September-October Backyard Birds

This is another post on birds I've observed in our backyard. One of the features of my Nikon Coolpix camera is the ability to remote control it from my IPhone. This allows me to put the camera on a tripod, pointed at a feeder or a bird bath, view what's it's seeing from my phone and take photos. It also allows zooming in and out.

However most of these photos were taken the old fashioned way with camera in hand.

The first photos date back to early September when we still had American Goldfinches coming to our feeder. This is their Basic (non-breeding) plumage.

American Goldfinch - Backyard, North Delta BC

American Goldfinch - Backyard, North Delta BC

In the same time frame, our Anna's Hummingbird was a regular visitor, it has not been seen since then.

Anna's Hummingbird - Backyard, North Delta BC

October 9

The next set of photos were taken on October 9th, a day described elsewhere in the blog. After getting back from Reifel Bird Sanctuary, I was sitting on the deck with my camera and binoculars. I saw something in the Apple tree and tried to locate it. When I finally saw it I realized I had something special, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. This was a first for our yard.

These are very small birds, about 2/3 the size of a Chickadee. They are not seed eaters, this one must have found a good feast of bugs in the apple tree.

I had my Canon SLR and was able to focus on it a take a few shots:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Backyard, North Delta BC

The broken eye-ring is a good field mark, as this bird is very similar to a Hutton's Vireo. The Ruby patch on the crown is usually suppressed, you can see a hint of it here. 

It wasn't good enough for it to be in a tree, it decided to have a bath.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Backyard, North Delta BC

I tried to get a photo if it in the bath but it moved whenever I pointed the big lens that way. So I ran in and got the Nikon Coolpix and got this shot. The colour saturation with this camera is more pronounced, although the bird was wet at this time.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Backyard, North Delta BC

October 29 - Remote Control trial

As mentioned, I can remote control the Nikon using a wireless connection to the IPhone. I set it up in our sunroom pointing at the seed feeder. The one problem is that our window was quite dirty and if I took it out, the birds could enter our house. I cleaned as much as I could with it partially open, but it did affect the shots.

The two species that were using the feeder were Black-capped Chickadee and Dark-eyed Junco. The chickadees tend to come to the feeder, grab a seed and bolt. They are known for caching food in tree cavities and trunks, saving them for later. So capturing them was tricky.

Black-capped Chickadee - Backyard, North Delta BC

The Juncos would stay longer and eat the seeds while perched, a bit easier to deal with.

Dark-eyed Junco - Backyard, North Delta BC

I took numerous photos, all very similar. 

A bit later I was back out on the deck with the Nikon in hand and took these shots.

Black-capped Chickadee - Backyard, North Delta BC

We have resident Downy Woodpeckers that can been at the Suet feeder every day of the year (as long as there's suet there). Here's the male looking for bugs in the Apple tree.

Downy Woodpecker - Backyard, North Delta BC

The last bird of the day was a Steller's Jay, who announced its arrival very loudly.

Steller's Jay - Backyard, North Delta BC

The Jay was here for a bath and I was lucky to capture it on video. Hopefully it play's properly on the blog.