Pair of Varied Thrush Birds

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Pair of Varied Thrush Birds




Meet the Varied Thrush birds of the Pacific Northwest. The Varied Thrush have been showing up along with other wintering birds for a couple years now!



The Varied Thrush are supposed to be rather shy birds, I guess as shy as any other bird who shows up here at the house? The Varied Thrush are not a bird that shows up at the feeder! So perhaps this is why they are called shy??



The one in the back of this photograph above I feel is the male, more flashier of the orange, the bird in focus is not so rich in color. I feel the front one is the female AND was noisier!



As seen in the above photograph!



The two did separate , the flashier colored one came closer to me so this is who is in the next couple of shots of this series. What the birds are looking for are apples, small ripe apples! Some years we have tons of them from the neighbors tree. Our walking path are full of the apples at curtain times of the year! This is what the Varied Thrush are here for , the fruit.



You can see the small apples here and there in many of these photographs.



This series of photographs was taken in February of 2014. Here it is Dec. of 2014 and ALL these apples are gone!! Several causes really, the main cause of the apples being gone now is this crazy weather we have had!! Bitter early cold, snow sent birds into early stress looking for food. The birds who already know of our home have hit everything hard!! Our flowering fruit tree has been bare for sometime, all the garden has been eaten up, and the neighbors tree here. Though we do have people living in this home now and they did trim and clean up under the tree and the tree really needed trimmed badly!! It was snapping under the weight of the apples and the snow, even on their roof!!



The pair of Varied Thrush really were not that far apart at all times. Far enough apart of course I could not get them in the same shot at all times however. Both the birds new I was there, I am not that quiet!! The other one did get very close, though I had just to much brush in my way. You can see I am not jumping up and down for the bird to see me!!



As you can see from the photograph above, I think I was making perhaps to much noise getting this one attention?



I have noticed while watching the Varied Thrush that the Robins and them do not get along. Robins will run off the Thrush! On this day there were not to many Robins around. There were also two Varied Thrush and not just one here too!



You may have noticed just how pretty these Varied Thrush really are! Other then the fruit barring tree's the Varied Thrush are found in our tall pine tree as well. Maybe eating the pine cone seeds? I am sure there are insects in the tree as well?? It is hard for the snow to get where I have watched the Varied Thrush.



Back to what I feel is the female. Not as colorful. While the male got my attention where he was, she was in the garden . I did see her around the Spotted Towee and the pile of sunflowers where one of the Towee's liked to go.



I do have a rather large series of shots of the Varied Thrush so I will make the photograph above the last shot. If you get a chance to see one of the beauties in real life gosh, do not pass up the opportunity to watch their behavior!

Thank you for coming by and checking out some of the photographs I got on this day of the pair of Varied Thrush birds here at home in the High Desert of Oregon!

Finch Fledgeling Begging For Food

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Finch Fledgeling Begging For Food




Meet the wild Finches! This is the first one who got my attention! The Finches are year round song birds here at the house! The fledgeling ( baby ), is the one in the background.



The Fledgeling baby and the adult are hanging out, with a junco bird in the background.



The Fledgeling baby Finch does come to the feeder , garden, ponds all by itself. Though as you see here begging from dad as well!



You can see the male is doing his best to provide the youngster with something to eat!













The youngsters are never happy!!

Birds are fun to watch and photograph and I do both quite a lot!! Thank you for coming by and seeing my little series of shots!

Harris's Sparrow Bird in The High Desert of Oregon

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Harris's Sparrow Bird in The High Desert of Oregon




I want to introduce you to a new bird, for me as well! Meet the Harris's Sparrow! Sometimes we have visitors show up here who are different! This pretty bird showed up with the White Crowed Sparrows, obviously not a white crowned sparrow!





The White-Crowned Sparrow fledgeling flew off and it just seamed to me this Harris's Sparrow was hanging with it on the dog kennel fence. The Harris's Sparrow flew up into the tree and I just kept on snapping photographs of it! Pretty bird dont you think?



This set of photographs is from March of 2014. I did not have to much time to watch this Harris's Sparrow on this day, it just was not here for long!





As I was going through this file I first named the files just "sparrow bird", for I new it was a sparrow. That is it though.... Then went to the open web. "Sparrows found in Oregon". Easy enough to just head to the State of Oregon Sparrow webpage !





From what I read about this loner , "he", must have been heading more East and just stopped in for a rest?



The common birds here were not even sure of what to make of this new visitor here at the house! Notice all the birds around the Harris's Sparrow?? Other then the shots of the fledgeling (baby), White-Crowned Sparrow no other bird was photographed around this Harris's Sparrow. Interesting I thought.....



Another thing we all have to keep in mind, this is nature ie wildlife. Who knows what is going to show up where? Sure logical guesses from those who do nothing but study such things...... when it comes to nature and wildlife, nothing is set in stone!



