This past week, I spent some time outside watching Mom and Dad Bluebird go in and out of the nest. I haven't peaked yet to see how many baby Blues are in the nest, but I'll bet there are at least four!!!!
I have a new toy... George bought us a Radio Frequency Shutter Release... To put that in 'my' terms, it's like a remote control for the camera... I can set the tripod up near a spot (like the nestbox) ---and sit WAY back out of the way. When one of the birds would go to the nest, I would CLICK that photo... Later on, I just sat quietly on the back deck with camera in hand, and both Mom and Dad Blue came to the feeders... I got some great pictures of Dad---as he just took a 'rest' and sat on the feeder plate for a long time...
Hope you enjoy today's pictures, and I'm sure I'll be using that new gadget again soon. Above is a picture of Mama peaking out of the nestbox... Be sure and click on the photos to see larger views.
This is a picture of Daddy Blue at the nestbox. Dad's colors are much brighter than Mom's.. She has blue in her --but it is a dull blue.
For comparison, here's Mama Blue at the nestbox...
Can you tell what that is????? Mama was going into the nest to feed her babies... You can see her 'backside' in this photo... I'm sure she would tell me that that is not a very nice photo to post!!!!! ha
The rest of these pictures were taken while I just sat quietly on the deck... I took a trillion of Daddy Blue as he posed for the camera! Isn't he just gorgeous??? AND--he's a good Daddy... He protects the nest when the Blue Jays are around ---and he is so good to Mama Blue... He is the one who goes in the nest and gets rid of the fecal sac (poop) --since they are very clean birds.
Similar picture --but they were all so good that I had a hard time choosing one over the other... I was just thrilled that he trusted me enough to just sit there while I snapped the pictures... (I wasn't very far from him.)
I loved the way he cocked his head ---looking all around as he still was protecting his 'area'.
Mom came to the feeder --but didn't stay as long. I did manage to get one good picture of her... She's not as pretty ---but is gorgeous in her own way. These are going to be two great parents. I can't wait to see the little ones!!!!
Here's one more picture of Mr. Blue.... I just couldn't stop snapping!!!! He's one Proud Papa!!!!
Hope you enjoyed my Eastern Bluebirds. They are always a favorite of mine.
Have a wonderful day... I hope to start catching up with your blogs today... I've just been extremely busy this week... Let me know if I miss anything that you want me to see.. Thanks!!!
Hugs,
Betsy
74 comments:
y mother's favorite bird... your photos are just spectacular Betsy! Regards, Larry
Camara trasera I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that I really have enjoyed your well-written articles. I have bookmarked this site and will definitely be checking back for new posts.
I love blue birds. Great photos.
Loving the birdies....I've always wondered about the things photographers do to get those great bird shots. Have a beautiful day!!!
Those pictures are gems!..Anxious to see and hear more as your family grows up.
What a beautiful couple! I really like the nestbox, did George make that? The RF Shutter Realease sounds like a really cool gadget and from the looks of these great photos, it works very well!
Wonderful pictures of your Bluebirds, Betsy! I hope you enjoy your new remote release!!!!
I've never seen a blue bird of any kind in real life. I wish I could. They look beautiful!
Happy Wednesday Betsy!
xo Catherine
We have at least two...maybe three nests of these in the yard. Two males are still fighting for a female! But the others are sitting on eggs! Great photos.
Those Bluebirds are gorgeous. Jake used to have a remote control for his camera,it worked so well,but it didn't work for the new cameras.Have fun getting more pictures to share here.
i re-write: good morning dear betsy,
i really enjoyed your photos. i love bluebirds. i think they are about the prettiest of birds they are.
wish you a lovely, blessed day!
xoxo
LOVED this post. And I want one of those gadgets. Bluebirds are just so darned cute. We have them here but not in the desert. They like the mountain areas.
Love these pics of the bluebirds! I'm on hummingbird watch...have my feeder positioned where I can see it from where I sit to do computer work. Am hoping to see one before we leave on our summer adventure. Have you seen one yet?
Great pictures of the bluebirds!Thanks for sharing.
I love George's type of toys!! He's a keeper!!
Oh, I really need one of those controls.
I came home from work Monday evening and to my dismay, the house my bluebirds are nesting in had blown over in the high winds we had:(
I got it set back up again and secured it with some rocks around the bottom.
I did peek in to see if the eggs were okay, and not one of them broke. There were six eggs!!!
The bluebirds came back as soon as I left!
They didn't thank me but I told them "Your Welcome" anyway.
