Camouflage, maybe?

Until I add feeders closer to the front and back of my house, I need some effective clothing. My bright green coats and light colored jackets don’t blend in with the landscape and the birds know it. For $27.00, I can buy camouflage outerwear. Replace the gun with a camera around this guy’s neck, and then add a blonde female under the hat. You get the picture. I think it will work because I can stand and wait, motionless, for a long time. I can hold my breath for a long time, too.

My husband and daughter are getting worried about me and my obsession with the camera and birds. I say, “So WHAT!” Little did they know what the future would bring when I opened the box that held my new camera on Christmas day. Tee hee. I have a new sport and I can play it at home whenever I want. Or, I can go somewhere else and play it. I have always loved outdoors and now I have more passion for it, thanks to my blogger friends and my new camera.

Thanks to Liza Lee Miller’s comment yesterday, the black oil sunflower and striped sunflower seeds my DH bought yesterday drew those chickadees to my feeder today like flies on cow dung.

A chilling rain fell today and the skies were dark. It was a grand day for the birds, though, at my house. It wasn’t without some agonizing moments, let me tell you. While sweeping the front porch, a Tufted Titmouse landed on a tree only ten feet from me. We were eye level from each other. Perfect! No camera. I froze and we had a stare-down for at least six seconds, then he was gone. Arghhhh! My body twisted in agony. Right behind the titmouse, a male and female house finch flew directly over my head on the front porch, flew out, then perched in the spot the titmouse had landed minutes earlier. They are eyeing up a barn swallow nest from last summer that still sits under my porch roof. No camera. Arghhhh! Again, my body twisted in agony. Damn!

My camera has features I haven’t even tried yet. Later in the day I tried the low-light feature with decent results. It’s very difficult to use optimal zoom in low light but I was so pleased to see a Carolina Wren before I tried the new mode.

I love mockingbirds because they sit for a long time and allow you to zoom in and get close.

At my house, there were bluebirds today. I nearly fell to my knees in thanks and praise. They were plentiful in the pouring rain and I was delighted, to say the least. Heart pounding, I held my composure and snapped way. Some of them were very bright blue and some wore a more subtle shade.

White throated sparrows visit my lone feeder. Here is a view of one using a low-light mode. Not too bad but not great, either. I think I forgot to zoom in enough. Silly me.

There was a feeding frenzy today for the ever present cardinals, doves, cowbirds, various sparrows, plus tufted titmice, and chickadees. This shot, in a low-light mode, was taken just a minute before the noisy escape of the doves. I saw the brown-streaked hawk wings dive through that ended the party. We have a hilly terrain and I couldn’t trespass downwards into my neighbor’s yard fast enough before he was gone and headed to another feeder two doors down the street. If I had pursued the hawk, I would have slipped on the pine straw spread on the steep hill and landed face-down, right in front of the neighbor's kitchen window. Wife: "Oh, how nice, Carl, Mary came to visit."

I’m amazed to see these birds. In Delaware, we lived on a link-style golf course, wide open and flat and with few trees or foliage, other than the young ones we planted. The main visitors at my feeder were doves, red winged blackbirds and other large flocks. They would clean out a filled feeder within minutes – no kidding.

So, I excitedly said to Michael, “We have bluebirds out there!” His reply, “So? Birds are birds. Just birds.” This was an attempt to annoy me, just for the sheer pleasure of seeing me puff up. So I was right back at him, “Well, instead of the shrimp sauce over pasta tonight, let’s have the leftover meatloaf no one liked.”