Do you remember the little hummer I posted a while back that Cornell said , oh, words to the effect that she had a deformity or worse? Well, she's here - eating well, still has the dot in the middle of the chest, but now she has a white spot on her crown. I'll send her to Cornell again and also ask on Facebook Birders if anyone has seen another one like this little tyke. Very glad she appears well. Maybe she's wearing Vera Wang for hummers...

Another lesson... Jane

Wow, that looks like she had a serious wound that's significantly, but not completely healed! Maybe she collided with something sharp like a thorn or barbed wire and the wound got infected?

Astonishing and wonderful that she's survived!

Claire

From Google I've learned that the white head may be from trumpet vine pollen. Google Images shows exact matches for the head.

I think houzz is broken. Maybe can post without pictures?

Usually housebroken is a good thing, but not in this case.

Test chipmunk

Thanks, Claire. Yesterday was the first time I have ever seen multiple Nuthatches together. Still not sure who is who - 3 kids, a parent and 2 kids, no idea, but it was a small, fast track they made across the old maple out back.

No photos, but for 4 days in a row we have spotted a pair of orioles in our yard. I'm very hopeful they are nesting, but I can't see a nest. Do I remember they like jam?

Great pics of the nuthatch family, Jane! Sweet little birds - they come to my deck for peanuts.

Orioles love jam, suzabanana! Orioles in my yard particularly like peach or apricot, but won't turn down other flavors. They seem to like preserves with little pieces of fruit in it (I get cheap jam from Ocean State Job Lot).

Well, there were two raccoons on the deck last night, out for a drink on Saturday night. The photos aren't the greatest, given light reflections from inside, the camera's low light setting, and yellowish incandescent deck lights but you get the scene.

The deck lights were off when I checked and saw something out there, so I turned the lights on to photograph them. The raccoon at the hummingbird feeder saw me but apparently decided I wasn't a problem...

Tilting the Hummzinger makes it easy to drink out of. I put the Hummzinger there because they pulled the plastic flower out of the other feeder (making it even easier to drink out of).

Checking on me - still no problem.

It's stopped raining so I'll refill the feeder again. There's always a little solution left in the bottom that the raccoons couldn't get out.

Claire

Well, done, Claire! Mystery solved!

Everybody likes a little sugar, - did you see the horse and hummingbird feeder?

I'm glad I don't have a horse clomping up on my deck!

Claire

I waited for the take off of this RBG hoping to catch his wing pattern. Who knew he had an other idea? Funny.

Jane :)

I can't even figure out which parts of the bird are which! It looks more like a fancy caterpillar than a bird!

Claire

He went straight down. What looks like eyes are his feet. He's upside-down underneath side up, lol.

OK, that sort of makes sense if you really stretch your spatial visualization ability. I assume he knew how to gracefully get out of that fall.

Claire

No death-defying acrobatics here, but these two oriole fledglings were vying over the jam feeder. The one on the right won.

The fledgling on the left left.

Claire

Have not seen oriole kids before, so thanks.

About 70' up, over a meadow this morning. It had to have been a territorial dispute or a woman. The agility is beyond me.

Nice oriole "kids", Claire, and some amazing acrobatics, Jane.

This butterfly was doing a slow pirouette around the head of clover in the field grass near the veggie garden.

Wonderful finch fight shots, Jane! I"m assuming it was mostly theatrics and no-one got hurt.

Very calm, graceful butterfly picture, NHBabs. No theatrics there.

Claire

There's a female hummingbird who visits often. I'm usually working somewhere in the garden when I hear that unmistakeable BRRRRR, often followed by some scolding if I manage to freeze before I scare her off. She is particularly fond of the Major Wheeler honeysuckle and the almost black hollyhock in the front, and yesterday she was also visiting the red hot poker AKA Kniphofia. She is also happy to visit the Black and Blue Salvias which I put in pots every year. Today she was not happy that my red sun hat wasn't productive!

Yesterday I managed two passable shots of her visiting the front garden.

I wonder how she sees the color of the hollyhock vs the brighter red of the honeysuckle.

