Lin, I'm sure that is why. They are usually very friendly birds who are interested in everything I'm doing! They'll perch on the fence 3 feet from me, just to watch, and will often follow me around the yard. Today was different, and it made me laugh!

A few shots from today of some of our regular visitors

Male Red Bellied Woodpecker


Male Cardinal



Blue Jay

LOL Natalie, guess you better be careful for awhile!

Blue Jays are one of my favorites, nice pics Dave! I love hearing them and the crows in the morning.

a couple of the juvie oriole. It did finally come down and get some jelly. I think dad was very frustrated with it. It took several trips to finally accomplish success!





Blue Bird in the bath


The juvie Red-bellied




Just happened to look and there was my mystery bird. I think It is a great Crested Flycatcher.....seems to have some yellow on the belly. But not positive. Pics are a little fuzzy because I had to be quick!

It does indeed look like the Great-Crested Flycatcher! We have them here all summer long...As soon as the temps hit a consistent 85* plus...you hear there very distinct 'threep'! Love those guys! Great pics!

Couple more. Just playing with the camera and some different modes, settings and exposure in the late afternoon. I am a long way away from these guys so please excuse their quality. I have learned that you need really good light to get a good photo with this camera on full zoom. It has lots of capability if I can ever learn it all.

Very nice Dave! Did you get the Canon SX50 HS? That is the one that I have. I bought the cheat sheet for it at Amazon, but I need a cheat sheet for the cheat sheet! Also some very good reading glasses!

@Natalie Yes Natalie. I did buy that camera. I am slowly learning its capabilities. Some settings are just not where I would expect them to be so there is still a lot of trial and error for me. Thankfully it is very easy to take a bunch of photos using different settings and dump the failures.

If you haven't seen the cheat sheet, it may be helpful. It tells you how to get to the different settings easier. I still have a very long way to go with the camera, but I love it!

Here is a link to the cheat sheet.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NLU80Y/

It helps to know at least some basics, for the cheat sheet to make sense, but I'm working on that!

We got a Nikon D3200 which does a great job on auto to 200mm, but I need a cheat sheet and the time to study it. This is so different from my film SLR, I haven't tried my 500 and 1000mm manual lenses yet. It also does a much better job than the digital zoom.

One of the things that I like about the SX50 is that it is optical zoom. It does have a 2X digital zoom but I have that turned off on my camera. With the SX 50 zoomed at full potential (50X plus the digitial 2X), they say you can zoom 100X). 50X is enough for me. I need a tripod at 50X. Can not imagine focusing on a bird using 100X.

If you use the button on the side that holds the camera still for you, it's fairly easy to get a good zoom shot at 100X. But, I just don't like digital zoom. It isn't crisp like optical zoom is.

A pair of Goldfinches in the Redbud tree

Oh Natalie. I didn't know there was a difference. More learning.

A difference between what, Glen? Digital and optical? There is a huge difference between those two!

Does optical mean you have to buy a telephoto lens and haul it about?

My wife and I went to the Farmers Market (huge flower retail business in Springfield, Il) to obtain a sweet potato vine to add as a ground cover to a large pot of Gloriosas. As we were purveying the selections, Deby, my wife, was quite surprised by suddenly discovering 4 baby birds in a nest in the middle of a
hanging basket of ''Blackie' Sweet Potato Vine. She ran back to the SUV to get the camera; and this is what we got -

Glen, this should explain it better than I could
http://www.photoxels.com/digit...

What a cute little basket of baby birds! Rather crowded though! I bet that really startled your wife! Thanks so much for sharing those great pictures!

Thanks Natalie!!!!!

JM the nestlings are gorgeous.

I do miss my birds since the stupid raccoons tore up the feeders, but I have been enjoying all of your posts. My husband found this little guy in the rafters of the shed today. We think it may be a barn swallow.

Sweet babies, Jay.