Tag Archives: Gila Woodpecker

Birds Plus More Surgeries

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I was so excited to capture this photo of Red taking off the Ocotillo!

I’m going to the Bay Area to take care of my daughter post shoulder surgery. She has a repetitive use injury from swimming from kindergarten through college. Her practices in college added up to 12,000 yards of swimming per day.

I’ve been especially nervous and haven’t been sleeping well. There’s a back story to that, besides the anxiety and worry. (Ever since our last thunder and lightning storm our house alarm has been going of at 3 a.m. Now that I figured out how to get it to stop, my body is programmed to get up at 3 a.m.) Once awake, I worry about my upcoming trip and my daughter.

Mrs. giving a side-eye to another bird at the birdseed block.

I had an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon to take a last look at my ankle. I discussed my other foot with the doctor. My first visit to her was about the left foot, but she discovered my “sprain” was a break in the right ankle — and I was scheduled for emergency surgery.

Now we’re back to the original issue and I’ll have surgery after taking care of my daughter!

Here are more photos from my backyard buddies:

Gila woodpecker taking a turn on a flamingo.

I learned my chipmunks are really Harris Antelope Squirrels! Who knew?

Red’s turn on the flamingo.

The Beavertail sculpture is another favorite perch for Mrs.

This father quail keeps watch over his flock from the tree.

Red ignoring both flamingos and other backyard birds.

I’m afraid I’m at that age where my future will be lots of doctor visits. Hopefully no more surgeries.

Which photos do you like?

How is your week going?

Seeing Red

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Now that I’ve been home for a few weeks, I’ve been enjoying photographing my backyard birds. I find it relaxing as well as rewarding. Red and Mrs. stop by several times every day. I think I have another male cardinal, too. At first I thought it was Red, but this guy is a little chunkier and has a dark gray spot on his beak.

How can I be sure if there’s another male, because Red and the other guy are never in the backyard at the same time. Last spring, I saw two red Cardinals chasing each other, flying at full speed over our house. That’s the only time I saw two males together.

This one is definitely Red. See there’s not a gray mark on his beak. The photo below is the imposter Red. Or, it might be Red with a bruised beak. My first few days home, I took photos of this guy, thinking it was my Red.

Here’s Mrs. on a planter at the edge of our fence.

I was pleasantly surprised with this finch photo because of the sharp detail on the barrel cactus.

The birds love their perch on a flamingo.

Here’s a view looking out the casita window with my telephoto lens set at 80mm instead of 400mm I use for closeups of critters.

I haven’t seen the cardinal with the gray spot on his beak lately. So that brings the questions of the day:

Do you think I had an imposter Red? Or, did Red bruise his beak and now it’s healed?

What’s your opinion and why?

JoyRoses13 from Nuggets of Gold wrote a fun story on her blog using my photos and another photographer’s. You can read it HERE.

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?

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?

Week Seven of Photography Class

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Red made it into my week seven assignment. This was shot with a 55-200mm telephoto lens.

My homework this week was about lens perspective. I learned about lens speed, focal length and how my different lenses can be used. Whew! A lot of stuff there.

The assignment was to take or download from the interwebs two photos with a short focal length lens. The “kit” lens of my camera is 18-55mm, so I set my wide angle photos at 18mm which is the shortest focal point.

This is my wide angle shot at 18mm. It’s of our backyard outside the fencing that keeps the wild critters away — or at least some of them. If you compare this photo to Red’s, you can notice the difference in the depth of field. Red’s photo looks like the wall is right behind the fence. In the photo below, I was standing against the outside of the fence. It was taken at a focal length that makes the distance look further away. The real distance is at what we see with our own eyeballs, more in between the two but closer to the photo below.

This is my wide angle view of the nature’s preserve across the street from our home.

The next part of my assignment was to take two photos with a normal focal length. I used the same lens, but set it to around 50mm. Notice the difference of the photo below and photo above. The photos were taken only a few yards apart, but the photos are different due to focal length of the lens. Look at the mountains below compared to those above. They are the same mountains, shot from the same distance.

This is the entrance to our neighborhood. I picked a great day for photography because of the dark sky and clouds.

The third part of my week’s assignment was creating two telephoto long focal length images. My photo above of Red is my first example. I like using my telephoto lens to capture birds and wildlife. I also like the shallow depth of field that includes a fuzzy foreground or background with the emphasis on the subject.

I had taken a shot of a Gila Woodpecker in the tree and had completed my photography for the day. Then lo and behold, Mr. Harris’s Hawk stopped by for a visit. But after looking at the two photos, I’m going with the woodpecker. It’s a cleaner looking shot with less distraction in the background.

I’m enjoying this class because I’m learning new things. It motivates me to take a look around me and see things from a new perspective.

What’s going on with you that you find motivating or interesting to learn?

Do you think I made the right choice with the woodpecker photo?

Nesting time

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This past weekend, I was fascinated watching two mourning doves flying in and out of a bush in our backyard. They would fly up to the bush, sit on a branch and then disappear inside. They were carrying twigs and grass in their beaks.

I got the photo above before scaring the birds to the top of our pergola.

One of the doves kept guard from the top of the pergola before continuing the chore of building their nest.

I wanted to get a picture of the nest, but this is what I saw when I got up close:

Do you see the dove roosting in her nest? Her eye is to the left of the vertical branch. I backed off after snapping a photo. I don’t want to scare them away. That was quick work in building the nest!

Last year, I discovered quail eggs in a large planter next to our garage. The quail must have laid eggs while we were out of town. Once we were home, I noticed quail flying out of the planter whenever I opened the garage. I looked in the planter and discovered quail eggs, but mom and dad quail were scared away. The eggs never hatched.

I don’t want that to happen with the mourning doves. So, I’ll try to stop myself from taking more pictures!

A Gila woodpecker goes in an out of a saguaro nest in our backyard. All the holes were most likely made by woodpeckers. When they leave their nests, other birds move in.

I love watching birds in my empty nest.

What nests have you noticed in your neck of the woods?