Wildlife On The Hill Playlist

I’ve been posting on my Facebook page allot so here’s some video’s to catch you up!

To see my photography postings check out my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Listen2Thea-Wildlife-Photography-More-236253616466167/

As always, enjoy your local wildlife and have a great day!   🙂

April 19th Foxy Lady and Her Babies

I was excited when I noticed a fox at the top of the hill and at first I thought it was playing with a woodchuck!

Then I realized, they were baby foxes just charcoal colored! What got me extremely excited was when I realized she had dug out a den right there, where I can sit at my computer looking out the window and watch them! Granted it’s a far reach even for my camera, but I’m going to try a longer lens tomorrow for hopefully clearer photos.

 

http://thea-creations.smugmug.com/Other/listen2thea-gallery/17024928_LdXXLZ#!i=3192519899&k=kPPwTKM

Rare Bird Sighting Evening Grosbeak

Rare Sighting-Evening Grosbeak Male

 I was surprised to look out my window and see this large yellow, brown , black, white, bird at my feeders–and then there were TWO!

I hadn’t ever seen these birds before so I was very excited! I’ve read my Birds of Western NY Book over and over again and so I’m familiar with everything in that book and knew I was seeing something rare for my area.

Hurricane Sandy had just gone thru the area so I thought perhaps it was blown in!

The large bill reminded me of the Rose Breasted Grosbeak which we have frequently, so I just did a search under Grosbeak and sure enough I found my new birds!

These colorful creatures are called Evening Grosbeak and they are males by the looks of it!
Learn all about the Evening Grosbeak at:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Evening_Grosbeak/lifehistory

Yellow brow markings look like a W

Size comparison

Backside Coloring

Male Evening Grosbeak

See the bird in action in this video I captured:

http://thea-creations.smugmug.com/Wildlife/Evening-Grosbeak-Sighting/26260094_g2nx7b#!i=2186577731&k=5d4JL4P

Do you have any migratory birds that come to your feeders in winter where you live?

 

Now, Listen to Thea and have yourself a Great Day!!!
~Thea 🙂

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Wretched Wrens

The Bluebirds haven’t stopped their tapping on the windows, although now sometimes they just sit on the window sill looking inside. I decided to check the nest as they seem to be paying more attention to what’s going on in my house than their own.

With heavy heart I’m sad to say there are only 2 out of the 5 eggs in it now. Perhaps that’s why they were tapping at the windows because they were upset their eggs had gone missing. I decided to check the Chickadee nest too and it was empty other than the nest itself. After carefully inspecting the ground around the nest I did find one Chickadee egg and one Bluebird egg that had a holes poked in it.

Bluebird egg 😦

Today I noticed a Wren going into the Chickadee’s house. Wrens apparently are known for destroying other cavity nesting birds eggs and even throwing babies out of the nest, but it is the first time it has ever happened here. Usually the wrens arrive first and pick their houses, but for whatever reasons, they arrived after the Bluebird and Chickadee already set up residence this year. Normally, you know me, I love all the birds, but right now I could wring the Wrens neck! There are plenty of empty birdhouses left around the property that they could have chosen.
I’ve been watching and I haven’t seen the Chickadee even going to the nest box anymore and I was so excited as it’s the first time one has nested in my birdhouses. And even more so, I’m concerned that the Bluebirds aren’t tending to the two eggs that are left in the nest. They seem to be checking all the birdhouses looking for their eggs or possibly to set up a new nest. And of course still spending a large part of the day tapping or just sitting and looking in my window.

I went to a website to see if there was anything I could do and there’s a video of a wren destroying eggs and another actually removing newborn Bluebirds from their nest. Luckily the home owner had a live camera in the bird house and happened to be watching it at the time it happened and they were able to go outside, find the baby bluebirds and place them back into the nest.

There were some suggestions I guess I’m going to have to try. The wrens already have two nest boxes occupied and after reading from the Sialis.org site I’m thinking part of the problem may be that we had to re-secure the post the wrens current bird house is attached to this year and when my husband did it he changed the direction slightly that the bird house faces-so that now the other birdhouses are in a direct line of sight. So I’m headed outside to see if I can rotate the post so the wrens birdhouse doesn’t face any other birdhouse.

Check it out the Sialis website for some interesting reading
http://www.sialis.org/wrens.htm

I’m hopeful that the Bluebirds will take care of their eggs or at least build another nest and that everything will work out. Right now I’m feeling pretty down though.

Human Flight…Experience The Experience

I just had to share these amazing videos or perhaps I should be calling them vimeos made by infinity.com and Betty Wants In.
I would love to be this brave, to experience it first hand but sadly I am not. But between the video and the music, I still get the adrenaline rush, the immense tingling in my temples and somehow the feeling that anything is possible in this beautiful world we live in.

Lights down, sound up, press play and then set video to full screen, now sit back and experience the experience!

Blessed With Birds

What a Spring! Rain, rain and more rain! One week of sunshine and back to rain, rain and MORE RAIN! I’ve had enough! But it hasn’t stopped the birds from coming out! This year I’ve had more birds than ever before.  I don’t just have a few Orioles this year….  I have a whole flock!

The Ruby Throated Hummingbirds are also here in numbers I haven’t ever seen before!

