For the birds

The best part about having a yard, besides mowing it, is the birds. Not long after I moved into Red House I installed two birdfeeders. One feeder is specifically for finches, with plenty of thistle seed and small openings designed for finch beaks. The other is a general feeder with a mix of milo, millet, and sunflower seeds for a variety of birds.

I had to hang the feeders far enough from the porch as not to scare the birds every time I open the door to go out for a smoke. Because of this, I can’t quite see the birds that well since my vision is far from 20/20. I got out my binoculars to aid with identification, but when I noticed that everybody and their mother has been photographing birds, I wanted to get in on the fun.

All pictures that I include in this blog are taken with my Nikon Coolpix 4100. This camera isn’t exactly state of the art technology, but it gets the job done well enough. However, when I first pointed it toward my feeders, I was met with disappointment. The 3x zoom just doesn’t cut it for the 50 and 60 feet of distance to the two feeders from the porch (these distances are accurate, as I just measured them).

It wasn’t long before a solution came to me. I went home this weekend to get the remainder of my books, along with my telescope, the Orion Observer 80mm EQ Ultra. I bought this telescope when I was 14 years old with the first few paychecks I had ever earned working in tobacco. I could only find my 25mm lens, which turned out to be a good thing, since it was the weakest lens I have. I can just barely focus on the first feeder, zooming out completely.

With some minor adjustments to my camera and attempting to line up the lens of the camera with the lens of the telescope, I was able to get a few not-so-clear shots of this female house finch.

Since May 1, I have identified 18 species of birds in the yard. Nesting nearby are pairs of European starlings, eastern blue birds, doves, barn swallows, American robins, common grackles, purple finches, wrens, and house finches. I assume they are nesting nearby because I see the pairs usually everyday, both the male and the female often close together, and I note the same direction they fly in after departing from the yard. The only nests I know of are that of the starlings, which I would gladly destroy since they are an invasive species, and the robins and wrens.

Some random birds I have noted include several cardinals, a few red wing blackbirds, blue jays, mockingbirds, crows, black capped chickadees, an eastern kingbird, a downy woodpecker who seems to be a regular, and the rarest and most colorful of all, a scarlet tanager.