My Little Chickadees

[Airedale1]

I love Black-capped Chickadees because they stick with us here in the Lakes Region throughout the entire year and they are fun to watch.

Here are two that I captured in our backyard last month.

[Winni-Retired]

Wow .. Outstanding !!!

What type of camera etc, are you using

[Slickcraft]

Thanks for the great photos.

We have a regular flock that empties two hanging feeders of black oil seed every day. Well they get a little help from other birds but the chickadees are the main customers. The feeders hang from a long wire between the house and a tree; we use a step ladder to fill the feeders. If the feeders had been empty, they make quite a fuss sitting right next to my head waiting for the full feeder to be hung. I can hear the flutter of many wings around my head.

A strange thing happened last winter, the chickadees never showed-up. We used less than two 50 lb bags of seed all winter for a variety of other birds. In prior winters we had used 4+ bags.

Well they are back this year and already almost two full 50 lb bags are history!

[Chickie]

Chickadees are definitely my favorite birds. When the snow is piling up outside my window and I know I am housebound for the day, they are a joy to watch and their distinct calls can brighten any winter day. They have an interesting “up and down” flight pattern and their friendly nature endears them to many a bird lover. I don’t usually put out my feeders until after Thanksgiving, but this year they (and the Cardinals) have been casing my place, so I relented. Picked up some sunflower seeds yesterday and filled a feeder in the afternoon. No takers appeared until this morning, but the Chickadees were the first to arrive for breakfast, followed by a few finches and a Tit Mouse or two. I haven’t seen the Cardinals as yet, but as they tend to be skittish birds it may take them a while. Thanks so much for those wonderful photos. Your photos are always outstanding.

[ILoveWinnipesaukee]

The Chicadee is definately a great bird to watch and knowing they are native here in New England gives more reason to celebrate and know that they are here to stay. Not sure if you have them up at the lake, but we also have what we call here in Massachusetts as snow birds, they are mostly black except for a white stomach. They love the same food that the chicadee loves.

Memories of my grandfather at his lake cabin calling the chicidees to feed on the railing of his deck brings back great childhood memories. Thanks for the pictures. What camera do you use>

[Airedale1]

Originally Posted by Winni-Retired

Wow .. Outstanding !!! What type of camera etc, are you using

Thanks all! I'm glad you enjoyed the images as much as I do. I used a Canon 7D to take those.

Both images were taken in our backyard on the same branch. It is a branch that I placed next to our feeders so that birds will be enticed to land on them prior to hitting the feeders.

We go through a ton of black sunflower seed here too and the squirrels get more than their fair share, but that is because I have to keep the feeders low to the ground in order to capture the images at a nice low angle with the solid background. I just sit still at our picnic table about 10 feet away and capture the images from there.

Below is an image of my "studio" set-up, note the branches placed to the right of the feeders. That is where they land when I take the picture.

[Pepper]

Originally Posted by ILoveWinnipesaukee

... Not sure if you have them up at the lake, but we also have what we call here in Massachusetts as snow birds, they are mostly black except for a white stomach. ...

The bird you refer to is the Dark-eyed Junco, one of my favorites! They, like the chickadee, are very social. One of their most entertaining behaviors is what I refer to as the snow-dance. If you sprinkle seed (preferably sunflower) on the deck or deck railings after a light snow, they will position themselves over a seed, and then hop forward and backward very quickly so as to clear the snow away from the seed. It's absolutely hilarious to watch!

Another bird to be on the look-out for this time of year is the Cedar Waxwing. They'll descend in large groups anywhere there are berries to be had. You'll know they've arrived when you hear their chorus of "tseeeee tseeeee tseeeeee". They're stunningly beautiful.

[Airedale1]

Originally Posted by Pepper

The bird you refer to is the Dark-eyed Junco, one of my favorites!

One of my favorites too. I took these about 3 years ago. This year we had a very large flock (over 100) in our yard about 2 weeks ago. They are very cute birds.

[RI Swamp Yankee]

How do you get them to smile and pose like that?

Fantastic pictures, thanks.

[ishoot308]

Great pictures!!

Thanks for sharing!

Dan

[ILoveWinnipesaukee]

Originally Posted by Pepper

The bird you refer to is the Dark-eyed Junco, one of my favorites! They, like the chickadee, are very social. One of their most entertaining behaviors is what I refer to as the snow-dance. If you sprinkle seed (preferably sunflower) on the deck or deck railings after a light snow, they will position themselves over a seed, and then hop forward and backward very quickly so as to clear the snow away from the seed. It's absolutely hilarious to watch!...

I know what you are talking about, we have a farmers porch on our home and live on the second floor. We through seed out the livingroom window all year round for the birds. We have trees right beside the house and the birds nest there and bring their babies over to the room to learn how to eat. The winter birds are wonderful, when the weather is cold and the ground is covered with snow, seeing the birds brightens my day. I will have to come up to the lake and check out the birds up there this winter. I hope to spend some time there when everything settles down after the holidays.

[Lakesrider]

I don't have a feeder due to the bears around here still, but I do throw out seed on the ground in my yard and saw those birds around all last week. Yesterday, None! ??

One more time...Most awesome pics. Very clear. Your book will be coming out when? Christmas. Great! I need a couple for Christmas presents. Just let me know where to get them. Really! I'm serious Dude. You need to put out a book.

[Greene's Basin Girl]

Originally Posted by Lakesrider

I don't have a feeder due to the bears around here still, but I do throw out seed on the ground in my yard and saw those birds around all last week. Yesterday, None! ??

One more time...Most awesome pics. Very clear. Your book will be coming out when? Christmas. Great! I need a couple for Christmas presents. Just let me know where to get them. Really! I'm serious Dude. You need to put out a book.

We have several bears, but we put our feeder out last week and haven't had a problem. I think our bears went nite nite!

[WinnDixie]

Your OUTSTANDING photography is one of the many things that make this such a great Forum. Thank you for sharing your work with us!! Lakesrider (who is no slouch, himself, at great pictures) is right. You need to do a book!

[Lakesrider]

I certainly hope he does do a book. I'm not good at bird identification at all, and his pictures are so clear, they kind of freak me out a bit. I was thinking of printing one, cutting it out and sticking it to my window, like there was bird out there.....