Photography
We are regularly visited by a group of seven male turkeys, who come to the yard to eat seeds we put out for the birds. For twenty years we had never seen a turkey in our yard and for the last five years or so we’ve had as many as 27 visit at once. They have become acoustomed to us bringing birdseed out for them, and often walk as close as 8-10 feet from us without getting nervous.
This winter has been colder than most, and one side effect is frost growing on the windows. The crustal structures grow on very cold glass where moist air leaks in between the two panes of glass. The rounded ice structures are made from thawing and freezing cycles. These are water drops frozen in place. These were taken with a Canon 100mm macro lens, handheld.
A few inches of snow fell on 11 January 2009. I photograhed a few birds not shown in the last post, and also made a better image of the Carolina Wren.
On December 20, 2008 we had a snowstorm that dropped 10 inches of snow in our yard. Since we feed the birds a variety of foods, we attract a large variety of birds that say over the winter. Not only do we get the typically wintering birds such as Blue Jays, Chickadees, Cardinals, Juncos and Titmouse, we also have a resident Carolina Wren and a Northern Oriole which stay for the winter. I believe the oriole is the same one that stayed last winter as it has learned to eat the variety of food we put out; peanuts, bread, and seeds from the feeders. Orioles are insect feeders and have a soft bill so cracking seeds is not an option. This one has figured out, or learned by watching the others, how to perch on suet feeders as well as the tube feeders hanging in the yard.
The day after the storm, I went into the back yard to photographs birds while it was still snowing a bit to make the images shown here.
