Meteor Crater, Arizona

 

I was checking out some old shots last night and came across this shot from the top of Meteor Crater when Michael Jr, Anthony, Bill and I visited back in 2017. Yes, it is just a big hole in the ground but thinking that a 50 meter iron rock made that hole is something. Fifty meters is about half a football field and the length of the Olympic 50 meter pools. So, a pretty big rock. The crater is about a mile wide and about 570 feet deep. Looking forward to visiting some national parks again, including a second visit to the Great Smokies NP for some fall colors next month. 

Black-capped Chickadee and the White-breasted Nuthatch

 

The black-capped chickadee (on the left) and the white-breasted nuthatch gave a visit at the same time yesterday so I was able to capture them at once. They seem very similar as they both hang on trees upside down, generally with their heads pointing towards the ground as they look for insects on the bark. The nuthatch is actually the larger bird but here it looks smaller as it was slightly set back away from the camera. The chickadee grabs a seed and flies off to eat it on a branch. The nuthatch is more particular and grabs a seed before what looks like he digs a hole in the bark to put it there for later. Anyway, two colorful interesting birds hanging at the feeder. 

Penetrating Stare

 

Our friendly neighborhood Cooper's Hawk has found the desert bar in the Davern backyard. Michael Jr saw this guy take one of our birds out earlier in the week and he almost got one with me out there today. He didn't get his treat but hung around long enough for me to get a shot. Those are some penetrating eyes. I am thinking he is pretty pissed off at me right here. If you are a little bird, those eyes have to be in your worst nightmare. That is a penetrating stare. Goes right through you. Well, I heard if you put up a bird feeder you will get hawks coming around. They were not kidding. This thing came out of nowhere. With so many birds around, it is amazing they can get anywhere near the feeder without being seen but that was the case. Impressive. 

Nice range of motion in his neck. Very important to look all around you without moving. Any movement gives away your location. 

Finally, got the Hummingbird

 

It took all summer but finally got the elusive hummingbird in my feeder. My visitor was very shy. I moved the feeder away from the deck and I started getting more visits. Still, only a couple of times a day. Since this little guy was very skittish, he (she?) would fly away as soon as I reached for the camera. Finally, got her coming along when I had the camera already in hand and mission accomplished!!!! 

Coming to a feeder near you

 

Not here in Illinois yet as far as I know but this little fellow was caught on camera by me back in April in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tenessee. I wasn't really birding then but I saw this bird and didn't know what it was so I took a picture. Looked it up this morning and see that it is called a Dark-Eyed Junco, a visitor to Illinois starting in the fall. Tends to hang around the ground under feeders so I might get to see one at some point in the backyard. For now, I am "birding" through my back catalog to see what I have captured over the years on camera and I can now go identify. Hard to take a picture of a grey bird on grey stones but was able to catch this shot nevertheless. I was probably resting on some of the hikes that Michael Jr was dragging me on. So, help me out and be on the lookout for some little grey birds. Now that you know what to look for, these should be easy to see and no other birds really have this all grey/black top and white belly look so they should be easy to see. Good luck. 

Breakfast at the all day cafe

 

Look at the mess I created! These birds are going nuts (so to speak) for the all-you-can eat, all-day breakfast buffet. That feeder was filled yesterday morning. Half way down in the course of a day. Then they fight when there are rungs that don't have access to food. I image the female cardinal speaks Australian for some reason and is calling me out for not refilling the feeder faster. I have counted 14 to 15 birds at a time. They are relentless.

Sandhill Cranes in Flight

 

This is an old shot, going back to 2011 when my buddy Bill and I went out to shoot some sandhill cranes and I rented a $10,000 lens for a weekend. These birds are about a half mile away and although they are large for a bird, they are still quite small to fill up a shot. The trees in the background helped and the 300mm lens I rented brought them in closer but today's cameras with more megapixels will do an even better job as compared to my Nikon D7000 at the time. This is one instance you can't walk closer up to the birds as Jasper State Park in Indiana doesn't want the birds disturbed and everyone is required to stay on the reviewing stand. Sandhill cranes are notoriously jumpy around humans. Anyway, these shots were taken in November so the cranes were stopping for an overnight rest before they continue on their way to Florida or other points south from their summer haunts in Canada. If you are outside and in a quiet place you might hear the Sandhill Cranes flying overhead in the next month or two, even if you can't see them. They have a distinctive "trill" call. Anyway, this is a shot I might have to recreate someday soon. 

Red-Tailed Hawk twofer

 

I caught one Red-Tailed circling overhead out by the prairie by my house and took a bunch of shots. The hawk was a long way away and far up but I was able to zoom in with a 600mm lens, handheld, and get a couple of just sharp enough shots. I put two of them on the same frame as I caught different lighting and views as "he" circled around. (Might have been a "she". I don't know.) Anyway, the Red-Tailed Hawk is a common bird in these parts. I am sure you have seen one, but without zooming in, I didn't know what kind of hawk it was. Very pretty coloring on its underparts. Cool looking bird. 

A change in the wind....in black and white

 

I posted this morning about a change in the wind but the shot was a normal color shot. I like it well enough. This afternoon, after taking a black and white class online with Moose Peterson, a famous landscape photographer, I feel this shot as more of a back and white shot. So, I am posting twice today in Shot of the Day. I realized, there are no rules on the blog and in photography, that can't be broken!!!

A Change in the Wind

 

The calendar still says summer but the beginning of fall is here in the midwest. You see a few yellow and slightly red leaves here and there and it is starting to be sweater weather in the evening and early morning. Finally starting to get some rain too as it has been a hot and dry summer. So, a change is in the wind. I hope it brings something better as 2020 has been one hell of a year. 

Old Time Washing Machines

 

Who remembers these old time washing machines with the rollers to get the water out? Now that was some labor saving device. I think I vaguely remember one in our basement when I was very young. I will have to ask my mom if we had one or were we already in the machine age in the late 50's. I definitely remember her hanging clothes on a rope. It is one of my earliest memories as I tried to swing on a clothes rope and dropped to the cement ground. I still have the lump on the back of my head!!! My mom did say that I was kept home from school for a month on a concussion watch. It was probably from that event. Anyway, these are for sale if you are interested. I saw them in Brookston, Indiana. I wonder if there is a Labor Day Sale? 

Another New Find

 

The second new bird that I found on my prairie walk yesterday was the Northern Flicker. This is quite the bird. From a distance I thought, it's just a robin but I took a few pictures of it anyway. When I looked at the back of the camera on zoom,  I saw that this was no Robin. Yellow tail, yellowish breast with brown spots all over it, a black bib and a huge red spot on the back of its head. This was a bird designed by a committee!!! Never knew a bird with such exotic coloring existed and so close to our house. Definitely never seen one of those before, not even in passing. So, looking forward to future discoveries. 

Savannah Sparrow

 

The new fall birds have not come to visit my feeder as of yet so I went out to discover new birds for myself. Took a short hike to the local prairie and found this Savannah Sparrow, a quite distinguished little fellow and one that I have never noticed before. It turns out that there are a lot of different sparrows around, even in just Illinois and the midwest. My sparrow book has 62 of them listed, along with closely related species like buntings, juncos, longspurs and towhees. So, with COVID, I have gone from world traveler (well, US traveler mostly) to backyard birder in 6 months. Now, I have ventured out to a prairie. Since I have all this photography equipment, I have to  shoot someone or something. So, it is birds for now.