Great photos of "Daddy Blue", Betsy. Your new remote control is causing temptation to covet, however. ☺ I haven't seen a bluebird down here yet...but expect they will soon show up.
Great pictures of the bluebirds - can't wait to see the babies.
Thank you Betsy for my Blue Bird fix. Sadly, the English Sparrows ran off my Blues. Now I can only enjoy pictures.
i love your blue birds, we don't have them here. cute butt shot. and in the first one, if he gains an oz he might not fit through the hole.
i saw the clicker gadget on a video i watched with Rich on how to take macor shots. using a small tripod and one of those remote clickers. he said it stops the camera movement and makes sharper photos. i wondered if there was one for our camera so now i know there is. also good for taking photos of your self and george, just click when you are ready
very sweet. and i like that natural bird house. :)
I love the bird house! And, of course, blue birds are one of my favorites. I was thinking my bluebirds had left the country because I hadn't seen them in a while. But as I was sitting on my patio yesterday evening, one flew quickly into view. I just happened to have the camera nearby and got a quick shot. They are so skittish and won't sit still for long! I think the sparrows are trying to run then off, I've seen them around their bird house. Hope we can keep them. We used to have many more than we do this year. Have a nice day!
These Eastern Bluebirds are so colorful and pretty. Is that a cut off tree, or is that a house that you purchased? How nice of George to purchase such a wonderful gift..I can only guess that this is going to be used a whole lot!
Have a fabulous day.
shug
These shots are incredible. Sadly, Blues don't exist in Hawaii.
They showed a lot of trust in you while you were shooting
I love your beautiful bluebirds!! And what incredibly wonderful captures of them, Betsy! Thanks for sharing and starting my day with a smile! Enjoy your day!
Sylvia
Fantastic Photo's.
My nest box had 4 eggs in it. But after not seeing any activity in a while I checked and the eggs were gone and another bird had laid eggs in a smaller nest it built within the Blue bird nest. I would imagine a snake got to the nest and ate the eggs. I've had that problem before.
Wonderful pictures and I fell in love with those birds. Youare so lucky to witness these!
I'm so glad you posted these, we never have any so now I can enjoy the goings on of yours this spring and summer. I can't wait to see the babies!!!! So this thing is like a remote control for the camera? You aim the camera at what you want, then go off somewhere and you can snap from afar. What will they think of next? I've been forgetting to tell you how much i love your header!
Your bird photos and your observations of the them are always cute. Some nifty gadget Mr. George bought.
Love the bluebird photos! They are so good and so many of them! I lack the patience, luck and skill to do much with bird photos. Thank you for sharing them!
The photos came out great! Hope you are able to get some great shots of the babies, too.
We don't get many bluebirds in our yard. Could be the three kitty cats that live here :)
We have bluebirds nesting but I just can't seem to get any good pics. You know, I have a remote shutter release and I've never used it. I don't know why. :)
Dad is beautiful and posed well for you but I do really like the light on Mom. That photo is gorgeous!
Oh my, what a wonderful gift and your photos of those bluebirds are fantastic. I also love the nesting box. You've given me a great idea on the remote shutter release, thanks George! :)
Yes, I sure did enjoy all of those beautiful photos. I just love blue birds. That little gadget is great to let you get such great close up pictures.
what an amazing device to grab glorious
photos! this was such a treat!!
Oh, Betsy! These are awesome photos of the blue birds. I love them. They are my favorite birds. I loved this posting.
These are wonderful captures!!! Bluebirds are just so blue...and so pretty.
Oh!!! They are so cute!!! Loved the pics and your narration too :)
what a neat little gadget. You got some great shots. Can't wait to see how many little ones there are
Great pictures, Betsy! Your new "toy" sounds like fun. I bet you will use that a lot. :)
Loved visiting with you and your bluebirds and seeing the results of your getting acquainted with your new toy!! Beautiful results! Lovely portraits of the Blues!!
Hi Betrsy, Nicely done! outstanding photographs of the Eastern Bluebirds and their nesting house. I am hoping to get my long Sigma lens to the shop for some needed adjustments soon. My lens is having focus trouble. Have a great day tomorrow - touch of thunder earlier tonight here. Maybe some thunder around tomorrow, who knows.
Betsy,
I love Mr. Bluebird...Nicholas was looking over my shoulder and said he loved the photos and then I had to go back and show him picture by picture...you have a new fan!
