Chickadee In A Tree

So, what did I find on that tree in my last post? Well, I guess you can already see that it was this black-capped chickadee. I love these little birds. They are the one kind of critter that has been here all winter. And they are such friendly and curious little things.

Black-capped chickadees will fly in very close. And they don't mind me getting close to them to get my pictures. They usually make sure there are some branches between us if they are resting, but they don't mind me one bit.

I had some more pictures of one of these birds a few weeks ago, but it was my first time getting back out in a while and my camera settings were wrong. So the pictures were bad and I couldn't show them to you. Pictures are funny like that. The new one above wasn't perfect so I had to sharpen it up a bit.

The animals don't always cooperate either. You can stand there begging and pleading with them to pose in just the right way, but they seem more restless than a bunch of little kids. Then your picture comes out clear, but your critter is distracted by something shiny in the other direction.

But what can you do? The only answer is to get as many pictures as you can. That's the great thing about digital cameras. You can get hundreds of pictures in one trip. And if you get out often you will probably end up with a few great shots. Check my last post for one of those.

Oh, before I go on I want to say hi to those of you who get my posts through email, especially who has sent me a few encouraging messages. Thanks, they are really appreciated. I won't mention names because email is generally a private thing. It's just nice to hear from people who appreciate these posts.

Now, even though it appears you can only see the wrong end of this little chickadee this is actually an interesting picture. Notice that you can see only one of the bird's legs. Take a close look at that little broken branch sticking straight up just left of the bird. There's his foot grabbing ahold of that branch! See? Interesting!

But the bird still isn't posing the way I want him to. Animals never seem to want to cooperate for some reason. But my subject for the next post is a little more agreeable. It stands there looking right at me. You'll never guess what it might be. You'll just have to come back to find out. It'll be fun.


Nature Center Magazine - Your starting place for nature! Mine too!

Trees And Blue Skies

A little snow won't stop me any time soon! The day before my last post came out we had a huge snowstorm. I had been talking about spring coming ever closer, but then that happened. Was I wrong? No, I definitely was not wrong! These blue skies are my proof.

Yeah, yeah, I have to admit that I doctored the photos just a little bit. For shame! Really, all I did was enhance the color a tiny bit. I think they look a little more cheery this way. It was already a nice clear day with blue skies above, but snow can sometimes make things look more bleak than they actually are.

All of the snow you see in these pictures melted away to nothing in just a few days, only to be replaced a short time later with an equal amount. Winter still has a good grip on us, but it's beginning to loosen just a bit. Let's move on.

In the far background of the picture above are the trees I mentioned in my last post where birds like to hang around. Bill of Wildramblings asked a thought provoking question about my opinion of why the birds might like those trees so much. I explained in the comments section that I'm not very knowledgeable about trees yet, but I still have some thoughts on the subject.


The area there in the background is a small wetland. A vernal pond forms there in the spring which feeds a small creek that runs this way to the small footbridge that is almost concealed by the trees on the right. Many animals can be found from those far trees to the ones closer to the foreground. I think the far trees are attractive for being far away from human foot traffic.

Along with all of the water in the area are plenty of apple trees and some other trees and shrubs with berries that the birds like. I took this picture from the parking lot of the nature park. I was standing beside my truck at the time. You can see there are a lot of human tracks at this end of the park. Many birds that are near fly to the far trees when a human shows up.

This is another look at the robin from my last post. I think he was watching me as intensely as I was watching him. He seemed very uncomfortable when he noticed me, and kept leaping from tree to tree until he finally flew away.

The robins weren't nearly so shy last year. Back then I would routinely be surrounded by them as they gathered to eat berries from the trees that are closer to the nature trail. I don't think it was a lack of food last year that kept them close. There seemed to be more for them back then.

Here is another view of those same background trees from the other side of the footbridge. The parking lot is roughly off to the left. I keep taking pictures of all of these scenes, except the one with the bird of course. I just like the way these places look so much that I get a picture of each every time I'm here.

And lastly, you may have noticed that I've been trying to get back to a few things that have fallen by the wayside in the past. I've been answering your comments again for the last few posts. I've always thought the comments section is the best part of a blog. I've also begun writing my next story for my Rat Tales blog. And I have an article up at Nature Center Magazine today that actually began as a post for this site. It would have been good here, but I thought it fit there so well.

I'll be back next time with something I found in the tree that's barely sticking out on the left of this last picture above. See you then!


Nature Center Magazine - Winter's cold winds call me. They say, "Don't fly away..."