Birding at Gonzaga Campus

Finally, after being stuck at home for a week, I was able to get out of the house and do some birding. Last week when I attempted to get some badly needed birding in, I got car sick, really car sick, and ended up with a two day migraine and no desire to ever get back in a car. So this Bird Lady was more than ready to get some outdoors in!

After taking myself out to lunch, I drove to Gonzaga University (#1 team in NCAA college basketball right now, GO BULLDOGS!), parked my car, and started walking across campus until I came upon this fellow...

Spike the Bulldog's mascot

As I continued walking, I could hear the birds singing, and looked up into a huge tree to see what types of birdies were making the sweet sounds. I recognized the American Robins of course, and a couple of European Starlings. There were also some small grayish birds that I snapped a couple of photos of in hopes to identify them once I downloaded the pictures to the computer, and got a better look. I do believe the little birds were American Goldfinches in winter plumage. After the big tree with birds, I made my way to a large pond at the back of the campus. Imagine my delight when I saw a gazebo with bird feeders on both sides! I made a b-line for the gazebo and right away noticed several little birds enjoying the feeders. There was a pair of House Finches sharing one feeder with a Black-capped Chickadee.

Male House Finch

House Finch & Black-capped Chickadee

Under the other feeder, there were several Dark-eyed Juncos dining and a male House Sparrow enjoyed the fallen seed too.

Male House Sparrow

I spent quite some time enjoying the feeder activity, and then continued my stroll along the pond's edge. A Northern Flicker and Red-breasted Nuthatch caught my eye, but didn't cooperate for pictures. A couple of pairs of Mallard ducks swam along the shore of the pond and there was a neat water feature in the middle.

Water Feature in the middle of the pond

Dozens of American Wigeon were swimming in the large pond, and making their funny little sounds.

Beautiful pond with all the American Wigeon in the distance

An American Robin hid in the bushes as I walked by, but couldn't hide from my camera lens as I peaked over the embankment.

American Robin in the bush

As I made my way back to my car, a group of Canada Geese flew into the soccer field and set-up for a game of soccer.

Soccer Geese (Canadian team)

Beautiful day at Gonzaga!

Be sure to check out my 2013 lists.  I'm up to 38 birds species for the year so far.

Come on SPRING!

Chickadees in the Yard

Slideshow Banners

First, I would like to bring your attention to the new slideshow banner at the top and bottom of Bird Lady Blog. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while, then I remembered some slideshows of some of my older bird photos out on Photobucket.com that I used to use for my MySpace profile. So I'm trying them out here.

Hope you enjoy them!

~ Sherrie (Bird Lady)

Chickadees in the Yard

On New Years, I hung a new feeder on the balcony, that had just been sitting around not being used.  I found some Black-Oil Sunflower Seeds in the cupboard and filled up the feeder, hoping to attract some different winter birds to my yard.  The birds are used to coming to the suet I have hanging about 15-20 feet from the balcony, but I wondered if they would be comfortable enough to come up closer to the house, as the new feeder was only about 4 feet from the slider door.  

Well, it's been a couple of weeks now, and finally I have visitors to the new feeder, the Black-capped Chickadees! Which are new on my Big Year list and my Yard list.  They are so cute when they come into the balcony area, they usually land on one of my wind chimes before going to the feeder for a seed or two.  Even a Red-breasted Nuthatch came and clung to the ropes hanging from the wind chime.  I wanted to get a picture of one of the birds doing this, as it would make for a great photo.  So I decided to set up my camera on the tripod just inside the slider door.  The plan was to get everything all set up, wait for the birds to start coming, and then open the slider up for picture taking.  Mind you it is only in the mid 20's outside.  When the chickadee finally came, then left and I opened up the door, but it didn't come back.  So until they get used to me and the tripod so close to the feeder, I would try to get a decent photo with the slider door closed.  I did recently wash the glass door since it was filthy dirty with dog nose prints from my chow chow Cubby Bears, who's bed is on the balcony.  I wanted to actually be able to 'see' the birds out of the window.  I wasn't able to get a good shot of the wind chime landing, but did get a few half way decent shots through the glass door. This chickadee sat there for the longest time with the seed in his beak, and posed for several photos.  

