Things with wings

This afternoon we are having our first snowfall. But this morning it was pleasant and, among other birds, a few chickadees appeared, picking at bugs and insect eggs on the bark of the trees.

Today's weather was okay but for the winds which were high and unpredictable. So this guy stops by for some peanuts, demands them, and gets a breeze up the arse. Strong toes.

The blue jays are around every day. When I open the door they recognise what's coming: peanuts, so they come down close.

Another picture from this morning's visitation by our local murder.

I think that this is one of the two first-year crows in a family that has been in our neighbourhood for a few years. It is the tamest of the lot but he (she?) still hangs back at some distance when the bluejays come down almost to my feet for peanuts. This crow is distinguished by the scattering of lighter feathers among its darker ones. I took the picture this morning as the crow waited for me to get back inside he door and stop blocking access to the peanuts. I went back in a moment later.

While waiting for my tea to steep, I see a flicker land on the neighbour's chimney. By the time I get the camera, there are two. When they saw me, they left.

I was coming back to the car in the supermarket parking-lot and noticed a young gull. He was going from car-top to car-top as people -- like me -- approached. My Balda CE35 was at hand. Fuji Reala 100 film, expired in 2007, shot at ISO 50.

I have not noticed this kind of bee, almost brown, around here before.

That -- Devil's darning needle -- is one of the local names hereabouts for what I usually call a Dragonfly, This one didn't stay still long enough for me to move a little to get all of him in the picture. Oh well. I got most of him. The first name I remember knowing was Horsestinger and that's what all the kids in my mid-1950s neighbourhood called them -- until one of the kids pointed out "They don't sting horses!" So then I heard the name I continue to use mostly, Dragonfly. No one bothered to say there were no dragons. We all understood metaphor.

A couple of days ago I watched for five or ten minutes as this crow played with his beer bottle top. He kept showing it to his friends and getting ignored by them. Eventually they all flew off, he with his toy.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

These are a parent (in the middle) and, I think, two new crowlets in our neighbourhood.

I think this is the same bird who showed me his back filled with fledging feathers two days ago. Today, he has a lot fewer, so he is looking more like an adult. But his neck is still skinny, and his face still shows signs of being a young bird.

So, I says to the young one out there bawling at her mother who's down below picking at the peanuts, I says, "Show us yer feathers." So she turns around, she does, and she puts 'em up.

A couple of hours ago, it was getting ready to rain and this cedar waxwings, with three others, had appeared in our garden to eat the leaf worms in the trees. I'm not sure exactly how many stops of underexposure I gave this picture; probably five. I had forgotten the camera was set at 1/8000 second and, even though the ISO was high (640) and the aperture wide open (f/2.8), it wasn't very bright out. So, it was badly under-exposed. When I first looked at the picture on my computer it was a black rectangle. I jammed up the brightness, cropt tightly, adjusted contrast & sharpening, and got this, which looks almost like the kind of pictures I like so much from expired film. So I gave it a frame.

I guess it is a little like young people learning heritage dances, like step dance or square dance, when a young crow starts to hop around on the line looking more or less like his dinosaur ancestors. This is one of, I think, three new additions to our neighbourhood murder.

For three or four days we've had three fledgling bluejays hanging around, learning from their parents how to beg for, eat, and hide, peanuts. This is one of the bolder ones.

In between heavy rain showers, the tamest of the blue jays came for something to eat this morning.