I actually used a manual setting on my camera!
I put it on Shutter priority, set it to the fastest shutter speed and the fastest ISO possible and hung out near the bird feeder.
The results?
WOW!!
The graininess comes from the high ISO, right? Didn’t I read this somewhere? Who cares, it’s cool!
Birdfeederily speaking, my timing sucks. I have mathematically calculated that the chances of seeing the cardinal at the bird feeder increases exponentially to the distance my Nikon is from me. In other words, when the Nikon is nowhere near me, the damn bird lands on the feeder. The jerk.
He landed today while I was reading on my iPad, with my D90 far, far away. This is the best I could get.
By the time I had my camera in hand, this is what I saw.
Note how a big chunk of the bottom of the bird feeder has been eaten away.
I was left with nothing to photograph except for the terribly ugly, horrifyingly terrifying spider that lives in the window. Safe to say that Mr spider will be dead soon. Very dead.
I filled the bird feeder this morning. It is now half empty and some animal (I’m looking at you, Mr squirrel) tried to chew through the bottom.
I hate you, squirrels. I do hate you so.
I may have developed a new lunch time ritual for the days I telecommute. More on that in a second, but first there is gore to share.
I went downstairs this morning at a little before 9:00 to put a load of laundry in the washing machine. There was another garter snake on the cellar floor. I walked up to him, he didn’t flinch. He’s dead, thinks me. I put the wash on, went upstairs, closed the cellar door so the cat couldn’t get at the slithery bastard, and started working. When it was time to put the wash into the dryer I went downstairs with a bucket and something to scoop up the corpse.
It wasn’t there.
DAMN IT! It was still alive!
An hour later I went back downstairs and he was back, just a short distance from where he was when I first saw him. I wasn’t taking any chances this time. I went upstairs and got a couple of things. One was the camera… obviously.
The other item I brought downstairs was a big honkin’ snow shovel with a nice sharp edge on it. I brought it down on the snake with a vengeance. His back was nice and crushed. I waited a few moments. He didn’t move. I scooped him onto the shovel and what do you know, he started moving. Damn thing still ain’t dead! I dropped him and gave him another slam with the shovel. I paused again and then brought it down one more time, just south of his head. He didn’t move again. I scooped him out and threw him in the woods. I hope something gross eats what’s left of him. Something like a slug, or a worm, or whatever. Stupid home invading snake.
So now that that drama was over, I could happily go back to work. When lunch time rolled around I had an idea. Every time I got up today, I went to the bedroom window to check on the bird feeder, and every time there were squirrels and chipmunks all over the thing. I yell, they run, I leave, they come back.
I decided that for lunch, I would cook some hot dogs on the grill, grab a camp chair and my camera, and sit outside on the grass. I could watch the birds and keep away the rodents all at the same time. Success!
I was lucky enough to catch a couple of birds just as they jumped off the feeder. I think a good clear shot of a bird in flight is the new goal for the summer.
I got some pics of birds just hanging out and having a snack.
Mostly what I got though was a lot of near misses.
Should anyone know what the name of any of these species is, please feel free to share. I haven’t a clue.
So I guess my camera wasn’t fast enough to get this little bird as it flew off the bird feeder, eh?
It’s time for a bird feeder update.
Don’t give me that look. You know you are dying to know how they are doing.
Much to my eternal surprise, the little bird house balancing on the empty flower box outside of the dining room window is still there! I’m guessing the reason it hasn’t fallen over yet is that no animals have found it yet. That’s just a guess, but it’s almost certainly an accurate one. This is how it looked at about 7:40 this morning, just before I left for work.
The news regarding the back yard bird feeder is a little more interesting. The good news is, twice this morning I saw birds visiting it. First a little bird flew up to it, landed, heard a noise (probably a fat guy in the house knocking stuff over trying to get to a camera of some sort), and took off. A few minutes later I looked out and saw a larger bird flying away. Success! The birds have discovered their free meal!
The bad news is that the squirrels have discovered the free meal too. Yesterday my beloved wife Jennifer saw a squirrel hanging upside down from the hook the bird feeder is hanging on, just munching away. Jen yelled at the little rodent bitch and scared it away, but I doubt it stayed away for very long.
I just hope that putting a bird feeder in view of our bedroom window doesn’t drive the HipstaKitty to murderous, psychotic episodes of bird watching frustration.
Inside the Red Head's Head 