RAW edit

jpeg edit

Photography Talk

I did edit both the RAW and the jpeg versions, and am displaying both after some cropping and editing in Photoshop Elements 7.  I adjusted the levels, increased the contrast slightly, adjusted the brightness and sharpened the photo. I don't really like shooting in RAW because of the lag time on my camera when it saves the large files.  But I understand the importance of being able to have access to the RAW version of the photo especially when the shot is less than perfect, which many of mine fit that category just perfectly!  After looking at both photos, I'm leaning towards the jpeg edit.  It just looks crisper to me, but the colors in the RAW edit are better.

I am really trying to learn my camera manual settings better, so I experimented with the ISO, doing some of the shots at 400, and others at 800 as my lighting faded.  I set my mode to Shutter Speed Priority and tried to set the camera at the fastest shutter speed and lowest aperture that I could and still maintain the exposure. I then also took some shots in Auto Scene Recognition mode to compare. This particular photo was taken at ISO 400, f/7.2, 1/20 sec. It's not a half bad shot for being through the window, with the available light. The bokeh is nice. I like how you can see some frosty spider webs on the feeder right under the birds wing. Check it out in the larger version (click on the photo). Funny the things you notice when you are so close with the camera.  I am looking forward to more photo shoots on the balcony with the chickadees!  See if I can improve my pictures.

Don't forget to check out the slideshow down below...

Old Man Winter ~ First Week of 2013

Well, the first week of 2013 has been cold, snowy, and icy. Just when we were getting used to it, the roads had been plowed and we could get around once again, Old Man Winter brought us several more inches of new snow overnight.  It doesn't make for the best birding.  Who wants to get out in the frigid cold when it's down to 1 degree Fahrenheit or snowing all day long?  Not this little chickadee!  

It's times like this that I am thankful for my yard birds that are attracted by my suet feeders.  For this first week in my 2013 Big Year it has been the trusty Red-breasted Nuthatches, between 1 and 4 of them visiting the suet each day.  Along with them is a female Downy Woodpecker.  Those were the only birds I had seen until Sunday, when two new birdies came to the suet feeders. I was excited to see a couple of Black-capped Chickadees and a White-breasted Nuthatch in the yard.

White-breasted Nuthatch

These four species of social birds often winter together in small mixed feeding flocks, so it is not unusual for them to be seen together.  The flocks are better able to keep an eye out for predators and can send warning signals to the other members.  They are also better able to find food and are less wary about visiting feeders.  A group of nuthatches are called a "jar" of nuthatches.  A group of chickadees is a "banditry" or "dissimulation".  Woodpeckers are known as a "descent" or a "drumming".  So what are these mixed flocks known as?  A "jar of drumming banditry"?  I get a kick out of some of these collective nouns they come up with for groups of birds.

An interesting fact about the White-breasted Nuthatch is that they are usually quiet during breeding season and in the summer.  But certainly not in the winter and spring.  They have a nasal sounding 'yank-yank' that is quite distinguishable of the nuthatches when you hear it.  The Black-capped Chickadee have their own cute little song... 'Chick-a-dee-dee-dee', hence the name.

Black-capped Chickadee

To sum up my 'Big Week' of 15 birds, (giggle)...                                                                                                            

Sherrie's Lakefront Yard Birds

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Downy Woodpecker

White-breasted Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee

Sherrie's Big Year Birds

American Crow

Red-tailed Hawk

Black-billed Magpie

Rock Pigeon

Herring Gull

American Kestrel

Canada Goose

Common Merganser

Mallard

American Coot

Wild Turkey