One afternoon a couple of weeks ago I was sitting outside occupied with photographing spring migrants. I use a chair that is erect and a monopod to hold my camera so that I look directly over the camera/lens to observe activity in the yard. If I want to photograph a bird very little motion is required to drop my eye to my viewfinder to compose photos. I was in such a position when a Red-breasted nuthatch landed just in front of my camera, on my lens, and proceeded to waltz to the far end of the lens while I watched with my face only inches away. Unfortunately there was no opportunity for a photograph! (A week later we had a family (four fledglings) frequenting one of our suet feeders and I presume it was one of the young that had landed on my lens.)
On May 19, 2020, I was in the house when motion outside caught my attention. I thought I had seen a rather large gray bird fly into a grove of fir trees at the edge of the yard and there was some activity by crows, so I thought that we might have another visit from a Great Horned owl which had been here a couple of weeks previously. I went outside and looked through the fir trees but the crows had dispersed and I couldn’t locate anything of interest.
That evening I was washing dinner dishes and looked out one of the kitchen windows to see a large accipiter sitting rather low to the ground adjacent to our brush pile. I grabbed my camera and tried to sneak into position to get a photo using the loud disturbance of a passing car to help distract from my movements, but my tactics didn’t work and the accipiter flew quickly into the same grove of fir trees into which it had disappeared earlier in the day. I could hear our pair of California quail vocalizing from the safety of our brush pile. (Incidentally, the brush pile is ‘engineered’ with welded livestock wire for just such purposes.)
So now, with migration falling off, we (and the birds) have to contend with a very efficient predator in the yard. My postings may suffer!
And now a note pertaining to site administration,,,
In the past visitors have been able to sign up on the site to receive emails when I post a new blog. I have no idea how many visitors have signed up for this service, but recently I had some trouble loading images on my site and contacted tech support for the host. Tech support disabled several features on my site which I don’t think had anything to do with the image problem. When I discovered that the notification app had been inactivated, I reactivated it but am unsure whether or not my distribution list was retained. So subscribers may not be getting updates to my site.
In a somewhat related problem, two friends who subscribed to my blog indicated that they had sent comments concerning posts. I was puzzled because I hadn’t seen their comments. In questioning one of the subscribers I discovered that the comments had been sent in a reply to the email notifications, and I don’t receive those replies! So I have no idea how many people may have sent comments regarding my blog that I would have acknowledged had I received them.
I try to acknowledge almost all meaningful emails I receive. If you want to communicate with me the best way is to use my personal email address. If you don’t know my email address leave a message on my site and I’ll contact you. But don’t respond to email notification of a new blog post and expect me to see it!
I apologize for all these difficulties but my interest, and any expertise I have, is directed at observing and photographing birds and offering associated products to the greater birding community. I produce a web site at my expense that is free of advertising. All of my knowledge concerning software pertaining to my blog is self-taught, and I prefer to spend my time posting bird photos and observations (which in itself is extremely time-consuming) rather than learning the technical intricacies of web design and maintenance.
I wouldn’t want you to go without a photo, so here is a photo of female Rufous hummingbird showing interest in an evergreen huckleberry bush…