I am grateful for the critters who do show up here at the house in the High Desert of Oregon. It makes my day to day routines worth it!

Thank you for coming by my photographs of the Harris's Sparrow!

Verbena Flower Blooms

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Verbena Flower Blooms




Meet the Verbena Flower. Some folks may know them called other names? I need some color who knows you may as well?





We grow our Verbena in a large flower pot in direct east sunlight. The flowers do well in this direct sunlight, the camera does tend to throw a fit in this sunlight. We have not tried the Verbena directly in the ground.



Verbena comes in all kinds of colors! Some of the blooms when they get older even turn to another color! The Verbena also has a nice smell to them which is why they draw in some wildlife??

I personally do not pick our flowers due to wanting their seeds. Every year I try and keep the seeds in the same pot.... come to think of it in 2014 I believe the Verbena seeds did fall, bloom in the ground near the pot. This happens to several of our flowers!



I do have a mix of soil I mix myself. Keeping brand names to myself here is a list.

A high end blend of soil (mind you this "high end blend", soil we do drive to the bigger towns to buy this for we can not find it in our area and it is spendy!! ),

a mushrooms blend (hence the mushrooms that grow here),

a cheaper all around house plant blend (we buy this in bulk bags. Keeping AWAY from the soils that promise to help with feeding or moisture by adding additives. That stuff is no good for us, throws me off),

Peat Moss is added in,

Then last is steer "stuff", blend (of course living where we do we can get this anywhere, though it is nice to get the blend that has already been processed killing the bugs) .

I keep my eye out on sales of soil!! If we had the room I would buy it in bigger bulk (dump truck bulk haha). Guy and I joke saying if we ever sale and move off we will be taking our soil with us haha!

Then I mix this all up by hand! Of course changing this or that as I see fit. Some plants need more of this or bone meal,ash or what ever added. I go by what the plants are telling me. Guy has his own system, so we do have to communicate!! Guy has been growing here in the High Desert more years then I have!! His Roses have won at shows and WOW.... so I dont really touch the roses. Guy says this or that one needs this or that , so while at work I do as he says. I do like him taking care of what he sees fit. Guy does other things as well, though Guy is not here so I can not speak for him. I admit I have learned a lot about growing outdoors here in the High Desert from him!! This is not the valley where I have had most of my experience!



I take a lot of photographs of these flowers. I thought I would keep this down to a few of them!



As folks know who are connected to me somewhere, we do not use pesticides. With these Verbena we do not have a insect issue, nothing that sticks out in my mind anyhoo.

You can see the leaf of that nasty tree in the shot above. I hate that stupid tree! Though it does provide some shade, and we cut it back every year!! Perfect place for nasty insects to set up shop!! Hence cutting the tree back..... Under that tree is where I scared a wild turkey out of my garden!! Turkeys, ducks, chickens, quail etc.. can do a lot of damage to a garden!! Of course if I owned the birds they would be the best thing since sliced bread haha



This flower is a little spent , though it still has nice color!

Thank you for coming by and looking at my Verbena Flower Photography. I do have a lot more photographs of the Verbena ..... and I do not give name brand names out of soils and such for a reason. All gardeners have their own system, right -wrong is really in the results. Growing flowers , veggies etc. is not really a cookie cutter process......

Footnote, you can copy and keep any of these photographs in my blogs (Mine are watermarked), by following these directions;

Hit the PRTSC/SYSRQ button

Open up your photo softwear. Hit CTRL + V (or go to edit and paste). You should have the whole page copied into your software.

Cut out the photo.

Save.

Sometimes you have to play around with this. Where I host my photographs, Zenfolio.com, they are a professional photography place and they know all the tricks out there!! You can not even go into the page source (page source by passes most watermark software, giving access to the unwatermarked images), as you can other places and get photos!! I love this place for this for hosting my photography!

Golden Eagle Landing

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Golden Eagle Landing




Meet the biggest eagle we have in North America, the Golden Eagle!

I photographed this Golden Eagle at a coyote kill in one of the most active places for such things, the nearest town of Post Oregon. This is another area where most of the land is farmed or ranched why so much wildlife activity.

The Golden Eagle is landing just right for a photograph on a hill, why the talons are out, back feathers and wings spread. The Golden Eagle was screaming at me for it did not appreciate the interference at meal time.

Some folks do not know that the Eagle both the species found here the Golden Eagle and the Bald Eagles are scavengers. They will stop at any meal that has passed away even if they themselves have not killed the meal themselves. It is good to listen to the ravens that typically are very good at finding such things and calling in the others, if you listen, fallow the ravens ....... sometimes other creatures are there as well! Including the Eagles!

