More VERMIN pics ...

This fella has surely been 'around' our place here, but it's only been this Spring .. that we've actually seen him AND managed to get pics of 'im, to boot !!! .. Yay!! ..

the undeniable, Red Headed Woodpecker

Pic #2 .. one more of the Red Headed !!

Pic #3 .. a thirsty Chipper!!

Pic #4 .. She's got 'a bone to pick' .. Hee Hee

Pic #5 .. the Mourning Dove at/on the 'log' feeder !

These birds are 'supposed' to be .. ground feeders! HA!!

Pic #6 .. a Downy Woodpecker at/on the 'log' feeder!

ALL of the birds just love this ol 'alligator' Log feeder!! They put all of the splits and crevices in it, to MUCH HEAVY USE !!

I think the 'logs' are the primary reason that we have so many of the woodpeckers come and visit our bird feeders ... Especially the larger, such as the Red Headed!

Ahh, we've yet to have the Pilleated set down to it (that we've seen, anyway) .. but I'll give him more time! .. hee hee ..

I'll send a pic of the Alligator Log feeder .. in a bit !

GREAT pictures!!! How in the world do you get such great close-up shots? I can't even get a shot of my Daschunds to post on DG. Of course, I many, many shots of two little black noses when they run over to see what I'm doing just as I snap the pix. LOL
Pati

Great pictures Magpye!! I admire the close-ups...we often see Woodpeckers and Nuthatches but getting them to stand still for a close-up is a patient waiting game we haven't mastered yet. I love seeing (and hearing) the Mourning Doves. :)

Lovely pictures...that red headed woodpecker is really a handsome thing!!

Beautiful pictures, especially the woodpeckers that are old favourites of mine. Sadly we don't get any woodpeckers at all in Australia!

Love the close-up of the ground squirrel! They hate 'em around here but I think they are cute.

Here's that pic .. of the Alligator Log (feeder) ...

:D

I'm still diggin' around for my coon and coyote pics. I've got like some quadrillion some where 'round here!! hee hee

In the mean time .. perhaps 'these ones' (as a Texas grand daughter says!) .. will do ya >

The first one is probably one of my most 'favrites' .. hee

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #2

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #3

Some of our 'vermin' actually come up on to the front porch .. and stop short of givin' us an out and out hollerin' demand to "FEED US!" ... hee .. I knew that no one would believe me - till I showed you the proof. Welll, here ya go >

(and to think; she was a little 'momma' .. that had to come up and grab our attention!) I felt sooo badly .. hee

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #4

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #5

Best shot of any deer so close to the house .. (taken a year or so ago) ..

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #6

.. Eastern Blue Bird fledgling ..

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #7

.. and another one, out in the driveway ..

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #8

.. In the winter, especially during snow blizzards; the ol Alligator Log feeder is much 'a buzz' with bird activity !! ..

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #9

A pic or two of our old faithful lil Heinz 57 variety mutt (but he's got Jack Russell terrier in thar somewhar!) ..
This is our .. 'Snake alertin', bunny lovin', squirrel chasin', yotie wanna-be' dawg!! .. hee hee ..

Our P'nut man .. loves the snow !!

'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #10

Now, tell me .. if this isn't a face a body's jes gotta luv!!!

P'nut .. up close .. and very personal .. hee hee ..

LAST OF - 'These ones' will do ya for .. Pic #11

These, aren't in our front or back yard .. (but I'm hopin' one day to spyball one closer in to us!!) Ha!!

This is a herd Elk in Boxley Valley .. about 20 miles or so from us!

Those chipmunks are too cute, Magpye! No wonder you love them so much. Thanks for the picture of the bluebird fledgling. I have never seen a picture of one. I still have never seen a bluebird in person either. I did try really hard to find one with my new binoculars when I was in Oklahoma last weekend. My friends, the new owner's of the land, said they had seen a few out there.
...and, P'nut's a cutie pie too!

That is one cute doggie, looks like a little warewolf! Love all your pictures.

Here's one other 'chipper' pic .. was trying to give some idea of just how 'comfy' they were becoming with me! Of course, I DID have the feed cup in hand too! And they definitely know what's comin' when I give it a 'shake' or two ...

One of our lil 'buddy' crawlies .. the King Snake!

Even P'nut knows this little guy poses no harm (to 'us' human beans anyway)! ..

It looks like he'd been having it relatively ruff for a spell tho'. Looks a mite bit 'bruised' to me. We'd hope we'd not unbeknowns and accidentally caught him with the mower any, at some point ... Ee-ouch!

Could be because he was having to pull himself up thru this little t-ninecy hole in the mortar between the large rocks!

He was definitely starting to shed his skin tho' .. Ya can easily tell by the opague covering over his eyes! Also, in some of the other pics .. you can see areas/patches on his body, where the skin was beginning to fall away ...

