Nature clicks #205 - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and other bird infos

 

We must live in woodpecker paradise and I’m absolutely thrilled to show you today’s photo. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the 7th woodpecker species that we have seen in our woods here and it is a first sighting for us. The yellow bellied is the only sapsucker that is normally found in the eastern part of the continent and is our most highly migratory woodpecker. (source: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America). I saw this female already three days ago on our big maple tree in front of the house and she has returned every day since.

Making this photo was not an easy task. The sapsucker is very skittish and it took me three days to make finally a click and produce an image that I can show here in the blog. The light came from the back and my lens had some problems to focus properly under these conditions. I may try something different tomorrow evening.

I know some birders read my blog and therefor I like to give an update on some other birds. The Brown Creeper is still here and I wonder if this one will stay during the summer. My literature tells me that this is a possibility for our area. The Eastern Phoebe has arrived this week and I made already some photos. I wasn’t at Mud Lake at the Mississippi today but saw the young owlet with the mother bird earlier this week. Not a great image, more a documentary shot for those who care. However, this old eagle's nest is huge and it gives you an idea how big this Great Horned Owl really is. The young one seems to do well.

Nature clicks #138 - Brown Creeper

 

One of my winter projects this season is to get a frame filling image of the Brown Creeper. I'm trying hard but I'm not there yet. For a long time I thought this little bird was only here during migration but this is the first winter we see it repeatedly. They are fast and always keep a safe distance. At least I got some sharper photos now than in December when I introduced the bird in the blog here. Will keep trying again...

Nature clicks #130 - Brown Creeper

 

The expected cold weather for the next few days drives obviously a few birds further south that we have not seen here lately. One of them is the Brown Creeper. This small, tree-clinging bird shows up only occasionally but so far we have seen it every winter here in our yard.

Let me warn you, this image is not really sharp but I like to show it anyway because it is the first time that I was able to make a picture of the Brown Creeper. They start at the bottom of a tree and work their way up pecking insects, fly down to the ground to the base of the next tree and do the same again. Unlike woodpeckers they do it much faster and therefore it is very difficult to get a sharp shot. They also blend very well into their environment and don't provide much contrast to focus on. I had to shoot ISO 400 and that did not help sharpness either. Despite the soft image I'm very happy about it and who knows, maybe I see this bird again during the weekend. I'll keep my eyes open.

At least I like to show you that I can do better. I thought this photo of an American Goldfinch and a House Finch sitting together on a branch was kinda cute. It looks like they were flirting with each other. It seems we have much more finches this year in the yard than other years, at least the high consumption of thistle seeds makes me believe it.

There was another bird here today that I haven't seen for a while, but this will be another "Nature Clicks" post tomorrow.