The Chicks in my Yard

I have mamy white wing doves that visit my feeders every day. I'm seeing their chicks join them. White winged chicks don't have the brilliant blue around their eyes and their eyes are more brown rather than the bright orange of the mature doves. They don't seem to beg from their parents going straight for the seeds. The other distinguishing marks for the juvenile white wings are those white patches on their cheeks.

Other chicks I've seen this year - barn swallows, house finches, house sparrows, red bellied woodpecker and blue jay. I know I have a pair of road runners around the property and I saw a bird this week that had such a long tail and appeared larger than the mockingbirds, but I didn't get a good enough look to verify that it was a road runner chick.

It is fun to watch the chicks beg for their food. They posture, crouching, wings fluttering, mouth open . . . The red bellied woodpecker chick was carefully on the opposite side of the trunk from me. But I could tell that the mother was grabbing suet and feeding something on the other side. I finally got a peek of the chick - no coloring on the head, but perfectly able to fly.

The blue jay chick also assumed the begging posture as its parent was checking out my lawn chair cushions for food.

I'm hoping to capture more images of these chicks in my yard.

My Home Birds - continued

I have tons of cardinals. I think in many ways they are everyone's "favorite" bird, because they are easy to recognize and identify and their bright color is so beautiful and cheerful.



I enjoy the tufted titmouse as well. Very shy, it sneaks into the feeder and flies away at the least little sound.



While the mockingbird is the state bird of Texas, I find them to be the bullies of the bird world. They swoop in and all the other birds get displaced until the mockingbird has finished feeding. But they do sing such beautiful songs!

Monday's yard birds

I'm trying to get out more frequently at home to capture the birds that are coming in to my feeders. We've had a string of cloudy days and this is the first sunny day recently where I've had a chance to shoot with the sun helping me.

The sun can be your friend providing nice, bright, warm lighting to your subject as in this white crowned sparrow.



I've got some other shots where the sun was NOT my friend where it blew out details in either the bird or the surrounds.

When the sun is out, the ambient lighting even in the shade can give you opportunities for some good bird shots.

Here's one of the red bellied woodpeckers that are coming in regularly to the suet feeder. I suspect that this pair is feeding chicks because they come in regularly and carry off food. Today was the first time that there seemed to be some rivalry - I heard some woodpecker wars and I don't know if perhaps I know have two pairs of woodpeckers coming in.




I have a lot of white wing doves coming in. Sometimes I can see thirty or more at a time. They startle easily and the sound they make as they all fly off at once is amazing. What powerful wings they have!



I have visualized a couple of images that I'm trying to get. One of these visualizations is to capture one of the white winged doves coming in with its wings outspread. Here is one of my attempts to capture that idea: