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Thanks Dave!! And, no, I don't mind at all if you doctor my pictures...I need all the help that I can get at this point. I have 2 different zoom lenses with this camera. I haven't tried out the 70-300 yet. I'm still trying to get the hang of the basics...I went from a completely automatic point-and-shoot pocket sized camera to this so I feel like a staggering toddler.
The bluebirds are competing with the woodpeckers for the meal worms now so I will have to get one of those feeders that has a small hole for them to enter to get at the food. I am assuming that since they are here now that they will probably stay. Most of my "summer" birds left a couple of weeks ago and the nut hatches and woodpeckers are more noticeable now. I love winter feeding season... it will be great fun with a new camera!!
I love pictures of them in the snow. Woodpeckers too. Seems to enhance the color.
It only snows here a few times a year but you should have lots of opportunities for that in your area.
Now, if you haven't already done so, think about making a perch for them so your pictures will look like they were taken in a more natural setting. If nothing else, find a small tree branch or limb and clamp one end of it to the railing of your deck near the meal worm dish. It doesn't have to be too big. Locate it so that when you shoot you minimize background clutter.The birds will usually land on the highest point, survey the situation, then drop down to the feeder. If a lot of them come at once, one or two may wait on the branch. This will give you some great shots.
I assume your 70-300 has an aperture of f/4-5.6. I'll be interested to see what you get with that one.
Recently we have had flocks of bluebirds! They don't seem to be "moving in" to our bluebird houses, just going in and out and also in and out of the purple martin house! Is this common? What do you think is going on?
This time of year my bluebirds start looking for nesting cavities for next year.
I have one box that I leave up and my adult pair from this season are on it and in and out of it every day, especially in the morning. If they are not actually on it they are watching from a distance and come zooming in if a bird happens to land on it. I also have an old dead tree with an abandoned woodpecker hole that the bluebirds would love to have too but it's a lost cause for them because the opening is big enough for the starlings, so no matter whichever bluebirds win, they ultimately get run off by the starlings in the spring,
Dave...I love the idea of creating a natural looking perch for them. It had never occurred to me to do that. I have an elevated crossbeam on the deck that is close to their dish that would be perfect. Yes, we get plenty of snow opportunities here on Cape Cod. It's really great with the cardinals and juncos.
I have 5 nest boxes up in different locations in the yard and my bluebirds were in and out of any box that was empty every day up until mid-September. Now, they just sit on their claimed nest box although I only notice it early in the morning. I think that they sit there waiting for the slider to open...read: meal worm delivery. I don't see them much during the day but we still have so many berries available for them elsewhere in the neighborhood. Once they are gone, they will be hanging around more I think.
Dave...do you think that I should take the other 4 boxes down for the winter?
Sacarvounis:
I know of no reason to take the other boxes down, other than to save them from the wear and tear of winter weather. In your part of the country birds, including bluebirds and downy woodpeckers, especially, have been known to roost in the boxes on cold nights, sometimes as many as half a dozen huddling together to keep warm.
Pelle, I wish I knew where you could get one of the square shaped ones. Cher designed it and marketed it for several years and when she went to the larger, round shaped one, she stopped making the square one. I guess if one were handy, they could get some 1 1/4 inch grid wire and make one for themselves. I recall Frank was thinking about doing that. I don't know if he ever did.
