11 months ago

11 months ago

11 months ago

Here he or his companion is in a different tree. We hear the owls every night, hooting and sort of cackling. Their hoots make Moxie’s fur stand on end. 13 months ago

I photographed this giant fellow high in a big tree behind our house. He had been hooting pretty loudly to his friends & neighbors, some of whom answered in kind. He didn’t seem to mind me taking pictures with my inexpensive Canon telefoto lense far below from our side of our chain link fence.

Online later, I learned that barred owls, often called hoot owls, are moving into older suburbs like ours that are full of older mature trees. They’re thriving here. They feed on other birds, squirrels, opossums, rabbits and so on. I love the look and sound of them, but I can’t help but worry that one will mistake our small terrier for a rabbit one day, who now should only go outside with human supervision I think, despite the fact that she likes to go out some five times a night. 13 months ago

At least I think it’s a chickadee. (nope I was wrong, it’s a tufted titmouse. See Comments. 14 months ago

I love cardinals best. I put out safflower seeds to attract them. 14 months ago

with a sparrow. 14 months ago

an unsuspecting finch for getting too close to the peanuts, probably. 14 months ago

These birds are around for about a month each spring before moving out to the prairie. 14 months ago

Jays are pretty standoffish most of the time, especially lately with the clouds of starlings about. But they’ll go anywhere for peanuts. 14 months ago

The male gets the red chest. 14 months ago

This fellow used to come by every afternoon when there were peanuts to be had. 14 months ago

our backyard. This fellow is many times bigger than the cardinals, blue jays, starlings & woodpeckers I’m used to seeing in this scrub tree. 14 months ago

He killed the squirrel to the left and flew off with it. This was on Christmas Day a few months ago. I had my camera handy and couldn’t resist taking a picture, though later I felt bad for the squirrel. 14 months ago

my bird feeders in the backyard. I miss the birds, miss taking pics of them especially, but the doves & squirrels & bunnies that the bird food attracted were also attracting hawks & since our puppy weighs less than 10 pounds & is potentially a target, I felt I had no choice.

My mom, a true bird lover, will visit in a few months for a short time. Maybe I’ll put the feeder back up for the duration of her visit. 14 months ago

This guy was waiting for any of 200,000 geese to get too close. He was perched atop a cottonwood at a nearby wetlands preserve, too far away for me to capture in much clarity. 17 months ago

suddenly perking up 17 months ago

know how to have a good time. You can just see it in their eyes. 17 months ago

from up there I bet 17 months ago

in mid stride 17 months ago

A gorilla among gorillas 17 months ago

to our zoo soon. Haven’t been in at least a decade. Animals, in the wild and captivity both, are very expressive. This should be fun. Will post some pics here soon. 18 months ago