Check out their aerial flights defending ‘THEIR’ feeder! 😉
http://thea-creations.smugmug.com/Other/listen2thea-gallery/17024928_LdXXLZ#1296996264_6V84z7S-A-LB

I think having more birds actually is attracting other birds to see what everyone else is enjoying as I had synchronized aerial flying Pine Siskins come in for a quick bite before they took flight in  unison once again.

Here’s the male Rose Breasted Grosbeak: Did you know the Grosbeaks also like grape jelly?

And a special visitor–an Indigo Bunting!!! In the sun he is simply stunning!!!

Don’t forget to check out my live backyard birdie webcam here

As always, thanks for listening to Thea and have a Great Day!
~Thea

Listen2Thea’s Backyard Birdie Bonanza Live Webcam

**Would you like me to put the camera on a Robin’s Nest with 3 baby birds in it?**
Post a comment or send me an email and let me know!

Welcome to my LIVE Webcam!
During the next couple of days I’m going to be trying to adjust things for better viewing probably so bear with me but I’m thrilled it’s working so far! You can even watch it full screen if you wish! I’m trying to get a chat window to work but in the meantime, if you wish to chat with others that may be viewing you can do so by clicking on the words ustream on the player I believe and that will take you to the ustream website which makes this all possible!
I think the first time you watch it if you click the large play button ON THE SCREEN it will open up the ustream window but if you click the actual play button on the movie player it will play from my blog. I THINK this is how it works anyway! lol!
Camera:Logitech HD C910

It’s currently pointing out at our backyard and we have a lot of bird activity. Our ‘regulars’ are Chickadee’s, Downy Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, several varieties of Sparrows, Grosbeaks, Black Eyed Junco’s, Cardinals, Bluejays, Doves, Wrens, Titmouse, Pine Siskin, Nuthatches, Robin, huge crows. and our migrating friends that are here for the summer are Orioles, Bluebirds, Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. Rare birds(to my yard) that I’ve seen so far this year: Indigo Bunting, Red Winged Black Bird, Brown Headed Cow Bird pair Male & Female.

If this works out well I may even have to invest in a camera with a zoom to record the activity on the hill behind the pool where we have deer daily, turkeys and other wildlife as well.

***If you see ads on the video you can use an ad blocker to remove them. If using FireFox get AdBlock Plus as a free add-on.

Because I am new to this–I’m still trying to find what is the best settings for everyone. If the stream video doesn’ t work for you would you please leave me a comment and just let me know and what type of connection you have-for example:dialup, cable, etc.

Thanks!

~Thea

Click the little square on the right hand bottom side of the player to view in full screen.

Sorry friends the camera is temporarily down due to a malfunction> Enjoy some recorded video from the past week in the meantime. 🙂

Wildlife Waterpark Makes A Big Splash

Providing a water source in your backyard is not only beneficial to your wildlife but also to you!

After all, you get the pleasure of watching all the fun!

http://Thea-Creations.smugmug.com/gallery/17024928_LdXXLZ#1289033936_6jdK8wx-A-LB

♥Have a Great Day!♥
~Thea

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wildlife

I am a wildlife lover and have been observing the wildlife in our woods since we bought our property in the country.  So you know what that means???  I have too many pictures to choose just one! I was hoping momma Doe would grace us with presenting her fawns of this year before time ran out for this weeks submission but  she didn’t  so I’m submitting these at the last minute.

This picture of a Turkey Hen & Poults was captured with my Canon EOS 7D camera through our sliding glass door so I wouldn’t spook them as they walked up one side of our backyard. Thank goodness for my 400mm zoom lens!

Here’s a video of a Turkey giving itself a dirt bath taken with our old camcorder. Sorry for the shakiness but I didn’t have a tripod and it’s hard to keep the picture still when you’re zoomed out to the max.

http://thea-creations.smugmug.com/Other/listen2thea-gallery/17024928_LdXXLZ#1288632075_P3Pk22w-A-LB

If it doesn’t show up for you on this page you can view it here: Turkey Bath

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These photos were captured with our trail camera so we could see what the critters were up to when we weren’t around.

I was surprised to learn that different animals seem just fine being around each other. I’ve seen the deer hang out with turkeys, racoons, rabbits, woodchucks & skunks.

In this photo the fawn is running about and is too fast for the trail camera settings. I love the fact that you can see that the fawn had twirled it’s tail in a circle, even if it does look like a ghost fawn! 🙂

In this photo one fawn stands at alert as the other snuggles up with momma to browse for food.

Don’t you just love those spots! So adorable!!!

Hope everyone has a GREAT DAY!!!

~Thea

Plinky Ponders: What’s the most on fire you’ve ever been?

Topic #83

Brought to you by Plinky.com:

What’s the most on fire you’ve ever been? Figuratively, literally, whatever.

Dear Plinky,

I’m happy to say I’ve never literally been on fire, not that I haven’t singed the fine hairs off my hands while stoking the wood stove occasionally. I suppose I could write about the time I fell asleep on the beach and woke with a burn that left me colored like a bright red lobster. But, when I think of fire, I think about our yearly summer bon-fire party where my husband’s family travels to our home & camps out on the property in campers and tents.

After a long day of fun in the sun and good foods in our bellies, we gather around the camp fire.   As a tradition we always save our Christmas tree and place it on the bon fire to christen the first night.

If a picture says a thousand words then this video says it all

Thanks for Listening To Thea