:)
You see you think George got you a present - but he really got all of us a present. I can't tell you how much fun it was to see your pictures and hear your story. I never even thought about fecal matter in a nest. I learn something new every day. Phew. And why are males always more colorful? love, sandie
Dear Betsy, I love seeing all these pics of the Blue Family...how exciting to sit sooo close to Daddy Blue! My Tufted Titmouse will let me sit fairly close to the feeder, but the Cardinals stay away and loudly discuss how difficult I am! Cute butt shot of Mama Blue!
My Bluebirds didn't build in the nest box this year and I thought I saw the Chickadee checking it out, but so far there are no renters.
I wonder how many eggs are in your nestbox? When you say 'baby blues' I think of Frank Sinatra or Paul Newman...*smile*.
I hope you like my blog post today...it has a few bird pictures in it, too.
Enjoy your day.
What a wonderful toy George got you--thanks George! Such great pictures of the bluebirds.
Very pretty photos, Betsy. We are enjoying our bluebird family also. Congrats on the new remote control - I know you'll enjoy that. Have a nice evening.
Beautiful! I want that gadget! I'm gonna check them out in a hurry. there is a hummingbird sitting on eggs right out now in our back yard.
What a great gift!! Lovely little toy to have. Love the closeups on the birds....I think I would have been taking pictures the whole day:) And then finding more places to hide the camera:) Enjoy your Thursday! Chris
You must have a very good camera and patience to capture these. Very good shots.
By the way, do you know there is many dialects in Chinese? One of it is Hokkien dialect. Direct translation of Blue Bird in Hokkien is "Lam Chiao" but in Cantonese the word is considered as a four letters words. Bad word . Funny ya, language all over the world
kathy
http://www.smallkucing.com
http://mamakucingbooks.blogspot.com
I love these photos!!! I just love watching the magpies and black birds that fill the parks across the street from me!And the black bird's songs... sublime!
Blessings!
I just LOVE your birdhouse!
That remote thingie would be so ideal for birding. Especially in the backyard. Ohhhhhhhhh, how I love the one photo you got of Mr. Blue tilting its head as if he were posing for the photographer...you!!!!
WINGS TO FLY is my Thursday Post Link. Stop by if you can. I'd love your company!!
That sounds like a wonderful new toy. As always your photos are great. I too love to sit and watch bluebirds as they are not only wonderful parents but are just too gorgeous for words. I love to see the sun play on their colorful feathers. Peace
Awesome shots, Betsy.
Those are wonderful photos, Betsy! I'm amazed that the bluebirds would let you get so close---you must be the "bird whisperer." :-) Two out of three of our bluebird houses are occupied, but our bluebirds seem a bit skittish, so no shots for me yet.
Have a great weekend!
These are wonderful, Betsy. You are so blessed to have a bluebird family literally in your back yard.
Wonderful shots, Betsy. I would like to try out a remote control devise too. What a nice hubby you have. Always thinking of ways to make you happy. MB
So glad I stopped by today...spent a bit of time this morning photographing my eastern bluebirds, but they were very wary. There are 4 eggs in the nest. These are terrific shots...I might have to look into a remote!
As always Betsy, you have captured the beauty ofNature itself.
What a thrill to have a family of Blue birds close enough to photograph from your deck. Daddy blue is gorgeous and Momma looks so sweet.
Thanks for sharing the beauty, Betsy.
Great photos of the bluebirds, Betsy!
Your new gadget sounds perfect for some sneak peaks of the birds going in and out of the nest.
Oh they are so pretty and you take pretty pictures of them Betsy.
I love your bird pictures - - so very clear.
I tried to play 'catch-up' on the blogs - - but was so far behind that I just decided to start reading fresh again this week!
Those are such beautiful photos. You phots captured daddy blues colors so perfectly. I just ran across your blog while I was surfing along. I will be back to read and see more. You have a very interesting blog.
Oh those photos are great! Bluebirds are so sweet! And you'll get a lot of fun off of that remote control unit for the camera, LOL!
I am having deja vu...I think maybe you posted about bluebirds sometime in the past and I commented on that post...but I just have to say that I love these birds and am happy to see pictures because we get very few of them down here. I have only seen one in Florida and that was 7 or 8 years ago. I have had a handful of other bluebird sightings over the years, but always in other states.
Wonderful new toy! Glad you see you are getting such good shots with it.
Since I had missed this post about the Bluebird family went back to read more. I always get a chuckle in the Lord's sense of humor in making the male of the species "standout" handsome while the female is a bit drab by comparison. No wonder the males of the species are so cocky (of course not my Terry or your George). Your new gadget is wonderful! Your photos are magnificent. After seeing the "family", I feel worse about whatever happened to momma and babies. Wonder where daddy was when it happened? Again, sorry for your loss of these beautiful birds.
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