The painted buntings have arrived

[mark kosse]

This morning was the first spotting. It's always nice to see this beautiful bird come back. Sorry I don't have a pic but it would be upside down anyway with this ipad.

May is always the target so they're right on time. The hummers were late this year.

[Jim Becker]

Those are such beautiful birds. We've only had one sighting here a few years ago...not typical for our area.

[Brent Cutshall]

I'd love to see one of those, but they normally don't come around here. Your situation is pretty much the opposite of mine. I don't have painted buntings and the hummingbirds came early here.

[John K Jordan]

Wow, I've never seen one. Plenty of bluebirds, hummingbirds. Saw the first fireflies last night.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

John, they are incredibly beautiful birds...I hope you do get to spy one at some point.

[Lee Schierer]

Painted Bunting
painted_bunting_cleber2.jpg

[Patrick Walsh]

Wow, that is a beautiful bird.

Gonna have to go google that one..

[mark kosse]

If i rember I'll post some pics of my own tomorrow and give you all a wildlife photography lesson.

[John K Jordan]

If i rember I'll post some pics of my own tomorrow and give you all a wildlife photography lesson.

Yes, please. I love bird pictures.

Here's my "wildlife" macro photography lesson with subject moving wildly: Take at least 400 photos. Get 6 good ones.

bee_golden_rain_3.jpg BEE_golden_rain.jpg

JKJ

[mark kosse]

Sorry guys, I can't find the pics on my laptop. They're on my camera but I'm not around it.

i found out how to take fabulous pics. First you remodel your house and install lots of 5x6' windows. Then you get a cup of coffee and sitting behind those windows enjoying the scenery and wait until some bird thumps his melon on your windows. You can then take all the pictures you want until they come to their senses. The pic of the pb, he was sitting on barbed wire. A perfect tx pic.

ive gotten real good at bird CPR. One day a sharped shinned hawk hit the windows like a B52. How I resuscitated that bird is beyond me. He hit hard. If you don't let them sit and ponder dying they almost always come to.

[John K Jordan]

...ive gotten real good at bird CPR. One day a sharped shinned hawk hit the windows like a B52. How I resuscitated that bird is beyond me. He hit hard. If you don't let them sit and ponder dying they almost always come to.

The ratio of recovery after window thump is lower here, apparently due to sloppy CPR administered by the cats. :-(

JKJ

[Lee Schierer]

Our local sharp shinned hawk comes to our bird feeder for fresh mourning dove, it's usually the doves and other birds bouncing off the window.

Here's and eagle photo I took.
IMG_2391-a.jpg

[Justin Ludwig]

The ratio of recovery after window thump is lower here, apparently due to sloppy CPR administered by the cats. :-(

JKJ

You have a sad face, but I almost snorted coffee into my keyboard. Nice pic of the raintree and bees, btw. I wish more people would plant those instead of Bradford Pear.

[John K Jordan]

You have a sad face, but I almost snorted coffee into my keyboard. Nice pic of the raintree and bees, btw. I wish more people would plant those instead of Bradford Pear.

Thanks! The frowny face was frown, er, tongue in cheek. :-)

Bradford pear trees should be outlawed. I've read scathing articles about the evils of Bradford. Some towns are now cutting down the trees they planted decades ago. Good for woodturning, though.

The Golden Rain Tree is considered by some as an invasive nuisance species since it propagates quickly and can get out of control. However, it is no problem in an area that gets mowed.

It is an incredible bee tree. For one month starting mid June the bees are in it from before dawn until it gets dark. By counting a small area then extrapolating I estimated over 2000 honey bees and other bees are active in the tree at one time. We have two of these trees next to the house and someone down the road has one.

The macro photos of the bees were among the trickiest I've tried. Point the camera at a bee and she's usually moved on before you can get the shot! The bees are moving, the flowers are moving in the gentlest breeze, I'm moving with the handheld camera since a tripod is not useful, and since the depth of field is very small getting good focus is a miracle!

I always have the same problem shooting bees. I spent two hours in my sunflower patch to get a couple of good shots. This one was pure persistence and luck - after moving from flower to flower getting boring and poorly composed pictures of bees on the flowers I decided to put the camera on a tripod and aim at a single flower, compose and focus, and just wait. Eventually a bee approached the flower and I "accidentally" got a good shot of the approach. The wings are moving so fast they are pert near invisible!

P6273907ecrSMALL.jpg

I made a large print of this one and it was auctioned at the state beekeepers association meeting one year. Good clean fun!

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

+ on the Golden Rain Tree for honeybees and other beneficials. We have one that now is big enough to bloom and a neighbor a few doors down has a magnificent one. Now that we keep bees, I'm thankful on their behalf for that nice June treat!