Sunday, January 23, 2011

Titmouse Crash and Crocus

Beautiful sunny day here expected to reach 43 degrees today! After my post yesterday a Tufted Titmouse crashed into the big window, then landed on one of the iron chairs on the porch. Valentine the cat woke from her sleep inside and knew what had happened. In minutes she was out there, I went out and chased her away. The titmouse stayed put so I grabbed the little camera and took a few close ups from an inch away. After I took maybe 10 photos I coaxed her into flying to a safer place.
 Here is the Tufted Titmouse perched on the chair, notice the tail is turned down. Never seen a tail turned down like this on bird, must have been hurting pretty bad!
 Such a cute little bird. The feather details really came out good with my G11 camera, I hear there is now a G12. I purchased the G11 just after it came out, so far I have taken almost 5500 photos with it.
No fear here....
 Carolina Wren on the oak tree. These guys are very curious, yet for some reason they are one of the hardest birds to photograph.  They visit the compost bin much more often that the feeders.
Red-bellied Woodpecker, you can see the long claws very well here. I took this photo through the window without flash as the flash bounces back on the glass. This was a full f stop under exposed so I adjusted it in raw format using Photoshop CS5.
 I bet most of you that feed the birds get tired of squirrels raiding the feeders. I do as well, but when you capture a few photos like these one might think it is worth it to have them around.

These were taken by poking my camera out the screen door of the porch.
While spreading mulch yesterday I found this under some leaves. I looked it up from last year it is Crocus ancyrensis "Golden Bunch" For those of you that are new to the blog this crocus was on this post.

FYI the mulch yesterday ended up being 35 or 36 large wheelbarrows full. If I calculated correctly that comes out to 60 cents a wheelbarrow load. I spread it in more paths that any previous loads we have received.

22 comments:

Sarah Knight said...

Lovely shots : )
Poor little bird - hope it feels better!

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

We had great weather to here yesterday and stayed outside all day.
Poor little bird, I hope it ended up being okay. We don't get them here, but I've always thought they were so cute.
I can't believe you already have a Crocus blooming! Ours are just poking up through the ground now.

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

The yellow flower looks like a flower gift in a thin flimsy white wrapper......

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Poor little Titmouse. Those are incredible photos. My hat is off to you with these....beautiful.
That Wren looks mad. :-)

Q said...

Hello Randy,
I have enjoyed catching up with you this afternoon.
Lots of mulch! Good stuff. We never seem to be able to make enough from our clippings.
We also have been busy feeding the birds. We still have 8 inches of snow on the ground so the birds are happy for the feeders.
Poor little Titmouse. It does look as if it is in pain. Hopefully he is okay. I have all sorts of stained glass hanging in my windows and I still get a few bird strikes.
Happy Anniversary. I have met the nicest folks from blogging.
Seeing your crocus brings me hope.
I have become winter weary.
Sherry

Carol said...

I sure look forward to 43 again Randy! It will be minus 13 tonight. It is so sad that our windows are the cause of so many bird casualties. Many recover but many more will fly away only to die from brain injury later on. I hope this little guy will be a survivor. Lovely to see the crocus!

D said...

Randy, I can't stop looking at the Titmouse and the definition in its feathers; beautiful photos and amazing detail. I want your camera. ;)

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

Such a beautiful bird, although I'm sorry she had to daze herself on a window for you to get so close. Hopefully she recovered well after resting for a while. We've had a few stunned birds here that seem to fly straight after an hour or two. Love the golden color of the emerging crocus, it looks like the blossom will be enormous!

Shirley said...

Hi there Randy, sorry to hear the Tufted hit the window, glad it was okay. We get that here too although not with tufted titmouse. What a delightful little bird this – great close-ups!

I’d have gone out too to make sure it moved to safety. I’ll pick up a camera now if this happens here. Wrens are a different matter here too, although ours seems more like your winter ones and are very secretive I was very luck to capture my video footage. I haven’t seen it since.

I agree completely on the grey squirrel especially when the red is our native. However, they too take good photos looking so innocent… oh no I won’t damage your plants and chew electrical cables… oh no not me ;-)

Ooooo… crocus flowers… we have some time to wait here :-)

wiseacre said...

the detail in the titmouse images are great, too bad it had to knock itself silly for you to get them.

35 wheelbarrow loads - the trailer holds more than I thought. A better but than I originally thought :)

Jan said...

Adorable little titmouse, I hope he wasn't hurt too badly. I had the same thing happen to me this afternoon, and I have a post in the making on tufted titmice, too. There are still little gray feathers stuck to my family room window. I don't think that has happened before (to a titmouse). I've had it happen with goldfinches though. Great minds think alike, I guess...although I don't want to overstep my boundaries and chunk my mushy mind in with the likes of your great one;-)

I do like the way your camera picks up the feathers so clearly...that's a nice one!

Yes, squirrels are everywhere in my yard! I need something cute like your feeder to show them off properly, I guess!

Crocuses--yay. All I can say is 'it's about time'! Haven't seen any here yet but am more than ready!

Shady Gardener said...

Randy, Your photos of little mr. titmouse are wonderfully detailed! I'm glad he is okay. Hope his tail rises by the next time you see him. Our Carolina Wren spends a good amount of time on the suet feeder, here. Oh! A crocus. Well, I'm glad you posted... and when ours finally arrive (2 months?) I'll be Ready! :-)

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Hi Randy,
I noticed that bent tail right away. Poor thing! Your photos are amazing! Yes, and squirrels are quite photogenic, aren't they?

Thanks for your comment on my blog. I should have mentioned that those are the non native sparrows. I think I've mentioned it in the past. I am not tickled to have them, but they don't seem to cause problems here. Maybe I just don't see the bad things they do.

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Oh, and I got very excited seeing the crocus!

John said...

Thanks for stopping by MacGardens. I am always inspired by your photography. You seem to get the wildlife to all pose for your camera as if they did it on a paid modeling assignment. The details of your Pine Siskin really gave me the incentive to look more carefully.

Oh, and that crocus is very nice!

Pam@OurAdventuresInHomeImprovement said...

Randy, thanks for coming by my new blog. It's a pleasure to find yours. The quality of your pictures is outstanding. That titmouse is gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.

Lisa said...

Randy,
I'm impressed by all of those wheelbarrows of mulch (my husband Tim is right with you!)

But more importantly, what wonderful photos of the Tufted Timouse that you got a closer look at. I should say, wonderful photos, as usual.

Thanks!
Lisa

Victoria Williams said...

Always love your pics! That titmouse is outstanding!
Made me smile to see a crocus just about to bloom. It will still be a while around here.

Meghann said...

Found your blog doing an image search to identify a bird. Love these pictures! The titmouse is a common bird around here, and one of my favorites.

Lately some bluebirds have shown up, but I have had a heck of a time capturing pictures, they are more skittish than cardinals!

Benjamin Vogt said...

Fantastic bird shots on this post and the last, Randy! I got a tripod at Christmas and set it up looking over the feeder, hooked up my remote, and snapped hundreds of pics--and got just a few nice one. HArd to get good shots of birds taking off--go figure. The most exotic birds I have now are northern flocker, woodpeckers like you, and some occasional mourning doves.

Caroline Gill said...

Really interested, Randy, to see your Red-bellied Woodpecker. Terrific!

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