I was out there to meet the Queen. I’d been trying to get an audience with her for several weeks. But she’s a Royal and follows her own rules. I’m used to that.
Anybody out there? Hey Mr. Downy, are you hungry?
You see, almost every day I’d see, on Facebook, a photographer who calls herself the “Hand of Snacks” feeding a female cardinal along the boardwalk at my favorite park.
Well, at least one bird wants a snack!
Lots of birds come down to any number of hands filled with snacks at this park, but cardinals are famously shy. Quite stand-offish. So to see this female sitting in a hand regularly intrigued me. And I drove the 30+ minutes every week or so, hoping to get to meet her Majesty for myself. Oh, I’d see her – sitting in the scrub along the boardwalk. I’d offer a treat. She’d watch me. But she never showed any interest in getting to know me better. Week after week I’d leave disappointed.
They almost always go for the peanuts first.
This Wednesday, there she was, sitting among the twigs of a dogwood bush with her partner, the bright red Mr. Cardinal. And that morning she seemed interested in me. She moved out to the end of the branch and eyed me up and down. I stood still, gifts offered. She flew to the railing, quite a far bit away from me and eyed me some more.
She’s not too sure about this.
Clearly I was not her Hand of Snacks. I was an imposter. But she was hungry. But I was an imposter. Could she trust me? Would she trust me? She hopped along the railing to get a closer look. She looked up at me and then down at the snacks in my hand. I stood still, barely breathing.
Come on sweetie, it will be OK.
And then she reached out, her feet still firmly planted on the railing, she wasn’t going to actually stand on my hand, and grabbed an oiler seed, moving rapidly away from me to eat it. I stood still.
You have options, pick your favorite!
She hopped over again and helped herself to another treat, not moving so far away this time…and then she grabbed a peanut and with a slight nod to me, she flew back into the bushes to share it with her partner.
You’re such a good Queen, taking your partner the best peanut.
And the politely waiting chickadee hopped up onto my hand to see what she had left behind.
She’s off to share. Mr. Chickadee is waiting in line.
Now I can say I’ve met the Queen. And it was everything I knew it would be.
Once in awhile I like to mess around with black and white images. Most of the time I look for stark images with clean lines and a big contrast between the darks and lights. Kind of ultra modern.
But I also like nature in black and white, so when I saw Cee’s challenge I went looking for something from my archives that would fit the bill. And, as you know, I have a LOT of bird images so I decided to pull this Sandhill crane from a visit just last month to my favorite bird park. It was all about the shadow when I took the image, and I think it’s the shadow that makes this a great black and white.
I hope you like it too! Thanks, Cee, for the challenge!
I’ve been able to get outside for long walks a couple of times in the past week or so. Being outside always makes me feel better.
Patterns in ice greeted me when I arrived.
In fact, that’s advice I give regularly to people who are feeling down or sad and wistful. Being outside just makes me smile.
I’d heard the queen of the boardwalk was a lovely female cardinal. And she was there, but not hungry.
I suppose that’s why mom always told us to go outside and play. Or, just possibly, it was to get us all away from her!
Mrs. Red-bellied didn’t want to sit on my hand either, but was willing to grab a snack for later.
Either way, we spent our childhoods romping around the neighborhoods we lived in, climbing trees and stomping through mud, riding bikes, roller skating, playing kick the can and just generally running around.
Mrs. Red-bellied flew every peanut way over to the rookery for storage.
I don’t roller skate anymore…haven’t kicked a can in a few decades, used to run, but don’t do that now either.
Swans flew over but didn’t stop for a treat. I guess they had better pickings somewhere else.
But I can still stomp around in mud and walk through the woods and look for good climbing trees, though I don’t dare actually climb these days.
Mrs. Red-bellied races a blackbird for the treat on the boardwalk railing.
And I can look for the birds and others who generously share their woods with me. And sometimes, though certainly not nearly all the time, I can grab an image to remember it all by.
A nuthatch decides my seed is better than the bittersweet.
