Entries Tagged 'Birds' ↓

It’s redbud (Cercis canadensis) time in Kentucky.  I love seeing all the pink along our roads and highways.  However, my favorite is the one that’s blooming in our backyard.  I enjoy its big splash of pink and the lacy texture of the blossoms.  As the flowers begin to drop, I’ll enjoy the tiny red heart-shaped leaves.  These will turn green as they grow larger and I’ll enjoy them all summer.

This is the tree soon after it was planted five years ago.  When we reworked the backyard, we added three new native trees – a redbud, bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), and black gum or tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica).  We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how fast they have grown.

I’ve always liked trees, and I’ve recently become aware of how important they are to a healthy environment.  In particular, native trees are nurseries for many kinds of insects, which are essential to nature’s food chain.  For example, birds depend on insects as food for themselves and their young.  If we don’t have insects, we won’t have birds.

I enjoy our trees and the wildlife they bring to our backyard.  It’s exciting to see another season of growth begin.

This red-bellied woodpecker was a recent backyard visitor. She wasn’t interested in the feed we offer, but apparently found something good to eat in the cracks and crevices of our fifty-year-old silver maple.  I’m saying “she” because our bird book says “red covers the crown and nape in males, only nape in female.”  I questioned why it was called red-bellied until several years ago when I was able to see a subtle red tinge to its belly.

Photography note: I recently rented a 100-400 mm Canon zoom lens from Murphy’s Camera in Lexington, KY as an experiment in backyard bird photography.  I’m pleased with the sharpness of this cropped image, but even with the larger lens I find photographing birds quite challenging.  It would help a lot if they didn’t move around so much!

This was not our unexpected visitor, but it bears a close resemblance. Harry and I were surprised to look out our window last week to see a Great Blue Heron. We’ve recently added a water feature to our backyard, and apparently the heron was checking on the possibility of fish. Finding none, it soon took flight.  It was exciting to see, and we have a new entry for our backyard bird list.

This image was taken at Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport, Tennessee .  Will I get one in our backyard?  Time will tell.  Some fish may help my chances.

I enjoy mockingbirds – especially their singing. However, this past week I was not happy with the one pictured above.  It decided to take over the yard as its personal domain. For three days it chased all other birds from the feeders and wouldn’t even let them get close.

We finally used my homemade peanut butter suet, one of its favorite foods, to entice it into a live trap. Harry released it at the Lexington Arboretum. So far, the mockingbird hasn’t come back and the birds are at the feeders again. The male cardinals are also acting a bit territorial recently and I’m wondering if these are signs that spring is on the way.

We enjoy our backyard birds year around, especially in winter when the rest of the plants are dormant.  We’ve recently discovered that blue jays like raw unshelled peanuts – a lot.  When I put them out, the blue jays soon appear. They swoosh in, grab a peanut, and immediately fly out of the yard where I can’t see them.  I don’t know where they go, but I’m guessing they hide the nuts for later. At any rate, they immediately come back for more until all the peanuts are gone. It makes for great entertainment. This image is a close-up of one that came to the feeder next to our dining room window.