Nice hummingbird-in-the-wild shots, NHBabs. I wonder if you could attach one of those little bud vases filled with nectar to your red sun hat to appease the hummer....

Claire

Wonderful pictures everyone!

Male house finch

Wren cleaning up the house

Female cardinal

And then the rains came, giving her a really bad hair day

Young bluebird

First turkey we've seen in a couple of months, shaking off the water

Susan

Lots of great bird pics. Glad to see someone growing Hollyhocks. Here are some Bee pics.

A two spotted Bumblebee, Bombus bimaculatus on Geranium Rosanne

Common Eastern Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens.

Confused Bumblebee, Bombus perplexus on an Agastache.

Steve

Nice, Steve! Do you have a source to recommend for bee IDs?

The crows visited the side yard during some rain today, making photos easier than usual since I could use the house as a blind. I think that they are raising young, since the one on the left followed the one on the right across the yard, squawking in a decidedly begging tone.

I don't think I would want to be on the receiving end of this stare (and beak!) if I were a small bug or frog or nestling.

Got it!

Babs,

I've been using a paper guide that was given out by a WPI professor who is doing some Bumblebee research. But here's a great online ID source from Xerces.

Eastern Bumblebee Guide

Dr. Robert Gegear is doing anther workshop at Tower Hill on Saturday, July 18th. Here's the link for that.

Bumblebee Crowdsourcing - A Citizen Science Project

Steve

Steve, the Eastern Bumblebee Guide is good - thanks for the link. Plenty of bumbles here, thankfully.

I believe this is a 1st.w male Rose-breasted Grosbeak that I caught in the birch outside my window. He gave me a good opportunity to see his rosiness popping through. Pretty bird.

Jane - it would seem strange for a male to have winter plumage now since they are probably still breeding. What about an immature male from this year's first brood?

Thanks, Steve, for the bumblebee resources. I'll have to spend some time reading through the Eastern bee info, but from just skimming it looks like a great resource.

Such a nice variety, Susan, and so different from what I see here. No one looks too happy about the rain!

Nice rain-soaked bird pics, Susan! Turkeys particularly are great at looking disgruntled in unpleasant weather.

Love the bee pics and guide, Steve! I didn't realize that there are so many visually distinct bumblebee species. Too often it seems that insects are differentiated on the basis of a slightly different angle of the antennae and/or an increased hairiness of the legs (I'm exaggerating but the differences are often only obvious to a trained observer).

NHBabs: I'm not sure but I think your great closeups are of a crow fledgling, maybe seeing its first bug. The new crow broods have been flying around here for the last few weeks. Lots of wing flapping and begging calls and catch-up "Wait for me, this is hard flying!" when the parent flies ahead.

Handsome young grosbeak there, Jane, well pictured!

I finally saw turkey poults a few days ago but without my camera. I went out to replenish the birdseed stocks and heard that soft clucking that turkey hens use to control the babies. Sure enough I went around the corner to one groundfeeding area and there were two hens with about 14 poults, maybe more. They didn't stay around and I haven't seen them again but it's good to know some of them have survived the predators. They're probably close to or maybe able to fly now so they have a good chance of survival.

Claire

nhbabs - not sure why I wrote winter instead of 1st-w: molts into adult-like plumage through fall. But the entry is now edited.

And there they are - two hens plus a passel of poults sashaying past my deck. That's a turkey-favorite bird bath. I'm not sure if it's the location or the rubber is feet-friendly, important for very small feet.

Teaching the kid to drink

> He very quickly concluded the cause: When crows eat roadkill,they
always have a
look-out crow in a nearby tree to warn of impending
danger.They discovered that while
all the lookout crows could shout "Cah",
not a single one could shout "Truck."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
figured it would be time for a new thread soon anyway, :)

Blue Jays outside my window. It's a wonder the parents don't run away from home. The baby crows haven't shut-up for weeks. Oy.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150702-crow-rides-bald-eagle-animal/

Lovely pics of the blue jay babies, Jane, you can almost hear them squealing, and their squealing is very very insistent. I've been hearing blue jay and crow babies today - there's something about the cry of a baby, of any species, that's hard to ignore.