Tadpoles or Pollywogs FROGS

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Tadpoles or Pollywogs FROGS




Meet the Tadpoles of our pond! We have had the frogs / toads here at the house for some time. Mostly the common species Pacific Tree Frogs. Though when we put in prefabricated ponds to help with the water issue in our area, we found out we have toads here as well!



I really do not know what species these Tadpoles are? I do have a idea however...... We have two ponds in which we put these prefabricated ponds into the bigger natural ponds. Doing this I learned a little more of the differences of the Tadpoles we have here. These Tadpoles do NOT like to be seen, at least during the day! So I waited for them to come to the top to get their photograph. I like their eyes!! They are this bright yellow, orange color that remind me of the color of a sunrise/sunset! You can see a little of the eyes on the Tadpole that is coming up there on the right. These are also bigger then the other ponds Tadpoles.



This shot is from the other ponds, see the raspberry leaves?? This pond is where the Raspberries are planted. Draping over the water giving shade to that which live in the water. The creatures seam to like this? These photographs were taken on a day in July 2014. With these prefabricated ponds in place, we do still have water in them even though this is now December and these Tadpoles are adults by now.





We are back to the other pond! This one we call the smaller pond. Why? The natural pond is smaller then the other pond is why. This one does not have Raspberries planted , this one has cattails planted. I am always cutting back and puling out the raspberries who really do try to take over the world!! This ponds shade comes from a flowering fruit tree we have growing here in the High Desert of Oregon.

These prefabricated ponds have saved us gallons of water!! During spring , summer and some of fall we do add water to the natural part of the pond, though nothing like we used to !! Since the Tadpoles are doing fine the way we have the ponds in 2014. 2015 things may need to be tweaked, we will see?

This is also one big reason I do not use the agriculture water. That water is run off from the farms and ranches. The frogs, toads, lizards etc.. are having a hard enough time here in Oregon trying to find a environment where they can live. I have been advised not to have fish that will disrupt this environment for the amphibians . Our ponds are just not that big!





The shot above is from the "small pond".

Technical issues this morning has cut this blog post short.



Small Pond



Small pond



Small pond



Big pond with the smaller species of Tadpoles.



Small pond



Small pond



Thank you for coming by and seeing the photographs from this day in July 2014. I did photograph the development of the Tadpoles in 2014 through out their life. I am sure I will run across the photographs and perhaps make another blog post about them?

Have a great friday and a better weekend!!

Bachelor Button Flower and The Hoverfly

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Bachelor Button Flower and The Hoverfly




Meet the Hoverfly. This is one of the species of Hoverflys we have here at home. The flower in which the Hoverfly is working on is the Bachelor Button Flower or the Cornflower I notice in Europe (or my European friends call them the Cornflower).



The Bachelor Button Flower or Corn Flower is a weed here in my state of Oregon. Very pretty weed with colors of flowers from the basic blue you see here, to pinks,white,on and on and then the two tone colors!! The Bachelor Button Flower or Corn Flower attracts a lot of pollinators!! Like the saying, "a Bee to Honey", well this flower attracts all kinds of insects!! One just has to be careful that the Bachelor Button Flower or Corn Flower does not take over the world!!



Because of the facts above in 2014 I controlled the Bachelor Button Flower or Corn Flower. I left one very nice big "bush", six plants or so growing in the front flower bed near the road where the plant did not get much water, a lot of hot sun, and the Bachelor Button Flower or Corn Flower flourished!! Attracting such insects as this Hoverfly.



The Bachelor Button Flower or Corn Flower being a invasive plant still does good for our gardens!! Like the Butterfly Bush, that has made the State of Oregon noxious plant list, also does good for the butterflies. So ying yang, just depends how one feels and how much responsibility they want to take for what they choose to grow in their gardens? Not sure you can get in trouble per say for growing such plants, just dont let such plants get out of hand...... the pollinators really do like this particular flower!!



In 2014 we had a nice population of Hoverflys! The frogs/toads and the birds, other insects eat the Hoverflys , and the Hoverlies do a fantastic job at Pollinating everything it touches!! Just keep in mind when you see the Hoverfly, they are not bee's , they will not hurt you or the kids (not that you or the kids will ever be able to reach out and just touch one. They are fast!!), the Hoverflys are also fun to watch!

Thank you for coming by and checking out my Photographs of the Bachelor Button Flower and The Hoverfly! Since the Hoverfly is one of my common insects here at the house I do have other photographs of this species and others I placed in the Insect album if you want to check the insect album out! More photographs of the The Bachelor Button Flower or Corn Flower that I have grown here at home can be found in the flower album if you want to check out my flowers (keep in mind I have grown a lot of flowers here at home!), I also added in wild Pacific Northwest flowers, including wild flowers of the Cascade Mountains, and the Ochoco Mountains just to name a few mountains we have been to. Will I ever be caught up naming and posting everything??