About Me

United States
Belle is a mother of 2 beautiful teenagers aged 19 and 18 years old. She is originally from Bato, Catanduanes. She loves fiddling around with computer on her free time.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Backyard Creatures

Took these pictures today.




These are the birds that come in our backyard on a daily basis. They love our bird baths. First, they come and take a bath, turn around and poop in it, and take a nice big drink. Ehew!!! How unsanitary!

Has anyone of you seen hummingbirds? If not, look at the first two pictures. See, how small they are? They are the smallest birds in the world, about ohhh, 2 inches in length. They can only be found in north and south America. They are known for their ability to hover in mid-air by quickly flapping their wings. They are the only birds that can fly backwards. They can hover stationary, too. Talking about agility! They are a delight to watch especially those with interesting colors. So far, we have two hummingbirds in our backyard, but later in the summer, they come in droves and in different kinds.

Sometimes, there are 4 or 6 hummingbirds vying for a place at one feeder. Males are very aggressive and territorial. They will chase anyone hovering around their feeder and this goes on all day. I often wonder how those less aggressive ones get their meal.



This Black Chinned hummingbird finally sneaked in and had a chance to get his meal without getting chased by Anna, the aggresor. He/she must be scaring other one or must have dozed off. See Anna in the next picture.

I presume, this is Anna because of the iridescent pink colors on the head. You can barely see it. Click on the picture for better image.

I believe the next two pictures are gold finches. Finch is shown doing his usual bath-poop-drink routine.

Lovely gold finch on the Juniper tree. Juniper tree, by the way, gives out pollen that affects most people here including myself. We can't escape from it because our forest is surrounded with it. Nasty tree!

I carefully took this picture of the quail through the blind from my bedroom.

19 comments:

vernaloo said...

Hi Belle :)

They're beautiful. When I was still in the province, I sometimes wake up hearing them in our guava tree. Now I seldom see birds so I kinda miss the feeling.

Anonymous said...

You actually took a nice pictures. What kind of camera are you using? Asteg!

Belle TH said...

@verns, thanks! bird bath attracts birds, you may have to get one for your backyard.

@k, thanks! what camera i am using? i just recently bought a 75-300 mm telephoto lens for my Sony A100 camera. It is not the most expensive one that the pro uses though. But it is fun, good enough to use for detective work.

Anonymous said...

Belle you're lucky they go to your backyard, they are gorgeous :-)
I think I may have to invest in a bird bath , to tempt some birds in my back garden, too!!

Anonymous said...

Ang galing! To actually have birds visit your backyard (and yes poop!) and to even take brilliant photos of them, that's really amazing!

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed that you were able to take those great photos, it's so difficult to take good shots because the birds are too far or always moving. It's so rare to see Hummingbirds here and it's always exciting when we see one, it's like seeing fairies.

Heart of Rachel said...

Boo hoo ... blogger ate my comment twice. Let me try again.

Great photos Belle! I love how you captured those birds in action especially the hummingbird in flight. I've never seen one before. I wish I also had a camera with a powerful zoom.

Anonymous said...

Nice shots of the birds belle. And I love that you have a birdbath in your backyard. It must be nice to be visited by those birds daily.

And I didn't realize that hummingbirds are that tiny.

SeƱor Enrique said...

Auspicious capture, Belle! Bierds aren't so easy to photograph.

Happy Mother's Day!

Anonymous said...

I love the photos of birds that you took. The sounds of birds singing on the trees surrounding our house was music to my children's ears when they were still infants.

Advance Happy Mother's day, Belle.

Anonymous said...

Hi Belle, just wanted to greet you a Happy Mother's Day.

Here's Barry singing for you.

Forever59er said...

Splendid post! Something out of National Geographic. How well you teach us about the Arizona outdoors. And you -- you only have to go to your backyard to go nature tripping. Hmmm. Humming birds and finches ha. I like it that you named one of them Anna. haha

Forever59er said...

Am not sure if my comment went in. I said that your post is uncannily like a National Geographic page. That its great you only have to go to your backyard to go nature tripping. etc. etc.

Heart of Rachel said...

Happy Mother's Day Belle! Wishing you a lovely celebration with your loved ones.

dangkin said...

reminds me of my inlaws place.. thats where i first saw humming birds in diff colors-green, blue and red!

nway, happy mother's day!

enjoy your weekend! :)

Anonymous said...

Ate Belle,

Just wanted to drop by and greet you Happy Mother's Day!

Belle TH said...

@pining, thanks! on investing on a bird bath, that is a good idea.

@toe, thanks. i like to hang out in my backyard to wind down after a long hard day.

@kk, i know it is hard to take pictures of birds, that is why i have to keep a distance to take my shot using the telephoto lens. glad i bought one.

@rach, thanks. i know hummingbirds are a treat for you guys, so reason why i featured them in my blog.

@niceheart, thanks. i think you have hummingbirds there.

@eric, thanks. it was exciting capturing those little creatures though i had sit still on the ground for a while.

@julie, thanks. yes, birds' chirping is music to the ears.

@k, thank you so much for wishing me with that beautiful song. it brought smile to my face. mabalos!

@anna, thanks anna though my pictures are not near the caliber of those from national geographic. yes, i love going to my backyard.

@rachel, thanks! hope you had a good one!

@dangkin, you're back! hope you had a great vacation. if you live in the US, you should hummingbirds there too.

@kk, thank you! likewise to you, too.

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing the pictures, and i still remember your pet bird inside the house.

sometimes, there are a few birds that come in the garden, but this is manila, dear, so we cannot expect much. your orchard is really a joy--plants, flowers, trees, birds, was there a squirrel?

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing the pictures, and i still remember your pet bird inside the house.

sometimes, there are a few birds that come in the garden, but this is manila, dear, so we cannot expect much. your orchard is really a joy--plants, flowers, trees, birds, was there a squirrel?