Bluebirds, still here!

 

About two weeks ago I reported about the frequent visit of several Eastern Bluebirds at our bird bath and that we have never seen them here in December before. I thought the relativ mild weather played a role at that time, but now, after we had some snow and the temperatures dropped below freezing, we still see them coming to the bird bath.

I shot a lot of pictures today and my goal was to keep as much as possible of the ugly water bowl out of the frame. I wanted to show both, the female and male bluebird, and for this blog post I chose photos that show them in an almost identical pose, with the head turned to the side.

As I write this the temperature is still dropping and we expect for tomorrow -4ºF (for my friends in Germany, this is -20˚C) and this does not consider the wind chill… I will watch very close how the bluebirds can handle this…

Yard visitors

 

Last Sunday we had again a flock of Cedar Waxwings around here. They were joined by a large number of American Robins. Both species seem to enjoy the heated bird baths for sipping some water between their meals in the red cedars around here. I wasn’t home for the last couple days and don’t know yet if the cold weather has forced them out of the area. We don't have snow on the ground yet but a few snow flurries made clear that winter isn't far away...

Two different reasons

 

I’m not really actual with my blog at the moment. I was down in Houston, Texas for a business trip this week, with no really opportunity to shoot anything interesting, except for some clouds during take-off. So, here are a couple images still from last weekend.

We had some pretty cold nights last week and the water in the bird bath was frozen solid in the morning. I changed that quickly because birds are drawn to the water. If you like to start with some bird photography, go and buy a bird bath. This is a tip I learned from other photographers and I just know it works.

We have a second one on the other side of the house that can be heated and this will serve our feathered friends even during the coldest days here in Iowa. An old dead cedar tree, erected right beside the bird bath in the front yard, is very often used  by the birds as a perch before they actually go down to the water bowl.

Why do I show these two particular photos? The first one is a female Yellow-rumped Warbler. I have seen them for the first time this spring when they migrated north. If you use the search field in the side bar on the left and search for “Yellow-rumped Warbler” you can find my previous posts about this magnificent bird. The picture today tells the story that they are obviously on their way back to the South where they will spend the winter. But why the picture of the American Robin, a bird that is abundant not just here in Eastern Iowa? It is the light, awesome soft natural light from the sun, peeking out from behind the clouds, that made me push the shutter release button…