Last winter I had the good fortune to catch a flurry of Cardinal action between my backyard, that of Good Neighbor Tim and his wonderful wife Lorraine and the spot behind our fence.
The red birds like this spot by the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Syracuse.
But my iPhone 6 and iPad Air photography can’t really get the elusive and darty birds close up. Not yet, anyway. As my dear wife Karen can attest, they love to tease me as we sit on our red chairs during our she’s-home-from-work catch-up time.
Tim sent me an email this week.
He’s got a real camera. A real nice camera. He’s good with it.
Can you believe he chose to apologize to me about lack of quality of these two beauties? Well, maybe they’d not be chosen by the American Ornithological Society for a coffee table book, but, I think they’re pretty darn swift.
And as Tim said further, they do prove that the male Cardinal is getting comfortable with us.
Thank you, Good Neighbor Tim. Happy July, indeed.
What kind of birds are you spotting around your home these days? If you’ve had luck photographing birds, what are your best tips? What are your favorite neighborhood birds, and why?
WOW! Tim did a great job! I’m impressed. 🙂
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From a professional photographer! See this comment, GN Tim?!
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These little guys are amazing we do not have any like this here abouts!
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They are such a beautiful bird, Willow. I bet you have others that make up for it, though. ❤
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What a handsome little man MBM!!!!
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Thank you, MBC. 🙂
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AND the birds too MBM!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 🙂
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Hahahaha. Ha! 🙂
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Cardinals are beautiful. These days, I see a lot of Canadian geese and goffers (and not much else.) I miss Carolina anoles and water birds, but I’m learning to adjust. 😉
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And Newark bass on the street, don’t forget that, Wormy. 🙂 May I ask what a goffer is. I know. Go Google it, Mark …
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Ha! A goffer is a slip of the key times two, if that’s what I typed. I apparently meant to type gopher, which is not what I meant at all. What I actually meant was groundhog. Groundhogs are entirely new to me and, apparently, all over here. I often accidentally refer to them as gophers, although I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a gopher before either. Prairie dogs, maybe.
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Well I read goffer. I have thought gophers and groundhogs are the same thing. No? Let’s just call it a night on the subject and say Howdy Doody. 🙂
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Oh man! I have cardinal photograph envy! I cannot, for the life of me, capture our cardinals! They are soooo elusive! Camera shy? Gah, I dunno, but we’ve got two pair, and one male has been here since we got here, and I see him almost every day, but I cannot get the shot! One time I was less than a foot from him while he sat in the hibiscus! I was so close that I could see the yellow in his eye! I averted my gaze and I dared not make more eye contact, but I could see him looking at me, while I stood there trying not to breathe. I wonder if you couldn’t ask Tim to come over here with his good camera and his great skills?!? lol
I love the chickadees in winter — they’re my favorites, but yes, the cardinals are beautiful! Really, it’s the squirrels I love so much! 😀
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You’re like me with the cardinals, Joey. I get only the blur and they’re gone, gone, gone. Hey, Tim, road trip to Indy? 🙂 Chickadees are fun from the start, what with that name. From second to seventh grade, Joey, I lived on Chickadee Lane! Ha. Thanks for reminding me. Speaking of squirrels, have you ever visited Bill at http://evilsquirrelsnest.com? It’s where all the cool squirrels hang out. I love his blog.
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I wanna live on Chickadee Lane! I live on a stupid numbered street 😉
I will check Bill’s blog out, thanks!
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Our neighborhood was called the Bird Section. Chickadee ran into Redwing, and that ran into Bobolink. Great street names in Levittown, on Long Island, Joey. Yeah, numbered streets are just so easy for the city planner.
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Birds you say…Oh my such a wild selection down here in sunny Florida. The sandpipers are my fav’s.
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I don’t think we have sandpipers in Syracuse, Gatorette, just pink flamigos. Wait, those are plastic lawn ornaments. 😉
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Ha! But the real ones are here in their glory Terp!
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Yeah, I know, Gatorette. I watched Wild Kingdom on TV when I was a kid. 😉
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Please do not forget our Female Beautiful Peacocks either Mark!
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Peacocks have the ugliest call I’ve ever heard, Gatorette. Folks that live by the 18th hole of where I play in my golf league own a peacock, and the dang thing sounds as if it’s being tortured. Makes playing that whole sort of … distracting. Beautiful birds, though. Too bad we can’t see it, just hear the stinking wail.
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Oh my yes come to think of that they do scream a bit?! That would mess up a game of Golf at any tee.
