09 Wednesday Aug 2017
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I got some new photos of the Swainson’s hawks that nest near our home in Prescott. The other day I saw one of these on our porch. They are insectivores, likely it was hunting for grasshoppers or cicadas which are very numerous at this time of the year.
Here’s the pair together in a tree
On a branch
Landing
In flight
01 Tuesday Aug 2017
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Uh Oh. The bird feeder is empty again!
This time of year our bird feeders seem to be emptied very quickly. The seed eaters that visit our feeders have raised their young to the point where both generations are eating seeds.
26 Wednesday Apr 2017
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First good photo of a Swainson’s hawk for 2017. We have a nesting pair in Prescott, Az near the Prescott High School. This bird is atop the scoreboard of the baseball field.
10 Friday Mar 2017
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This is a western scrub jay, common in Prescott Az, taking a peanut from a peanut feeder. Scrub jays love peanuts, I had been putting some out on a platform feeder for several years. They will take all the peanuts you put out, they eat some by breaking the shells with their beak. What they don’t eat they cache (hide) for later.
Gary Gromer took this photo with two strobe lights and a Canon 5Dmk3 camera. He caught the moment when the bird plucked the peanut from the feeder while in flight. Earlier in the week I shot some photos with my Sony A6000 using ambient light, these did not turn out too well.
I bought this feeder at Jay’s Bird Barn in Prescott. We showed this image to the owner of that store, whose name is Eric (not Jay), and he asked for 3 prints which he is going to put in each of his 3 stores near the peanut feeders.
27 Monday Feb 2017
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The study, involving hundreds of people, found benefits for mental health of being able to see birds, shrubs and trees around the home, whether people lived in urban or more leafy suburban neighbourhoods.
Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170225102113.htm
