Here’s a bunch of shots from the last few days that struck me as interesting in one way or another, with all of them featuring the suet feeder.
This first one, taken at 3:28 p.m. on August 10 by user j.lassalle, shows a female House Sparrow. But look to the left of the feeder: What on earth is that?
The nearest I can figure out is that it’s a Chestnut-backed Chickadee on its way from the ball feeder to the suet feeder, reduced to a blur (but a blur with clearly visible CBC field marks) on which the shadow of the suet feeder can be seen with remarkable clarity. I guess it’s a manifestation of a slowish shutter speed: The underlying bird (the chickadee) is in motion, so it’s a blur, but the shadow of the feeder is perfectly stationary, so it’s crystal clear. Anyway, I thought that looked pretty cool.
This next shot, taken at 4:59 p.m. on August 11 by kryptonkay, shows a feisty male House Sparrow driving the Downy Woodpecker off the feeder. According to kryptonkay’s comment, the sparrow actually succeeded in chasing the woodpecker away. (Photo #28317, taken immediately before by kitcat, shows the situation developing.) Those sparrows sure are cheeky! 🙂
Next is a shot I got on August 11 at 7:15 p.m. I took it because I think it shows four species in one shot. Going from right to left, there’s a Pygmy Nuthatch on the suet feeder, a Chestnut-backed Chickadee inside the ball feeder, a bird on the left of the pole feeder fluttering its wings that’s definitely a male House Sparrow, and then, of the three remaining birds in the shot (one opposite the House Sparrow on the right side of the pole feeder, the other two on the thistle-seed feeder), I really want to believe that at least one of them is a House Finch. (I think the bird on the right side of the thistle-seed feeder has the best chance of being one.)
So far I’m not aware of any shot containing five identifiable species. If anyone knows of one, please point it out to me. Thanks! (I realize this shot isn’t really suet-feeder-centric, but the suet feeder is in the shot, so I figured it was thematically acceptable for me to include it here.)
Next is a shot I took earlier today (August 12), at 5:14 p.m. Someone (I’m not sure who) was zooming the camera in tight, aiming through the suet feeder and focusing on the top of the Pride of Madeira behind it. It was that awkward time of day when the background is still in sun but the feeders are shadowed, when it’s a real pain to get the camera to focus properly on the birds on the feeders. I noticed that the various people on the camera were giving whoever was driving a lot of leeway, letting the camera stay focused on the background, which I thought was pretty cool. I’ve been noticing lately that people seem to have become pretty tolerant of letting one person drive at a time, which I have to say I really appreciate; it’s so much nicer than having people wrestle the thing back and forth, making it impossible to get a good shot of anything.
And just as I was thinking this, I suddenly saw what I assume the person operating the camera was interested in: There was an Allen’s Hummingbird landing atop the Pride of Madeira. I missed getting the shot that time, but a few minutes later he was back, and I got several shots, including this one that I kept:
As I commented on the image, “Colonel Mustard, in the conservatory, with the candlestick. Or, in this case, Allen’s Hummingbird, atop the Pride of Madeira, through the suet feeder!” 🙂
Finally, I saw this Chestnut-backed Chickadee at 6:54 p.m. today hanging off the suet feeder by one foot, and thought it was really cute. I didn’t take a shot, because I was going for another 10-species-in-10-shots thing, and I already had a chickadee, but thankfully avatar99 got a great shot of it:
This isn’t just a case of a photo freezing a funny-looking moment; that chickadee really did hang on like that for several seconds. It was pretty funny to see.
So, there you go: Five interesting shots featuring the suet feeder (which, as of tonight, is empty — hint, hint).
