Things I've Seen Lately

FOY Yellow-rumped Warbler (Butterbutt). I called him in closer, but he wasn't very cooperative. Oh well, FOY's are for documentation. Hopefully the "good" shots are to come later!



Brown creeper. Cute lil guy, but always in the shadows!



FOY Hermit Thrush. He was with 3 others, but they were camera shy.



FOY Eastern Towhee. He called quite a bit before we saw him. He was right in front of our eyes. I hate that. All this time I could have gotten a possibly better angle. He flew off just after this shot.



Eastern Bluebird Female- The male wasn't so cooperative. They are now in a battle with the Tree Swallows for nest box rights. The swallows always win. They have the numbers to chase them out. I hate that though, they dominate all of the boxes!



Ring-necked Pheasant- First flight shot...Ever!



Blue-winged Teals-Last week at a nice pond, as most of you know, Teals are very flighty!



FOY Eastern Phoebe- I got this one while in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, shooting the wood ducks.

Flock of Shovelers

A flock of Northern Shovelers, Blue-winged Teals, and a lone Wood Duck have been calling a flooded out cornfield home.



Their aerial display was really cool to see. They flushed as I approached with my car, but turned around pretty quickly for these shots. I didn't even notice the wood duck until processing.

Tuesday's Potpourri

Todays post is a bunch of random offerings from the past week of shooting. The recent days have been gorgeous, but I haven't found any GREAT photo op's, so I offer these:


I don't know what type of ground squirrel this is, but to give the size some perspective, it is about a 1/4 larger than a 13 stripe ground squirrel. Answer given by Richard over @ At The Water: Pine Squirrel, Red Squirrel or Chickaree!





I also asked-"Can anyone I.D. this squirrel for me?" -and the response I got was from Richard who thought it was a Pine Squirrel, or sometimes called a Chickaree, or Red Squirrel. My preference is Chickaree cuz its fun to say...





Blue Winged Teal - My only shot of the Blue Wing revealed.





I hid behind a tree for way too long in an awkward position, waiting for them to come closer. They swam within 50 feet, and my body was glad they left. (They never saw me, so it was worth the pain)





It was an overcast day, but despite the gloom, I found some cooperative Cedar Waxwings.





Normally, cedars are not people birds, and will not stay for the photo shoot, but these guys were pretty social, and I walked away without disturbance.





I witnessed the courtship of the Hairy Woodpeckers, as 3 of them were competing for mates. They were weaving and bobbing their heads...