2018-07-22: What I’ve seen this week

It’s been a great week for bird watching and wildlife, though I don’t have a ton of images to show for it.  As I expected, the hummingbirds are slowing down dramatically, with only around a half dozen birds remaining, but the purple finches, nuthatches, chickadees and pine siskins remain in force, clearing out two seed feeders every couple of days.  I had a pair of western tanagers through the yard on Thursday, but sadly they flitted through so quickly I couldn’t get any images.  I’ve only had three very brief sightings of the tanagers this year.

After the sadness of finding the destroyed robin’s nest the previous week, I was a bit surprised to find a robin (I assume the same mama, but perhaps a different one) building a nest feet from where the previous one was destroyed.  Fingers crossed she is more successful this time and the cats stay away.

The star of the week though was the bear cub that visited the yard Thursday around lunchtime.  It was on it’s own, and frankly seemed a bit small to be away from its mama, but I never caught sight of any other cubs around or the mom.  He was in the grass near some of my potted plants, making for some nice images out of my dining room window.

I hope you enjoy my choices for the week.

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Taking photos out through a window isn’t ideal, but I do get a great vantage point for creating images.
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Taking a moment to stop and smell the flowers.

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Mama robin tucked into her nest on my well pump house.
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A garter snake that I found basking on the pavement when I was taking Spencer for an afternoon walk.  I was grateful no cars came by while I was walking, and when I returned it had moved into the safety of the bushes.

Robin Chicks

Just now while doing some work on the computer, I heard quite a bit of peeping from my open window.  I’m used to having a robin in my little yard quite often, but today, she was here with her two chicks.  I didn’t want to scare them away, so I wasn’t able to get Mom in the shot with the two youngsters; I was just glad I was able to get outside to take a few shots as through the window screen was not yielding great results!

All photos at 1/800sec, f5.6, ISO6400

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Robins

A pair of American Robins searching for some breakfast.  Hearing them sing while I am taking my morning walk always makes me smile. 1/2000sec, f5.6, ISO400
A pair of American Robins searching for some breakfast. Hearing them sing while I am taking my morning walk always makes me smile.
1/2000 sec, f5.6, ISO400
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