have the Bohemian here, in the last couple of days. The sun is always behind them and can't always get good pictures. It creates a glare in the window, or the picture comes out really dark. I would have to go outdoors, in the back of the yard, to get good pictures. But they scare easy, and fly off. I have lots of Pine Grosbeak this year and the Evening Grosbeaks come but are few. Have you seen anymore Crossbills?

While the hoar frost against a blue sky is truly beautiful, we must endure several gloomy dark days in the ice fog for it to accumulate.

Getting on the sunny side of a subject is always a problem for wildlife photographers. This afternoon I spotted a flock of waxwings feeding down low, in a park, with the sun behind them. I drove several blocks, to the opposite side of the park. They all flew off just as I was getting ready to park the truck.

The Crossbills I was photographing were 50 miles away. The last time I check down there, I didn't see any. I live in the inner city, and never see any near the house. They do come to feeds higher up on the mountain side.

The female/juvenile Pine Grosbeaks, like this one, are more numerous and easier to photograph up close.

We don't get the great accumulation of hoar frost like you do, I imagine it's not pleasant to endure those gloomy foggy days.

The Pine Grosbeak aren't very skittish. I have a feeder about 5 feet away from my bathroom window, and I can take pictures of them there in the afternoon.

I finally got some decent pictures of male Pine Grosbeaks today. It was 10 below zero F. today, but much colder in the interior, -40 to -50 in some places.

This is my best shot of a male Pine Grosbeak so far.

brrrrr

and beautiful

Gorgeous pics Gary!! I just love those Waxwings and Grosbeaks!

Beautiful addition to photos with that snow and ice. Love all the photos!!

The frost and ice sure makes for some gorgeous backdrops for the colorful birds. Thanks Gary - just spectacular.

I spent over three hours driving around birding, looking for birds to photograph. The best 8 pictures were all shot in less than one minute. The following 5 shots are the best of the 8.
They were all of a single Bohemian Waxwing.

2:10:25 PM

This message was edited Jan 4, 2009 10:05 PM

2:10:27 PM

2:10:39 PM

2:10:46 PM

2:11:04 PM

The other couple of descent shots were taken within 5 minutes, as we attempted to follow a moving flock through a residential subdivision full of streets ending in culdesacs.

These five Bohemians were shot at 2:14:10 PM

Most of the 3+ hours of driving around in sub zero temperatures, was a wast of time and gas. By the time I finally got a few pictures I was getting very frustrated, at not finding anything.

The final picture of Bohemians Waxwings was taken at 2:15:02 PM

Less than 5 minutes from the first shot. Then I lost track of the entire flock. We weren't successful in locating any other species worth photographing to day.