Tag Archives: birds

What’s in a name?

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Red perched on an aloe statue in the backyard.

I’m going to share some bird and flower photos I took this week — after my story about a name — our last name to be precise.

We had trouble with a guy living in Southern California with the same last name. He also has an of initial of E — which is my first initial. To top that off, he shares an initial with my husband.

It was years ago when a collection agency called. I also got letters. Somehow they got us mixed up with this other guy with the same name and common initials who wasn’t paying his credit card bills. In the mail, I got a list of overdue bills from a collection agency — in the thousands of dollars — that they tried to collect from us!

This guy is 30 years younger than us. How could they mix us up? Well, I don’t think they cared. Our phone rang every day. The emails and letters kept coming with threatening messages. I kept calling back, sending letters, explaining it wasn’t us. It took about a year of headaches and stress to unwind this unfortunate mixed-up identity.

I googled the collection agency. Other people had experienced the same mix up and relentless calls and letters.

Forward seven or eight years to Monday this week, and I got an email from an attorney threatening to sue us for a $48,000 plus debt from a builder supply store. It was sent to me and one other email address — which belongs to the other guy!

Rather than go through a year of hassle, my husband forwarded the email to our attorney, who is telling them they are barking up the wrong tree.

Now for my favorite photos of the week:

A bird knocked this blossom off the top of a saguaro. I put it in a glass of water on my desk. I’m enjoying the beauty and taking photos of it.

Blooms at the tippy top of the saguaro. I found the blossom on the ground beneath it.

A House Finch captured eating Barrel Cactus blossoms in the morning light.

A Great Tailed Grackle makes his first appearance in our backyard.

Gila Woodpecker on a Beavertail Cactus yard ornament.

Red in the morning light climbing down a watering line from a planter. Wouldn’t it be easier to fly?

Mrs. in the BirdBuddy AI feeder with a real live bird buddy.

Have you ever had identity theft or mistaken identity? If so, what happened?

What’s your favorite photo from today’s post?

Spring has sprung!

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Throughout our neighborhood, the Palos Verdes trees are in full bloom. The bright yellow flowers against the blue sky are so gorgeous.

This is how beautiful our driveway looks right now. Most of the year, the plants are brown without blossoms.

Even the saguaro in our backyard is bursting out in blossoms. A Gila Woodpecker is taking advantage of the nectar from one blossom.

I took the saguaro photos Monday. Today there are seven blossoms. I’m taking pictures each day to see how the blossoming crown progresses.

This is the walkway from our driveway to our courtyard and front door. I have never seen it look so “Springy” before.

Then there’s RED:

I decided to take a few more photos of the saguaro blossoms for this post and guess who showed up? He landed right in front of me and started singing with all his might! I think he wondered why my camera was pointed at the cactus — and not him!

Here is Red singing his heart out! None of the photos today are edited, cropped or touched. My professor’s last words of wisdom for us this week was we can start editing in Adobe Photoshop — but it has a steep learning curve. I’m thankful for the lessons I’ve had with this professor and that he didn’t let us crop or edit — we had to be aware of what our photos would look like untouched.

Even the bees are buzzing today!

Happy Spring and thanks for going on my photo journey with me.

Perhaps it’s time to get back to writing and editing my manuscripts?

Red and the Mrs.

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I was thrilled to catch the lovebirds, Red and Mrs., spending time with each other yesterday morning. They appear quite cozy together, but I have a tough time trying to get their photo. I can take their photos separately, but even though they are spending more and more time together, as soon as I raise the camera they fly off out of sight.

Yesterday, my settings made the photo too dark. I have a habit of picking up my camera first thing in the morning, without noticing how I left the settings the day before. But with a little lightening and brightening, the photo looked better.

Now that Spring is in the air, I hope to see some little Reds along with baby quail. On the Next Door app for my area, people are posting videos of baby quail already. They are so adorable the way they follow in a line behind mom and dad.

I’ve noticed quail always come in pairs and like Cardinals, they mate for life. I wonder how common that is in bird land?

Two photos of Red and Mrs. — not together — but not far apart:

What do you notice in your area that tells you Spring is in the air?

Aches and Pains

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Red has been hanging out in the backyard. He’s often with the Mrs. Every time I try to get a photo of the two of them, they fly off. Once they were sitting together on a rock and I watched Red feed her birdseed!

I woke up yesterday with a sore neck, shoulders, back and hands. I attribute it to photography. I spent hours over several days working on my final project. Then, yesterday I went golfing with a friend. We haven’t been out for 18 months. We figured the lapse in time, because we drove to a public course with a driving range and were told the range is for members only. We asked when that happened and they said “17 months ago.”