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We’ve had so many species. We are separated from a large river (Schuylkill) by a patch of woods, full of all sorts of wildlife.We feed them. They crap on our stuff. It’s a vicious cycle, but we continue. ☺
They say, Mark, that cardinals visit to remind you of someone that has passed away. Not sure, but a nice thought. 💕
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NIce setting for your life, Van. Happy days. ❤ And thanks for passing along that lovely thought about Cardinals.
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Right after we lost my father in law, they showed up all over our front yard. Maybe ?? 💕
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Yes, let’s believe. 🙂
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Lovely photos!!! We have ducks in our pool about once a year. We have lots and lots of hummingbirds as well. No cardinals in our neck of the woods though.
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Ducks in the pool! I love the way you share the resources, S.D. ❤
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We rarely see anything exotic here unless someone is carrying their parrot around with them. Once my husband saw a whole bunch of parakeets inhabiting a whole block’s worth of trees while he was walking the kids to school. Apparently it was an amazing sight for all the kids walking that day. Of course, I missed it! Darn!
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That parakeet day sounds spectacular, Marissa. So of course we missed it! 😉
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Love your neighborhood, Mark.
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Thank you, Ann. Good neighborly.
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Birds are hard to shoot, especially with a phone Mark! They say a good bird shot also capture its eyes. I have a few friends who are really good at this!
I like good neighbor Tim’s photo though and every time you say that I think of that show Home Improvement with Tim Allen. Didn’t his neighbor always call Tim his good neighbor Tim?
I see mostly Magpies around here Mark. ❤
Diana xo
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Maybe his over-the-fence neighbor Tim did call him that on the show, Diana! And here I thought I was being original. I am Al Borland in my other life, though, so I probably am borrowing the phrase. 🙂 ❤ Magpies. Cool!
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Great shots! This past week we had cardinals at our kitchen window feeder. I noticed the male while I was working because of their loud chirping–somehow the cats slept through it. I later saw a female cardinal on the sidewalk pecking around.
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I love these birds, Merril. They visit this triangle between our three yards so much I feel like they’re our pets. I’m glad you have pet Cardinals, too!
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so pretty and great shots of the red guys )
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And Tim said he wished he did better. Ahem. Yeah, right!
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I put out our dried bread for the birds in the yard which are mostly starlings, chickadees, and wrens. The cardinal is the state bird, and I hear them calling every day but I never get to see them! Maybe I’ll get a feeder again with sunflower seeds then I might get a chance at a great picture like these.
The feeders are a challenge because the squirrels always knock them out of the trees 🙂
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Squirrels are a challenge to bird feeding all around, Rose, even when tossing our old bread. I like your style, though, and your birds. 🙂
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Thanks!
I am on a mission now. I want to see those cardinals! I’ll let you know when I manage it 🙂
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Yes, let me know, Rose!
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The only birds by me are the geese and their millions of babies… Oh. And the poop.
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That’s too many baby birds and much too much bird crap, APD.
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That’s a remarkable coloured bird – I had to look it up. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Cardinal/id
I’ve only recently started “birding” (if you can call it that) and taking photos of them. Most of the ones I’ve taken are semi-wild, captive birds on reserves where they are used to people. My only success at taking a photo of a truly wild bird was when a passing swallow alighted on a post about three feet from where I sat. V-e-r-y v-e-r-y s–l–o–w–l–y I reached for my camera and took a few snaps before it flew off.
So my tips would be – be in the right place at the right time – move very slowly and quietly – and always have a camera with you.
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Great tips, Roy. I have to reach in my pocket for my phone, fumble to turn it on, lift it up … Gone! 🙂 Birder is a great word, my friend.
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Beautiful shots of beautiful cardinals. We have a family of young ones hanging around our yard, the males are still not that brilliant red just yet. Cat birds, Starlings, Robins and Woodpeckers come to visit. I never tire of watching them. We had a feeder that attaches to a window and nothing beat that for a real close up look- at each other!
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I really like your two-way view feeder, Lisa! 🙂
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It is the best!! Hours of free entertainment 🙂
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Beautiful shots Mark.
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Thanks, Paul.
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Mark, such a busy week but missed my doses of fun from your blog. I love cardinals and this is a short lull before 4 grandkids wake up. 🙂
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Wow, Robin. Four grands. Get ready!
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We’ve loads around us just now, my Dad has a little bird table, so there has been a flurry of fresh activity with all the young ones coming up. We have however noticed an increase in crows who will just about eat everything, whether you leave it for them or not lol
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You’re not kidding about crows, TIE. Those suckers are big, fast and mean!
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