Sure nuff .. a few days later .. we found a portion of his shed skin laying in the same area! He'd been using the edge of the rocks and some of the rougher dying stems of some of my perennials to rub and pull against ...

The pic here .. shows him lying beside the very little hole of whence he came!! ( .. Uhh huh, I hear ya - I thought the very same thing - 'that hole's much too wee small !!') It seemed to be a very tedious, slow, and careful exit .. but he did!! .. LOL ..

One of our lil 'buddy' crawlies .. the King Snake! .. Pic #2

.. I move a wee bit closer to him ..

One of our lil 'buddy' crawlies .. the King Snake! .. Pic #3

.. still a bit closer .. NO zoomin' in yet!! ..

Wonder if it feels as good to him to get out of that skin as it does to a woman getting out of a tight girdle! LOL
Pati

WOOPS, showing my age, women don't wear girdles anymore, do they? Should have said tight jeans, some of them are TIGHTER than girdles. LOL

This message was edited Aug 5, 2004 11:30 AM

One of our lil 'buddy' crawlies .. the King Snake! .. Pic #4

.. Scootin' jes a wee tad bit closer to him ...

Hey, give a person a little warning. Opened up the picture and almost fell off the chair. I bet you just did that on purpose! LOL
Pati

One of our lil 'buddy' crawlies .. the King Snake! .. Pic #5

.. Mmmmmm, he apparently is seeing, rather smelling or TASTING 'me' in the air - for he's turned his head directly toward me.
Yeppers! THIS .. is where I shall no longer scoot any further in his direction, and shall use the ol trusty optical ZOOM feature!!! .. LOL ..

Sortee maybe pressin' my luck a tad bit here .. I mean he haint gonna bite and chew me up .. and he wouldn't and couldn't kill me!! HAHH hee hee! He wouldn't have to - for I'd most surely have died from the heart attack I'd have had - should he have happened to have made any quick movement what-so-ever!!!!!!!

Got one more pic ... after this one.

END .. Our lil 'buddy' crawlies .. the King Snake! .. Pic #6

Hee hee .. It was revealed a bit later, that the lil King snake .. apparently, had a 'roomie'!! This slug came crawlin' himself up out of the same little hole . . .

I tell ya .. I'd lost money for sure, if I'd have wager'd any $ on a bet - that snakes eat slugs. And, they most probably do! .. But, seems these two were buddies !!
.. LOL LOL ..

Magpye, a great set of pics. I get Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Downy Woodpeckers on my feeder. Red Headed Woodpeckers are scarce, if they even exist, in our area.
I''ll trade you one Pileated Woodpecker for a Red Headed Woodpecker.

I saw my first wild Elk, in Pennsylvania, last year. They were re-introduced to PA in 1937 and have expanded to a sizeable herd. Is Elk hunting allowed in Arkansas ? I see two (2) Bull Elk in the photo. Give them time and they will range closer to your home.

If you don't mind saying, what kind of camera do you use ? Despite my photos of the Pileated Woodpecker which you have seen, I am dissapointed with the zoom capability and quality and need to find a new digital camera. Absent an excellent zoom feature one loses alot of opportunities to get excellent photos of wildlife. I am getting too old and can't wait for that shot of a lifetime. I want it now !!!

Thanks for sharing . . .

Hi Linthicum ... (sorry) .. just found this post from you.

The Red Headeds' have apparenlty been around .. but it was only this Spring, that he allowed us to KNOW we've got 'em!! hee hee And, he (rather, they're) so dang'd leary .. the few sightings we've had here on the log feeders, have been just a royal blessing! Several weeks ago, we realized that they must've been nesting not so far away from us, for we'd spotted a new'un (juvey), come to the log feeder also! Knew he was a youngun, because his head was a wee bit disproportionate to the rest of his body.. and he was far too white and clean on his undersides. Figured he haint been subjected to much tree huggin' yet! hee

Besides, we caught the wee glimpses of (2), on one occasion! Haven't actually 'seen' any of them in a little while to date, tho' ... But we've been rather busy also! No tellin' how often they're coming and going unbeknowns to either of us.

Like you .. we have the Pilleateds also, but none not ever so 'deb-on-air' (ha!) .. as your WW!!! .. That feller just really takes the cake, and then some! .. LOL

I gotta tell ya tho' ... when a critter presents himself, to you .. as WW had .. geez, don't risk makin' too much of a fuss.. about the zoom, or lack of!! .. hee hee ... You've attained some fantastic shots that many folks .. and pro's, alike .. would crawl to the ends of the globe for!
If you don't mind my asking the same of you - what camera do you currently have and use?
Some excellent shots Linth .. whether one wishes to liken it to 'luck', or not! Just some absolutely fantastic shots that you and your camera have managed to pull off!!

