Birding with Malcolm

Brown Creeper

Back in December, we had an ice/sleet/snow storm that kept us all at home and inside for several days - it was far too slick to even walk in the backyard! To keep ourselves occupied, Malcolm and I spent a lot of time watching birds out of his window. I had recently relocated the bird feeder to the front yard, in part so that we could do precisely that (and partly to keep it away from the dog, who developed an unhealthy obsession with it, and would spend hours trying to keep all the birds out of his yard).

Cardinal, white chinned sparrows, and mourning doves

Because it was so icy, the feeder was the best place around to get food, and we had about 20 different species of birds show up over the 3 days. Malcolm was captivated by them, and spent 30 minutes or more at a time standing on his little chair, watching them.

Eventually I remembered that I have a telephoto lens for my camera and I started taking pictures of as many of the birds as I could. It is just a standard zoom, so I couldn't get as close as I would have liked, and I was shooting out of a (not entirely clean) window, but I still managed to get some good shots.

Carolina Wren

I am delighted that Malcolm is already interested in bird watching, since it is the favorite past time of his grandmother and great-grandparents, who used to travel all over the world to see birds. And I am happy because he is already developing a love for nature that experts warn is becoming rarer and rarer among children these days. Not that I was particularly worried about him, since Benjamin and I both love being outdoors and doing nature-related activities, and plan to take him hiking and camping as often as possible.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Since he is getting started early, I am sure Malcolm will be a better birder than I am by the time he is 5 or 6. He even started getting the hang of binoculars (when he wasn't putting them in his mouth).

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Now that the ice and snow are gone, it is a bit harder to spot birds, and they aren't coming in such numbers, but we still spend time every day looking out the window to see if there are any birds.

My favorite, the Tufted Titmouse

Bluebird!

 

Last week I finally got a chance to do what I have been waiting 3 years to do - take a picture of a bluebird. They are a common bird around our neighborhood and the local park, and I often see them on walks, but they do not visit our backyard very often. This is most likely because of Miikka - he is very territorial towards birds in his yard, so much so that I have had to remove the bird feeder because it drove him crazy. He barks at the robins and jays that are brave enough to visit as much as he does the squirrels. Sigh.

But last week, while Miikka was asleep inside, one lone bluebird came for a quick visit. I almost didn't grab the camera, because I was convinced he would be gone by the time I changed to my telephoto lens. But he didn't fly away, and I was able to get several decent shots through the windows.

We didn't have bluebirds in Bellevue when I was growing up, although there is a Western Bluebird species, so until we moved to Arkansas, I had never seen one outside of pictures. I think they are one of my favorites to spot, and I always give an excited little "bluebird!" cry whenever I see one.

Speaking of bluebirds, you should all go out and read The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds With Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose. She is a naturalist, artist and writer who has a wonderful blog, in addition to this gorgeous book. I requested a copy for my birthday, and then read it like dessert - a little at a time - to make it last longer. The watercolors and drawings are fantastic, and the stories are amazing. A grown-up version of all the animal rescue stories I devoured as a kid.

More from Spy Rock

Most of the trees on the hike were bare (apart from the pines, of course), but there were still many interesting things to see. Like this cairn that some past hiker constructed out of the local rock.

And these fungi that covered a dead tree on the side of the trail.

From a quick internet search for "tree fungi" I found an index to tree fungi, which gave me a name -turkey tail fungus - and led me to this interesting website. I absolutely love the internet and the speedy finding of information! Sure, I could have found this information in a book, eventually, assuming that my library had a book of fungi.
 

There was also this lovely spiral of lichen on a rock.

And moss that seemed to glow when the light hit it just right. 

These pictures don't really do the glow justice, but hopefully you can get the idea. It is the small views like these that motivate me to get out into the woods, just as much as the vista from the top of the mountain.

A photo for Wednesday

Photo by Michael Donovan

Ah Wednesday. The week is almost half-over, at last. Yup. That's about all I have to say about that for now. So, anyway, my parents visited France earlier this month, and my dad has some of his pictures up on his website. Go visit. They are so cool that I am even more annoyed that they didn't take me (their fully grown-up and independent daughter) along for the trip. There are days when I wish I was still living at home...

Beautiful filler

Leaf with dew, by Michael Donovan

After a late night on Sunday, and a disrupted night's sleep last night thanks to a long coughing fit, I am not really any more awake today than I was yesterday.  And because I had to go to Miikka's class last night, I also have not taken any of my more recent pictures off my camera.

Photograph by Michael Donovan

Thank goodness my dad sent me some of his lovely pictures the other day. He has such a good eye for nature photography. If I am any good as a photographer myself, it is from years of looking at his pictures and watching him and learning from him. To see more of his pictures, follow the link on the sidebar to his website.

New Favorite Website

I have a new favorite time-wasting website: Shorpy. It is "a vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s." The pictures are amazing. They are, for the most part, scanned high-def images from the Library of Congress Research Archives. It is a great way to spend some time in history. I have added a link to the site on my sidebar of favorites.