Waking up today, my arms are hurting along with the other parts. No longer am I achy. I feel achy breaky.

I’ve completed my redo of my photography final, but the instructor threw in another twist. He added a research report due on Sunday. I’m supposed to find a photograph or photographer whose work has been taken out of context from the original intent. I’ve googled various phrases to try and find something.

I found an iconic photo of The Beatles with Muhammad Ali. The context is that it was during The Beatles first trip to the US after the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. Ali was known as Cassius Clay and he had an upcoming fight with Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston. Clay was 22 years old and not the famous person he would become. The Beatles wanted a photo with Liston but he refused. The Beatles publicist arranged the photo with Clay. Today, it’s a photo of some of the most famous people in the world. But back then, it was not.

I wrote it up, but I don’t think it’s really hitting the right note. Not so much out of context. So, back to research. If you have any ideas — I’ll be forever grateful!

Here are two photos with settings my photography instructor suggested. FYI, these aren’t part of my redo of my final project, just photos:

A Gila Woodpecker landing on the fence.

A House Finch on a cacti lawn ornament.

Any ideas for my research report?

What difference do you see with the new settings my instructor suggested, including the photo of Red above?

Birds and More

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This chipmunk was part of last week’s photo assignment. The photo is an example of Point of View. It turns out my sunken pool bar is good for more than bird photography. I like the perspective of being eye to eye with the critters.

For the assignment, I had to pick three out of severn composition techniques or aesthetics. My three were Point of View, Depth of Field and this one is called Centering. It’s a Century Plant stalk. The professor said centering is one of the most dissed aesthetics, but can be effective.

The House Sparrow photo shows off Depth of Field. I like how the background is out of focus and looks like an impressionistic painting. I had rarely noticed the yellow planter barrel before, but it’s finding it’s place in my photos.

Mr. Curve Billed Thrasher was another example of Depth of Field. I like how he pops out of the photo from the blurry background. He also shows an extreme dislike of my taking his picture.

Photos I took for fun:

Red gets his time in the limelight. But he’s been pretty flighty, even though he yells at me to fill the feeder every morning and afternoon, he doesn’t stick around for a lengthy photo session. The photo below has wispy aloe blossoms in the foreground that look ghosts or accidental lights. The focus was on Red.

However, there are other birds in the yard to photograph:

Gilded Flicker.

House sparrow.

Mrs. Red on the yellow barrel.

This quail reminds me of myself, facing a steep walkway.

My newest objective is to catch birds in flight. With a fast enough shutter speed you can stop their action. But I wasn’t very good at getting the whole Mourning Dove in the picture.

Which photos do you like and what’s your favorite of my three composition techniques?

Seeing Red

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1.

My dear friend Red.

I was walking outside to photograph cacti on the side of our driveway when Red called. I was focusing on the cacti when I realized that Red was singing to me! I looked up at him in the tree and said, “Hey Red!”

He took off in flight for the backyard. I ran into the house, grabbed the bag of bird seed and found him waiting for me on the fence by our Bird Buddy feeder. I filled it with birdseed and stepped away, but not too far. Red wasn’t scared. He cocked his head this way and that, watching me. I sat on a bench close by, ready to take more photos.

Darn! I thought looking down at my camera strapped around my neck. I wish I had my telephoto lens.

I stood up slowly, walked back into the house to switch my lens to telephoto. When I returned, Red was still there. I was closer to Red than I had ever been before to take photos.

Here are some of the better pics of Red:

2.

3.

4.

5. A series of three photos

6.

7.

I can’t tell you what an ethereal feeling it was to be so close to Red for yesterday’s photo session. I was shooting cacti and plants at different ISOs for this week’s photography assignment. Then Red showed up and I used him for my subject.

Do you have a bird or wildlife friend who you see often?

Which are your favorite photos of Red and why?

The Day After

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This is the view I enjoyed Sunday morning writing my morning pages and listening to birds sing. My Bird Buddy feeder is next to the furthest away saguaro along the fence. I took this photo with my iphone.

We had a week of clouds and rain — as photographed in Friday’s post.

Sunday morning, I woke up to sunshine and singing birds. I moved my coffee and notebook outside our bedroom to write my three pages. I began following Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” more than 10 years ago. Part of her process to inspire creativity is journaling three pages every morning. I’ve done it faithfully, only missing a handful of days.

Sunday night was the fundraiser I’ve been working on since December. While I’m writing this post a few hours before having to get dressed up — complete with make up that I don’t wear except for special occasions — I’m looking forward to it being over! I’ll have quiet time to enjoy my walks, backyard and sitting out reading by the pool. I’ll be able to breathe. I can’t wait!

What are you looking forward to?