Month: October 2024

They say that the White-breasted Nuthatch’s habit of climbing upside down on tree trunks and branches makes it easy to identify. Well, it’s just as easy to identify if one of them is clinging upside down to the underside of a suet feeder—same natural posture—man-made jungle gym. The feeders in the backyard of my friend Susan’s home in Wisconsin were constantly busy. Northern Cardinals, Black-capped Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, Bluejays, and others frequented her feeders viewable from the living room or from the deck. The weather is still warm in Wisconsin with temperatures reaching 80 over the past weekend. Except for the bird species, the warm temperatures made me feel as if I were in my own backyard

A white heirloom rose blooms in Santa Rosa.

While visiting my friend in Wisconsin over the weekend, I was delighted to see a few different kinds of birds drawn to the feeders in her backyard, including Northern Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Goldfinches, despite the stiff breeze that persisted most of the days of my visit. A lone Bluejay arrived and, as jays tend to do, bullied the other birds away. I had my camera ready to step outside but instead pointed it out the window at the jay perched on the back of a patio chair. He did not stay long and the other birds soon gathered back around the feeders.

Does a cat’s flicking tail mean it’s ready to pounce? I wasn’t sure when I took this shot of Pippin, my friend Susan’s Black and Brown Tabby who seemed uncertain about my intensions taking his photograph. Luckily for me, Susan had treats and so he was soon distracted. I came away unscathed.

What a surprise! Another Anna’s Hummingbird. I’m actually thrilled that I’m finally getting shots of the hummers in my garden and they are becoming more tolerant of my presence, like this immature male.

It’s that time of year when the tiny pumpkins show up in the grocery store and I am unable to resist them. Fortunately, the assigned subject for the October meeting of my photography club is mirrors. The meaning of “mirrors” is left up to the photographer’s imagination. I placed the tiny pumpkin on a black acrylic tile to create a reflection, not on a mirror that doesn’t create as sharp a reflection. And, the image is further mirrorless because I used a mirrorless camera to take the photograph.

Late yesterday morning, I sat on my patio and enjoyed the birds surrounding me, some seen and some just heard. Among those seen and heard were, of course, the Anna’s Hummingbirds. This one (I think it’s one of the females) descended into as shaft of sunlight that illuminated her perfectly for a second or two before she disappeared into the shade surrounding the feeder beneath her.