Mine, is the Fuji S5000 .. my 2nd Fuji. My first was the S602 .. my 'baby'! It took a beating during shipment 'home' .. from some routine 'why is this?' in-warranty work from Fuji. Was insured, but could not find another anywhere .. and wasn't gonna pay no e-bay prices either, for a used, or otherwise! The S5000 was the closest I could come. I see now, that Fuji has recently came out with their S7000 (comparable) - there's more megapixel, but, they also cut back on the optical zoom!

Naturally, I, (like most any other folk would do) .. would be so inclined to recommend 'my' Fuji to you. You already know this, surely .. but, just in case: do your cyber 'leg' work, and shop, compare, read, and compare some more. You know what features you require, need, and want .. along with what you are able, or are willing .. to pay for! You'll know YOUR new one, when ya find her! The 'camera' does indeed 'make' the photographer .. and, can 'break' him too, of any auspices to attain higher ('achievements', I mean!) hee hee

You know, you could maybe give WW directions to get here tho' .. these Pileateds up here, won't even consider comin' near enuff, let alone .. be still long enuff .. for me to get a bead on 'em .. with my cam'ra!!! .. hee hee Lots of 'em here. We're constantly rousting them up, while going up to the garden, or further 'up' to fetch our snail mail!! Geez, they are a beautiful and magnificent huge bird !! And 'good luck' ... in your camera shoppin' endeavors!


This message was edited Aug 13, 2004 12:33 AM

Thanks, Magpye for all of the info . . . I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist and therefore rarely satisfied with my finished product. I have a fairly large collection of daylilies (almost 300) and have used my digital camera mostly taking pics of my collection. For that purpose, it does an excellent job. But then, only under proper lighting conditions. I generally only take pictures of my flowers between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. (before the sun hits them directly) or on cloudy or overcast days. If you visit my homepage here on Dave's Garden you can see some of these photos. I have just started putting some of them in the "plants database".

I have had an Olympus 3000Z 3.2 megapixel digital camera for 3-4 years. It has a 3x optical and a 2.5x digital zoom. The lens starts at 6.5mm and increases to 19.5mm at 3x. If I compare that to my SLR 35mm camera, I would need to get about an 8x optical zoom to equate to my normal 50mm lens. I assume I am looking at this comparison correctly ???

I find the digital zoom totally worthless without a tripod. The pictures that I took of the Pileated Woodpecker were all taken at 3x optical zoom. Of course the size of the subject comes into play along with the distance. Obviously, I was able to get pretty close to him. However, I have been taking recent pics of my hummingbirds and totally displeased with the quality. I have been shooting most of them from 6-7 feet but have gotten as close as 3 feet. I may have gotten a few that are "acceptable" out of the almost a hundred that I have taken. Of course, the subject is a lot SMALLER.

I have been hesitant to spring for another camera until I'm confident that it will produce the results I am looking for. I have been leaning toward the SLR digital camera features with interchangeable lens. But then you are talking $1,000 to $1,500. I have never tried the remote feature on my camera w/ tripod but will try that next. I gotta get ONE excellent close-up photo of the hummingbirds this summer !!!

I will look at some of the cameras amd features that you have listed. I have also been looking at the Olympus 8080. I will also look at the Fuji S5000. I don't know enough about cameras to answer my question as to why Digital Video cameras have much more powerful zoom lens. I was able to take lots of video ("had the shakes" ) of the Pileated Woodpecker and hope to snare a few individual frames from it, if I can.

Thanks, again for your response.

Had the youngest daughter and her family out visiting over the weekend ...
This pic is of a couple of deer that my sonnylaw spyballed 'super' early yesterday morning, while sitting on our front porch with his coffee!
The two had been feeding just below the garden, on the hill side! They eventually dropped down onto our upper driveway, and proceeded to the lower part of the loop, and on down and into the woods. A young buck and a doe ....
He was some kind of thrilled to be able to see them .. and more so, to be able to slip back inside, to fetch their camera and get a few pics!!
It's this daughter and her hubby that now have and are totally enjoying 'mommas' ol heavy Sony Mavica FD-95 - with the 4X floppy drive!!! She's still a clickin some mighty fine pics!!
Me? .. Oh, I was still in the bed of course (at that time of the mornin'!!) .. and took far too long to get it all up and goin' to fetch my Fuji! I did manage to get off one shot from the porch some several 'TOO many' minutes later .. But, just as 'luck' has it; in my old dumb pic .. the buck is just barely visible from behind a Redbud tree ... and only 'I' know he's there! .. LOL .. LOL .. Just mitey proud for him tho' ... (wellllll, I truly am!) .. {Blimey!!} .. hee hee ..

'Chipper' pics .. Think they may know something, that we don't ? ... Pic #1

They've been loading up and packing off whatever amounts they can shove into their cheeks!


This message was edited Nov 21, 2004 8:10 AM