A little over a week ago I decided, late in the morning, to go to Kensington, my favorite bird park, even though I’d arrive much later than normal and the odds were the little birds would have full bellies and not want to socialize with me.
“I’m not really hungry, lady, but if you’re giving it away…..”
Well, the pictures above are from that walk. The little ones were more than happy to visit with me, though the red-bellied woodpeckers and the redwing blackbirds weren’t willing to sit in my hand that day.
“I’ll hop over to your hand, lady!”
But they were definitely willing to grab a bite if I left it somewhere for them.
Waiting in line for a snack.
And the squirrels were very upfront about asking for something too.
“Could you spare a bite, madam?”
And then there was this sandhill crane family. The juvenile (you can tell it’s a youngster because his/her head is still brown, not red like his folks) was transfixed by a squirrel that was up in a tree.
Youngsters also have yellow, not red, eyes.
The squirrel was not as excited about meeting the cranes.
“I’ll just wait up here a bit, see if they move on down the trail.”
It ran up and down the other side of the tree, gathering seed I’d spilled while the young crane closely watched.
“Now, if I stay over here on this side of the tree, he won’t see me.”
It was hysterical.
“What is that? Is it edible?”
By the time I left them the squirrel had scampered away and the crane family was poking among the leaves for any leftover treats.
It’s a standoff.
And just this weekend I went up to the Shiawasee Nature Preserve with a friend. We walked almost 2 miles back into the woods, wandering the dyke system and marveling at the engineering.
It’s a totally different kind of wonderland.
We didn’t get any close encounters with birds, but we saw plenty of bald eagles, both adult and juvenile flying high overhead.
“I see you two down there, ladies, and I’m not getting any closer.”
And we heard hundreds of sandhill cranes, their calls coming from all around us. When we got out into the open we saw many of them walking in the mud flats far out in the wetlands.
Time for a bit of snacking.
And dozens more were flying in, their grey feathers glinting in the afternoon sun.
The afternoon sun made them glow as they flew in.
It’s just as magical, in a different way, as Kensington.
The lines of the landscape are irresistible to this photographer.
Lucky me, to get out into places like this so regularly.
Can’t resist these lines either.
I wish you all could come!
What kind of winter do you think we’ll have?
But since most of you live so far away, I’m counting on you to look around your area and find some wild beautiful place and take me along with pictures and words some day. We’ll both be the better for it.
I changed the photo at the top of my Facebook page yesterday. It’s a shot taken by a friend of mine while we were out at my favorite park earlier this week.
Many people ask how I get the images of birds eating out of my hand, and this shot tells you the entire story. Basically you just shoot as fast as you can and hope.
This was one of the only times I’ve had a picture of me taking a picture where I knew that I had grabbed shots from the very same moment.
So now you can see both sides of my lens.
I remember hearing birds swarming around my head, and I just kept the shutter clicking, not sure what I’d end up capturing.
In the end Mrs. Red-winged got something to eat, after the rude Mr. got his choice and flew away.
I was back out at Kensington this week, on a dreary and damp Wednesday morning. The birds were overjoyed to see us. And of course I have loads of images. Some are quite good.
But my question today is about one particular little bird. Or perhaps two.
We were still very near the nature center when a rose-breasted grosbeak demanded a treat. This is the first year I’ve ever seen a grosbeak come in for a hand held treat. But these days I often see, on Facebook, a picture of one enjoying himself. It kind of looks like the same bird I’ve fed out there.
And I wonder if there is only one that comes in to eat our treats, or if the entire rose-breasted population has figured out the secret.
So here’s the bird that ate from our hand near the nature center.
And here’s the bird that flew down from a high branch of a dead tree to get the last of the snacks just before we left for the day.
What do you think? Is it the same bird? Or did we have two hungry birds begging for attention?
