Jaci Dawn

Aside from the terrible hot, flushed, allergy face – this weekend was very nice. I’m allergic to cottonwood, but it wasn’t terribly overbearing and the grass pollens are only just beginning, so I was able to stay outside for some length of time, pulling up weeds, rearranging fences, and moving things around.

I love this trio of scrub jay photos. He just hopped from one side to the other and I caught him mid-air. I set my camera on the “sports” setting which shoots at f 5.6 1/1600 ISO 2500. I use this for shooting birds or insect because it invariably captures movement I would not have noticed when aiming the camera.

Bees, for instance, are constantly on the move. You’re lucky to capture them holding still. The “sports” setting on my D-SLR allows for that.

Check out this series of goldfinch vs. dandelion fuzz photos.

The House finches wanted to know what was so interesting about the dandelion.

At one point, the male and female house finch converged on the goldfinch (below and out of sight in the photo).

There was this capture, of the male house finch coming in for a landing.

And this – my favorite – the goldfinch took off, the house finch in mid-air with wings folded back – wow.

Another house finch vs. goldfinch capture. The house finch is so much larger than the goldfinches.

This was another drama. The black-headed grosbeak had just settled into the feeder. See the wings on the left?

A starling comes to rest and chases the grosbeak off.

“Hey? Where did everyone go?” Starlings always assume they are popular, but everyone hates them.

Too bad I cut the top starling off. They are striking birds, just they are not native American birds. Highly invasive and a birder’s bane in North America.

Not sure if this is a starling or Brewer’s Blackbird (they flock together). Probably a starling. But a great capture.

Bumblebee on the ceanothus.

Honeybee on the Spanish Lavender.

Unknown bee on the ceanothus.

This trio of photos are of the black-headed grosbeaks. The female is less colorful, but not less pretty. The males can be mistaken for orioles. And in the last photo – a female grosbeak in the feeder with a band-tailed pigeon.

I never left home and still had an adventure. I love Oregon.