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EARLY MARCH BIRDS – Marilyn Armstrong

By Marilyn Armstrong on 2020-03-02 • ( 14 )

EARLY MARCH BIRDS

Chubby Titmouse and a Red Finch

Two different Nuthatches

Peek-a-boo

Slate Junco

Bluebird and Red Finch

Four Goldfinches

‹ JEWELRY AS HISTORY, PART 2 – BY ELLIN CURLEY

DAY OF THE RED FINCHES – Marilyn Armstrong ›

Categories: Birds, Blackstone Valley, Marilyn Armstrong, Photography

Tags: birds, feeders, finches, Marilyn Armstrong, Photography

14 replies

Carol Anne
2020-03-02 • 2:25 pm

oh wow, they are so beautiful! I love birds, we get so many where I live, iin the early morning, I love listening to them chirping.

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  2020-03-02 • 2:54 pm
  
  In a crazy world, the wild creatures keep me sane!
  
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Melanie B Cee
2020-03-02 • 2:12 pm

That was a chubby titmouse! Fat little guy. Apparently he/she loves your buffet…! 😀

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  2020-03-02 • 2:55 pm
  
  Not only are they chubby, but they are also very big, much bigger than the size they ought to be. Apparently good food makes them healthy 😀
  
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swo8
2020-03-02 • 10:56 am

Very nice when you catch them in flight.
Leslie

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  2020-03-02 • 12:05 pm
  
  Which is a lot harder to do than you think it will be. Seagulls are easy to catch in flight. In fact, all the waterfowl from ducks to herons are pretty easy to catch in the air, but the small birds move so fast, it’s a lot harder. MEANWHILE, I’m still working out how to get the flying squirrels on film. The other thing is that I have reservations about keeping wild animals as pets. You would have to let them out so they get to fly around the woods. It would seem unkind to keep them locked up in a house. And honestly, I’m not sure how the dogs would deal with them.
  
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  - swo8
    2020-03-02 • 1:15 pm
    
    It has to be difficult…
    
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    - Marilyn Armstrong
      2020-03-02 • 3:21 pm
      
      I don’t like the idea of keeping wild things as pets. I had a jaguarundi (I really wanted an ocelot, but they were too expensive) when I was first married. He died of in just a few weeks having not been inoculated before we got him. So next, we got one that was full-grown and supposedly “friendly.”
      
      He wasn’t friendly. He lived under the sofa and attacked everybody’s ankles. He used to sleep on my bed and when I tried to roll over he growled at me. Jaguarundis aren’t small. About the size of a good-sized raccoon, but shaped more like a weasel (they aren’t weasels — they are cats except like a cheetah, they don’t have retractable claws). Eventually, unable to tame him to the point where I could trust him not to hurt someone, we found a small zoo in Connecticut that was made up largely of animals that had been pets. There were cougars and wolves and many other medium-to-large animals, many of which were entirely pettable, but had gotten much too big to keep in a home. I promised I would never get another wild creature for a pet, though I might be tempted by a wolf. I have met some wonderfully friendly wolves.
      
      Still, it seems too confining. Wild things need freedom. I think I will settle for feeding them and trying to find a camera that will take good pictures of them. The good cameras are in the $300-$600 price range, which I can’t manage right now. the cheap ones — and there are a lot of cheap ones — don’t take very good pictures. I thought about converting a camera I have into an infrared camera, but it’s a complicated process that I think it is beyond my skillset.
      
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      - swo8
        2020-03-03 • 12:08 pm
        
        I never thought about have one of those exotics as a pet. A lot of them are beautiful creatures, but best left to the wild.
        Leslie
        
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Louis Dallara Fine Art Photography
2020-03-02 • 8:41 am

Love the birds

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  2020-03-02 • 12:15 pm
  
  Me too! I love just standing and watching them, especially around the middle of the day when they show up in flocks. Today, it’s a mix of Goldfinches, Red Finches, Nuthatches, Titmouses, Chickadees and the occasional Cardinals, both the males and the females. The doves not so much because we don’t have a flat feeder. Owen is planning to build one and attach it to the railing on the deck so the bigger birds that like walking (Juncos, Doves, Blue Jays Cowbirds, and a few others) — not to mention the regular squirrels — can get a piece of the action. Problem is, I’m running out of money. Feeding this many creatures has gotten to be much more of an operation than I imagined when I put up a single feeder last year!
  
  I wonder if I can start taking collections for birdseed? Between the flying squirrels eating most of the black sunflower seeds (they are their downfall, I am told), the regular squirrels (we had 7 of them on the feeders this morning!) followed by flocks of birds, I’m figuring it’s costing me at least $50/month when I find the seeds on sale on Amazon. Our two large feeders take about 3 days and use up 14 lbs of food each filling. That’s NOT counting the nyjer, which is a special food just for finches. I’d like to feed some bigger food to the regular squirrels — corn and peanuts especially — but I think that might break the bank.
  
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bwcarey
2020-03-02 • 8:30 am

a full house, there must be a Que in the trees Marilyn, what’s for dessert

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  2020-03-02 • 2:01 pm
  
  I think the black sunflower seeds are the current dessert, but they all also like fruit — raisin, cranberries and other dried fruit. Anything sweet! The birds like it too.
  
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