Now look here, son, you’re almost an adult. You’re as big as me and your head is starting to turn red! It’s time for you to learn how to feed yourself.Hey! None of that flapping your wings for supper stuff. Look over there, see the woman with peanuts in her hand?Are you listening to me, boy? Pay attention!Look, that’s not going to get you anywhere with the humans around here .You have to have more finesse!Now watch me, I’m gonna go schmooze a snack. For myself.The kid’s gotta learn to get his own food sooner or later.Dad?DAAAAADDDDD!!!!!
It’s that time of year where a walk through the woods reveals babies everywhere.
“Hurry up, I only have a 10 minute break from the babies this morning, lady!“
I visited my favorite park early one morning after a night of rain.
“Did you bring us all something to eat?“
The parking lot was virtually empty, and the birds were frantic for some breakfast.
“Make way! I, the big bad red-winged blackbird require food!“
Swarms of blackbirds and starlings swirled around me. The little birds tried to get some attention too.
“Talk to the wing, blackbird!“
They lined up on the railing for a chance to get something to eat.
“Lady! We’re hungry!”
The rose breasted grosbeak got first dibs. Just based on beauty. Plus he was pushy.
“Nom, nom, nom Thanks lady!“
Even the mourning dove hopped over to get a treat. I’ve never had either the grosbeak or a dove land in my hand before.
“This is a joke, right? Did that pig the grosbeak eat all the treats?”
Eventually everybody got something.
“About time, lady.”
And then I went on down the trail
“Come on into the woods, lady. It’s not your responsibility to get them ALL fed.”
Where I quickly ran into this family out for a morning stroll. I first noticed an adult with a teenager almost as tall. Notice the teenager’s knees.
“Meet my son, Junior.”
Then the other parent emerged from the trees to complete the family.
“Come on over this way, mom and dad, I think the best stuff is on the other side of the trail.”
Once I edged carefully by them, which wasn’t easy because one of the parents was keeping an evil eye on me, I found a papa red bellied woodpecker. And his son.
“Watch this, son.”
To be accurate, I didn’t find him. He got my attention when he dive bombed me. Repeatedly.
He wasn’t interested in coming in for a treat. He flew right at me, did a touch down on my head and landed in a tree behind me. Then he came back and hit me in the head before landing back in the tree with his young one.
“I see you lady, move on down the road, OK?”
He did this over and over, as I continued to duck and weave and move on down the trail.
Eventually he picked up a bit of seed that I had flung behind me as a desperate distraction and perched on a broken branch to peck it open.
“First you have to crack the seed open, son.”
And then he fed it to his youngster who had been following all the excitement eagerly.
“Here, taste this, pretty good, ey?”
I crept away as they were eating.
Lots of little birds came in for a snack once I was away from the attacking woodpecker.
“Thanks!”
I enjoyed their visits in the quiet woods.
“Coming in for a landing, lady!”
It was peaceful out there, not many people wandering the trails.
“Good morning mama.”
And then I heard a squealing and yelling headed in my direction.
“This way!”
The quiet of the woods was interrupted, but I was OK with that. Kids need to spend time outside too.
“Thanks for the dive-through service, lady!”
So I headed out to the rookery to see if any of the teenagers were still there.
“Where’s the lunch lady?”
Many of them were. I guess they’re planning on staying as long as mom and dad are willing to feed them.
I witnessed one parent arriving with something good to eat. The craziness is hard to sort out in pictures. And the noise was amazing.
“OK, ok. I’m here with lunch. Settle down you two!”
Personally I think it’s time the folks kick the kids out. Most of them are flying from their nests to other branches, but come back to the nest for food.
“Hey! I want some over here too!”
None of the commotion appeared to distract the egret, just below, from continuing his grooming. Egrets move in when the herons leave the rookery. This guy was early I guess.
“Kids. Can’t wait until the neighbors move out!”
And then I left the park, stopping for a moment to check on the osprey nest where the youngsters were flexing their wings too.
“Hey! I think I’m getting this flying thing!”
Another good walk in the woods.
So peaceful. So fun. So exciting. You take your pick around here!
Change Is Hard 