Appreciating Cardinals

It has been raining and gray here for days that feel like weeks. It seems to make the red cardinals stand out even more than usual. Click to enlarge.

It reminds me of something Terri Guillemets wrote:

"Winter is the slow-down

Winter is the search for self

Winter gives the silence you need to listen 

Winter goes gray so you can see your own colors..." 

On the technical side, when I was picturing red cardinals on gray backgrounds, I realized that although my camera can take a selectively colored photograph like that, I did not know how to change an existing color image to only show reds and grays. I figured out how to do it with Photoshop. (I have CS 5.) I opened this jpg and called it Layer 1. Then I chose Color Range from the Selection menu, and then Reds from the Selected Colors pull down. I copied that selection to a new layer. Then I used the Adjustment option from the Image menu to change Layer 1 to Black and White. That's it. Red cardinals on gray backgrounds.

Works well for house finches, too.

Guardian Crows

The bird feeders at my place are really busy these days. I see lots of chickadees that are, so far, too fast for me to photograph. The tufted titmouse above and all his relatives are busy all day taking seeds from the feeders and stashing them in secret places for later. 

Downy woodpeckers are busy pecking at seeds and suet. 

Here's a female downy waiting and watching. 

I can depend on visits from a few dozens lovely red house finches every day. 

Cute little white-breasted nuthatches flit between feeders and trees, hanging upside down to take seeds and running acrobatically along tree trunks and branches. Click to enlarge. 

All the bird activity attracts hawks. This is an immature red-tailed hawk. 

Its tail isn't red yet, just striped. It sits and watches the little birds at the feeder, looking for an opportunity to catch something tasty. 

But crows are also watching. They keep an eye on the hawks. Yesterday I heard a racket outside and when I looked, half a dozen crows were dive-bombing a red-tailed hawk that was sitting in a tree. When crows harass a predator like this, it's called "mobbing" -- they cooperate to bother the hawk, usually to keep it from messing with their young. The little birds at my feeders benefit, too. Thanks, guardian crows! 

Feeder Style

House finches were hanging around the bird feeders last week in the section of Central Park called the Ramble. Click to enlarge. 

In this picture a few of them are gathered on one of the homemade feeders -- a plastic bottle full of seeds with a hole and a perch on each side. The finches perch, reach in to take a seed, fly away. 

Then this white-breasted nuthatch showed up. 

Perch. Check. Reach in to take a seed? Nope -- it jumped inside and disappeared. 

After a moment it came out the other side, like a fast food drive through. 

A black-capped chickadee showed up. It went in one door and out the other, too. It's a thing!