While going through some old slides the other day, I ran across this image of a baby Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) that was taken in my front yard a few years ago.  Not sure exactly when it was taken, but I’ve been shooting digitally since 2004, so it was before then!  I scanned the slide (I have a rather cheap scanner, so the quality is not the greatest) and thought this would be a fun slide for a Friday post.  So, here it is:

As you can see, “Junior” still has his down coating, which gives him an appearance of having “a bad hair day”.  In fact, every time I look at this shot, the image of Albert Einstein comes to mind!  This photo was taken using Fuji Velvia (ISO 50) film, a Canon EOS-1n film camera, and a 500mm f/4 EF lens.  I possibly even had a 1.4x teleconvertor attached (that’s the nice thing about digital photography, you can always look at the accompanying file data and determine exactly what was used to make the image!).

I found this little guy in the nest while I was mowing.  As I mowed around a very large Eastern red cedar, I observed both a male and female Cardinal would alternately fly from the tree whenever the mower got close.  After a few rounds of this game, I parked the tractor and walked over to the tree.  As I carefully moved some branches to the side, I saw a neat little nest that was a couple of feet from the tree’s perimeter.  And inside the nest was “Junior”.  Being careful not to scare the youngster, I let the branches fall back into place and continued my mowing.

Later in the day, after the mowing was done, I decided I wanted to try photographing Junior in his nest.  But I didn’t want to frighten Junior.  So I grabbed a portable blind I sometimes use and headed out to the cedar tree.  Once there, I carefully positioned the blind so that I would have a clear shot of Junior, being careful not to get the blind too close.  Then I headed back to the house, leaving the blind in place for Junior and his parents to become familiar with.  On the following day, I headed out to the blind with my camera, tripod, and blind stool.  After setting up the tripod and camera, I began photographing Junior as he sat in the nest, looking about (I think he could hear the camera shutter as I photographed him).  After about 15 minutes, I quietly exited the blind with my camera gear.  And later in the day, I removed the blind.

Since that time, the nest no longer resides in that tree; it most likely either fell down during high winds or was possibly removed by a predator.  In any event, I will always remember my 15 minutes babysitting with Junior!

By the way, no birds were harmed during the photographing of this cute little bird  :o)

(Pied-billed Grebes swim out of the fog)

Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) at sunrise

On my kayak outing this morning, a sure sign of spring was observed, the return of the cheery, little warblers!  I had been anticipating this day for the last couple of weeks, but was unsure when they would start returning, as our weather has certainly been up-and-down, like a roller coaster lately.  It started while I was camped out about 50 feet from the beaver lodge, shooting the beavers as they moved about the water.  I heard a familiar ”trilling” song!  Although the vegetation on the bank of the creek is still sparse, I could not locate the little guy.  After some time, I decided to move to a more secluded area, out of the pesky wind.  No sooner than I had backed the kayak into a little nook and dropped anchor, one of the little guys flew into a tree right in front of me, a Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata)!

For those new to birding, warblers are small songbirds that typically eat insects.  Often, they are very difficult to identify due their small size, their quickness, and are often obscured by vegetation (these same characteristics also make them more difficult to photograph!).  I’m no expert on the warbler, but I started photographing them a couple of years ago, after I began kayaking.  This is a perfect way to see warblers since they usually inhabit areas surrounding water, such as creeks, lakes, coastal thickets, etc. 

Now that I know the warblers have started arriving, I will concentrate on photographing them.  In addition to the Yellow-rumped Warbler, other warblers that may inhabit my area include the Yellow Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, Yellow-throated Warbler, and the Cerulean Warbler, although I don’t often see some of these species.  As these species move in, I will continue to post images I obtain.  To start, here are a couple of the Yellow-rumped Warbler that I got this morning, from the kayak:

This little guy flew right out in front of me as soon as I anchored the kayak

And then, began singing for me!

(Air bubble on the water surface, shot from kayak)

Most of my photographic subjects are birds.  One of the reasons is because we live along the Mississippi Flyway and, consequently, get lots of different birds as they migrate south in the fall and again as they migrate north in the spring.  But we do have a lot of other interesting wildlife in the area.  This post is about the Gray Treefrog, which is Missouri’s most common species of treefrog.  They may be gray, greenish-gray, or brown.  The inside of each hind leg is washed with yellow-orange.  Large, adhesive toe pads are present on fingers and toes.  Although these forest-dwelling species live in wooded areas, they breed (late May and early June) in fishless, woodland ponds.  Gray treefrogs are typically 1-1/4 to 2 inches in body length.  And their camoflouged body, along with their small size, often make them hard to readily spot. Their call is a bird-like “trilling” sound.

Living in a wooded area, we have the joy of finding these small beauties every spring/summer, around our house.  In fact, we often see them seemingly glued to our windows, using their adhesive toe pads to cling to the exterior surfaces for long periods of time.  Or we sometimes spot one on our front porch or back deck. I just observed/photographed the First of Season Gray Treefrog last night.  I have our pop-up camper set up in our driveway for maintenance.  As I walked by, I saw what looked like a “blob of mud” in a small alcove.  As I reached in to remove it, it moved!  I then realized what it was, so went inside and fetched my camera.  Here is the little guy: