Birds Birds Birds!

I decided to spend a day with the birds a couple of days ago. The top photo is a pine warbler, the middle a white breasted nuthatch who actually picked up that chunk of suet that was the same size as him and promptly dropped it Lol! He bit off more than he could chew but I retrieved it for him so he could finish his meal. The bottom photo is a male downy woodpecker. These were shot using my Nikon 2.8 70-200 VR lens on a tripod (VR mode turned off since it was on the tripod which can actually cause blurry photos if left on while on a tripod). I hope to one day be a full time professional nature and landscape photographer but at this point in time my  photo sales are just enough to sustain my photography as a hobby and pay for my website and a savings plan towards better gear. If you would like to contribute to my journey to professional photographer, my photos can be purchased as greeting cards, prints , canvases, iphone & Galaxy cases and throw pillows.  Thanks for stopping by. Photo Links below if you wish to purchase anything :

Our Feathered Friends

Sometimes when you lend a helping hand the unexpected rewards are great. Yesterday was one of those moments. We have been feeding the birds all winter long and recently we’ve had some record breaking cold snaps combined with snow storms here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Every morning when we get up we have a morning ritual…feed our cats, feed the wild birds and lastly tend to our own needs with a cup of coffee or tea. Sometimes the cats have to wait for the birds to be fed since they are snug and warm in the house but the wild birds are all lined up in the tree waiting for us with anticipation looking in the window wondering when those magic bundles of food will be placed on the deck for their breakfast buffet.

Yesterday the snow was falling (9” total when it finished), it was cold and the birds were hungry! After the feeders had been hung for a while there was an enormous amount of birds at the feeders, more birds than we could ever recall seeing at once. Since we were snowed in again and cabin fever was beginning to set in an idea occurred to me to pass the time… why not try to hand feed the friendly little pine siskins. I had noticed that I could get just inches from these little birds and they showed virtually no fear of me when I would walk by the feeder. So I filled my two outstretched hands with sunflower seeds and patiently waited near the feeder. My hands were resting on the two bottom rungs our finch feeder. My husband was watching from inside the house but I didn’t know it at the time because I couldn’t turn around. To my surprise a siskin landed on my right hand and began to feed! Then another tried to land on the same hand and they had a little mini power struggle over my hand! The next thing I knew there was one on each of my hands and then there were two on one and one on the other! I remember thinking “I hope my husband is seeing this”.  Well he must have been picking up on my ESP because he not only saw but he shot photos and a video as well (See below).

Today I decided to try it out again to see if maybe they were just desperate yesterday because of the snow or if they really did trust me. So under a clear blue sky with no snow falling today I was treated to the same joy of bonding with a little bird…actually two birds! I tried something new too. I gently put my hand under the feeder rung where a bird was already perched and it happily hopped onto it. At one point one was hovering trying to land on my hand from a nearby branch so I held my hand closer to the branch and then that one landed on my other hand. It’s always nice to make friends but it feels extra special when you make a friend who is of the feathered kind.

My husband got to witness some special bird behavior this morning too when he hung our feeders. A tufted titmouse watched from high above in a tree as he hung the feeders. Once he had hung them the titmouse called out to all the other roosting birds and they all flew out of the trees and came to the feeders. The little titmouse announcing that the breakfast buffet was open didn’t fly to the feeders right away…it was almost like he or she was the bird flock leader and was making sure its flock was OK before tending to its own needs. 

Helping Our Feathered Friends

This weekend took on a sense of urgency for our feathered friends. The temperatures in the valley were ranging from 5 degrees to the teens but with the wind gusts of up to 45 miles an hour the wind chills got as low as 25 below zero! Some people don't think that we humans should interefere with nature and wildlife...but the way I look at it is that since we already have altered the balance of nature by our presence here on planet earth, it's up to us to help take care of our fellow creatures. We had a steady stream of birds at the feeder all day long today. We kept them fed with home made peanut butter suet, rose hips, black oil sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. We were even surprised by a visit from a rather large female pileated woopecker. We also saw cardinals, red bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, juncos, purple finches, gold finches, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches and one of my personal favorites, wrens.

Feeding Winter Birds

Here are a few of my favorite winter birds in the Shenandoah Valley:

These little beauties "will work for food" and seem more than happy to pose for me when given their favorite tasty bird treats.

We have three feeders in the winter months to help our little bird locals get through the winter months.

We feed them home made suet, black oil sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. The cardinals really like the safflower seeds.


My home made suet attracts a wide
variety of birds ranging from
woodpeckers, to wrens.

 Here is a loose recipe for my home made suet:

I buy the store bought suet for the
little plastic molds that they come in and then I use those for my home made suet. The birds will eat the store bought but they devour my home made.

Recipe:

Melted Lard (not Crisco but real lard) Maybe about two or two and 1/2 cups
Once melted, remove pan from heat and add about a cup of peanut butter
Add about a 1/2 a small bag of cornmeal
Add about 2 cups of black oil sunflower seed
Add enough flour until the consistancy is about that of cookie dough
Scoop into the molds and put in the refrigerator or freezer until hard and then you can pop them right out of the mold and put them in any suet feeder.