Tag: birding

Window Bird Feeder

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/2.5, 1/200 sec, ISO200
 “Carolina Wren” Cedar Park, 2020

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Several months ago, Mariko bought me a bird feeder that uses suction cups to stick to our home office window. It took a month or so before the birds discovered it but they now come daily to grab a few sunflower seeds. What’s really nice is that I can go right up to the window, and the birds don’t even notice me, so I can get a close-up view of them.

I thought today’s visitor was a Bewick’s Wren, but upon closer inspection, I noticed it had a lot of orange, so I’m guessing it’s a Carolina Wren.

I hope you had a great day!

またね～

Backyard Bird-Watching

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 135mm, f/1, 1/180 sec, ISO400
 “Black-Crested Titmouse” Cedar Park, 2020

Today I made a bird feeder to attempt to attract some Orioles. It’s basically an 1-foot long piece of scrap wood, held vertically, with a dowel-sized rod stuck through it to make a perch. I drilled two long screws through the board so that orange pieces can be skewered onto it. I don’t know if we’ll see some Orioles, but I’m optimistic!

In the meantime, we have our Black-Crested Titmice and Carolina Chickadees to enjoy. I shot a bit of video today using an old 135 mm Minolta lens attached to the Fujifilm X-T10. I hope you like the video!

またね〜

First Hummingbird!

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 135mm, f/1, 1/2000 sec, ISO3200
 “Hummingbird” Cedar Park, 2020

Within a day of replacing our fancy green hummingbird feeder with an inexpensive red feeder, we finally got our first ever hummingbird visit! It was so exciting to see and add to my life-list of birds (#26). How exciting!

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 55mm, f/4, 1/2000 sec, ISO5000
 “Hummingbird” Cedar Park, 2020
Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 55mm, f/4, 1/2000 sec, ISO5000
 “Hummingbird” Cedar Park, 2020

Birds of North America

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 135mm, f/1, 1/120 sec, ISO400
 “Bird” Cedar Park, 2020

Today’s photo is of a bird (a female house sparrow perhaps?) that has been frequenting the north-facing window. We’re not sure why it likes to come by, but the cats are very interested!

Speaking of birds, I binge-watched all the episodes of Birds of North America. This series hosted by Jason Ward is excellent! Each episode is interesting and the topics are surprisingly varied. Definitely worth watching!

I hope you had a great day. またね～

Lunch Break Birding Webinar

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO1000
 “Webinar” Cedar Park, 2020

Normally I try to take my work breaks away from the computer/office, but there was an birding webinar happening at noon, so I decided to just cut down my work to 10% and give 90% of my attention to the webinar. Just kidding. If it were only that easy! What actually happened is that I worked when the webinar wasn’t as interesting, and then switched over when it got better.

All-in-all, it was a nice birding webinar, with a several nuggets of good and interesting information. For instance, when using binoculars, first look at the bird and then without moving your gaze, bring the binoculars up to your eyes. The idea being that you are just putting the binoculars between your eyes and the bird, rather that looking into the binoculars. It’s a subtle difference, but very helpful! And that bit of info took all of 10 seconds of explanation. Amazing!

I hope you had a nice day. 😊