Birding in the Backyard

Posted Jess YarnellPosted in Birds

It’s been fun to spend some time hanging out with the birds in my own backyard. Blondie the Palm Warbler is back, and this Orange-Crowned Warbler has become a regular also. He’s a big fan of my honeysuckle vine.

Orange Crowned Warbler
Orange Crowned Warbler

I sat photographing the birds on on a dead tree branch in my backyard. First Papa Cardinal hopped up, followed a second later by Mama Cardinal. They didn’t stay long enough to photograph them together, but when I saw these positions and head angles, I couldn’t resist doing a composition in Photoshop. Wow! The newer versions of Photoshop have made simple compositions so easy. You pick you two photos in Lightroom, select Merge to Panorama in Photoshop, and it auto-aligns and auto-adjusts the tones to match the two images. It even offered to auto-fill any holes using Content-Aware Fill. A few years ago this composite would have taken some hand-editing in Photoshop, but today all I had to do was hit Save!

Northern Cardinal Pair
Northern Cardinal Pair

This Brown Thrasher required no such editing in Photoshop. He wants to clarify that he selected his own pleasing composition next to the red hummingbird finial!

Brown Thrasher
Brown Thrasher

My last bird of the morning was one of my Painted Bunting, who dared me to write a blog post without including a photo of my favorite wintering birds. Well, one of my favorites. The American Goldfinches are my other favorites, and they hadn’t been showing up to pose for the camera much this winter. Hopefully that’ll change in 2021!

Painted Bunting
Painted Bunting

The Road Less Traveled

Posted Jess Yarnell1 CommentPosted in Other Places

Sometimes it pays to get off the highways and take the local back roads. On this particular morning, that strategy led me to a beautiful pair of Bald Eagles. I pulled over briefly and admired the bird in a nearby tree. I was close enough to appreciate the strength in the bird’s talons and beak.

Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle

A few minutes later, the eagle decided to join her mate across the road. I stood mesmerized as she took flight and flew towards me.

Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle

I continued to my destination and located the wild pair of Whooping Cranes. I’m very grateful that I took the road less traveled and saw the eagles, too!

From the Birdcam: Visitors to the Birdbath

Posted Jess YarnellPosted in Birds

My mom gave me a birdcam for my birthday last year. It detects motion and takes a picture when it senses that a bird is present. My mom’s goal was to help me monitor the various species of birds in the backyard. After leaving it set up near the birdbath for a few months, I did a happy dance when I saw all the neat things that the birdcam captured. Let’s take a look!

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Eastern Bluebird – Aha! So they do come into the yard sometimes!
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Prairie Warbler surprised me when he showed up with a male Painted Bunting
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Bow Tie! My favorite little Yellow-throated Warbler is more easily heard than seen
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The uninvited visitor: a Cooper’s hawk
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Northern Cardinal loves the water drip while he poses with another beautiful male, the Painted Bunting!
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Three male Painted Buntings at a time – so pretty!
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Papa Cardinal feeding Mama Cardinal at night – nesting season is on the way!
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The Orange-crowned Warbler (right) shows off his orange crown to the greenie

Here’s the total listing of species captured with the birdcam: American Goldfinch, Blue Jay, Brown Thrasher, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Ground Dove, Cooper’s Hawk, Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Phoebe, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Mourning Dove, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, Orange-Crowned Warbler, Painted Bunting, Palm Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler

The still images are neat, but I think this birdcam video is even better!

Thanks to my mom’s thoughtful gift, I’ll be spying on my birds more in 2021! :)