There have been a lot of great birds, and great shots, lately. Here are some of my favorites.
I confess I’m getting rather blasé about buntings. Yes, the males are gorgeous, and I’ll always watch them if a get a chance, but human nature being what it is, after looking at 100 photos of them over the span of a few days I start to think, hm, I wonder if there are any blackbirds to look at… Still, even a cynic like me has to sit up and take notice when there are two spectacular bunting males, painted and indigo, feeding together. Here’s a shot loughman1 got early on the morning of April 16; rafa, vanilla, and budgieface were all lucky enough to get shots of the same pairing:
User lynch got this neat shot of the white-winged dove showing off its field marks later on the morning of April 16:
The rose-breasted grosbeak has put in a few appearances lately; here’s a shot taken the morning of April 17 by idbirds:
User raven was one of several to get shots of this snake (which idbirds ID’d as a western diamondback in chat) hanging out under the feeders on the afternoon of April 17:
achadamaia got this spectacular shot of a male red-winged blackbird flashing his epaulets the afternoon of April 17:
rafa got this serenely beautiful shot of the male painted bunting on the morning of April 19:
Several users got amazing shots of the red-shouldered hawk on April 19. Here’s one by budgieface:
Here’s a neat closeup of the same bird’s bands (as well as the business end of its talons) by rafa:
txbird got this cool, if slightly out of focus, shot of the hawk looking right at the camera:
It was oriole day yesterday, April 20. Here’s a shot by birderbf of two male orioles (orchard on the left; Baltimore on the right) on the feeder at the same time:
Here’s a nice shot of the orchard oriole; this was taken by eyes23blue:
annelizabeth got this beautiful shot of the Baltimore oriole:
krypotonkay got this shot in which the Baltimore oriole shows off the orange corners of his tail:
All in all, I’d say it has been some of the most exciting times on the birdcam in a long time. Thanks to everyone who’s been taking the time to watch and get these fantastic photos!