Wildlife & Related

[hatidua]

Seven cows. Sinclair, WY.

[hatidua]

View from my driveway, five minutes ago:

[Irving]

Have you moved?

[Irving]

Some finches built this nest inside this thing we have hanging on our front porch.


Mom bird started laying eggs. She stopped at five.


All five hatched.



My wife and daughter have been watching the nest like hawks. At some point this weekend they informed me that they hadn't seen mom bird around for two days and they were going to take over. I told them to just leave it alone, but when it comes to animals, they won't have anything but 100% chance of living. So they got onto the internet and learned about hand feeding baby finches. They've been feeding the babies. I've seen the mom finch around, but not nearly as often. Apparently those babies have three mothers now. They actually seem to be doing well.


There is a small bird house about 3 feet away that has another pair of finches nesting inside. That one just has a very small hole, so we can't see inside, but if you put your ear up to it, you can hear another nest full of babies. So we have potentially 10 baby finches on our front porch alone. My neighbor (who built the birdhouse) has at least 12 more bird houses around his property. You can't go anywhere on our property without scaring a finch out of some hidey hole. Oh yeah, both nests were built with a significant portion of duck and chicken feathers.

I've been seeing bats out front every night for several weeks as well. I think I'd like to get a few bat boxes up. Between the bats and dragon flies, the mosquito population has really come down.

[hatidua]

Have you moved?

Sadly, no.

Ideally, I'd be posting photos from at least as far away as Wyoming, maybe further. Alas, I'm still in the same place.

(modern optics aren't half bad though)

[ChickNorris]

Northern Fucker. Oversize Woody the Woodpecker. Asshole bird who likes to wake people up at ungodly hours of the morning by drumming on a chimney for a couple months in the spring. Can also inflict many thousands of dollars in repair bills to siding.

We named ours Ferrous

[Hummer]

Back to the animal theme -

36" mirror on fly, last Tuesday:

Hatidua, I've enjoyed your black & white images. It leads one to focus on the depth and textures of the subject. This one's special. I didn't know there was a mirror carp, had to look it up. Exotic in North America apparently. I know there are big carp in the canals around Boulder. Where did you get that photo?


A few days ago I took some monochrome shots, by accident really. Here's a Spotted Sandpiper at 10,700 ft. elevation with part of Niwot Ridge in the background.

[hatidua]

Neat bird photo. Last time I was on Niwot ridge I was running for treeline to get out of the hail. That stuff hurts on bare skin!

The carp photo was taken in Wyoming, I tend to head north for most of my fishing. Mirror carp seem to be more common at the places I fish than other varieties. While I prefer the markings on a common carp, I'm not too picky.

Hatidua, I've enjoyed your black & white images. It leads one to focus on the depth and textures of the subject. This one's special. I didn't know there was a mirror carp, had to look it up. Exotic in North America apparently. I know there are big carp in the canals around Boulder. Where did you get that photo?


A few days ago I took some monochrome shots, by accident really. Here's a Spotted Sandpiper at 10,700 ft. elevation with part of Niwot Ridge in the background.

[hatidua]

Another mirror from 9am this morning -

[Irving]

Man, I really need to learn how to fish better.