Those crow on eagle pictures are wonderful! I bet the crow was kind of enjoying itself for a short time before it headed for safety.

I was sitting on the porch steps when I heard a turkey clucking. I grabbed the camera hoping to catch the sound but I was too late. That was one hen and at least four chicks. She saw me and moved off, probably not used to seeing me on the steps on that side of the house.

Claire

Great baby pics and video!

Here's what was sitting in the Solomon's Seal this morning while I was watering. It was about 2 feet off the ground. I wonder what he was hunting.

I can't identify this bee. I can't tell if the abdomen is yellow or just covered in pollen. I just like the shot.

Steve

There must be an opiate of some kind in these suet cakes. Yesterday, they demolished one cake in 4 hours. Now rationing: One cake per day.

That's quite a varied lunch bunch there, Jane, including a very gutsy wren facing up to the red-belly.

I'm also rationing one suet cake per day although the grackles and crows are the major consumers.

Claire

There would be a suet cake fight here if it was always filled. Check out Big Red's beak in the last picture - and he won.

Lovely theatrics there, Jane! Looks like a grackle fledgling with an exasperated father, and a red-belly that's had it with both of them.

The only time I've ever seen a red-belly back down was when it was surrounded by about eight starlings at a birdbath and the woodpecker quietly left with dignity.

Claire

On second thought, 'exasperated' isn't really the right word for the grackle Dad - he looks more like he's exhausted by the demands of the kid. The woodpecker is exasperated.

Claire

The berry tester.

That's a good reminder, Jane, of how comfortable chipmunks are climbing. I often see them in the hopper that's filled with safflower seed. I don't know if they leap there from the surrounding trees or climb up the pole but they get there at will. At least they don't eat too much.

Poor soggy squirrel! At least the stone should be a little cooler in these muggy times.

Claire

Because they wear identical uniforms, I can't swear that it was the chipmunk above checking berries that ended up dusting my piano this morning. The cat with chronic pancreatitis is feeling well, thankfully, but will never be a killer. Ivy was out for one of her 43 morning jaunts, but without permission or a watchful human eye, she ran into the house holding a chipmunk kitten-style in her mouth. She trotted right into the living, collapsed on the soft rug to play with 'Chip', and spat him out at which point he ran directly around to the back of my studio grand, shaking in disbelief between the sound board and the wall, and was now covered in dust of various, somewhat interesting designs. Whizzing the handle on the LED crank flashlight while opening the front door as wide as possible, I spotted him cloaked in a nose-covering web from last Christmas, got a yard stick, and convinced him to seek the light. He ran outside through the open door using at least 64 legs, and what I remember most is 'Chip' lives here because I feed the birds and he eats seeds. I probably should dust more often.

Meanwhile, out back, this Jay makes it all look so easy.

It's good to know that Ivy is still in good form, but it's a little rough on the poor chipmunk, who's probably thanking the chipmunk gods that Ivy prefers cat food.

If I could fly I'd take off like the blue jay, looking like it just left Cape Canaveral on its journey to a far galaxy.

Claire

Claire, don't feel too bad for the chipper. He's dusted himself off, got right back up, and started all over again. Today he is outside my window sticking his finger into the chokeberries. Like people who poke the bottom of a chocolate, he's scarring the berries. No sympathy from me. This is really cropped so you can see those fingers doing the damage.

That's a very annoyed looking chipmunk (why isn't this ripe yet!), and it almost looks like it has opposable thumbs.

I'm waiting for the picture of the squirrel discovering that if you stand back a bit and take a running leap you can get on top of the baffle.

Claire

I've been away a few days; what an entertaining bunch of photos to return to!

houzz says I cannot add content at this time. Let's see... apparently writing, but not pictures. Maybe later.

I've been trying to post pictures on the Show us your Gardens thread for a while this afternoon. I managed to get one pic in the preview then it quit again. I'll keep trying.

Claire

Actually, Jane, it's time for a new thread anyway. I don't have a good start-off picture so why don't I start the new thread without pictures and you can add yours to start it off?

I'll set it up very soon but you can post at your (or houzz's) convenience.

Claire