Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Wild Bird Wednesday


The Chickadee dee dees ...

I am not going to apologize for the crappiness of these pictures.  I am trying to tell a story here and this little group was most uncooperative. Flying, flitting, hopping, twittering and tweeting among the leaves of my trees and any time I got close enough to be able to focus manually, the whole group would zip around the corner of the house, out of sight, but not out of mind.  It took me several days to get these and I decided to just go with it.






















There are two parents and three babies.  In most pictures you can tell them apart because the babies still have blood (pin) feathers around their head and neck and my favorite part is that their feet are too big for their little bodies (the babies are about the size of a fat hummingbird :).  


This story is a little personal since these babies were raised right near my front door.  I tried taking pictures once, but Mom and Dad just sat in a bush nearby and scolded me. Rather than spook them, I have been walking big circles around this little house for weeks ... so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see them in my tree by my feeders.  That's my WBW ...  now, Happy WBW  to all of you, as well.

Andrea

15 comments:

Kmcblackburn said...

You're a good host to not disturb your little bird family! So glad you finally were able to get a peek!

Elephant's Child said...

Oh wow. WHAT a privilege.
And those little birds move faster (and about as predictably) as greased lightening don't they?

sunshine said...

Great to have such a family in the garden.

eileeninmd said...

What a cute chickadee family.. You are lucky to see the young ones at your feeders.. Great series, thanks for sharing!

Brian King said...

How cool to have them nesting at your place! Nice job with the various photos - they're fast little buggers!

Anonymous said...

Such a sweet family to have so near. I am enjoying watching the young birds learn to hold on the landings.

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

HI Andrea Well that is wonderful and you perseverance has paid offf with a lovely story and shots to go with it. Very special.

Stewart M said...

Wonderful little birds - we had some very similar birds feeding on peanut feeders around one of the houses we stayed in recently in the UK.

I assumed that you had a twitchy trigger finger when I saw lots of (the same) comment pop up - never mind! As far as I know the US to OZ is about 1.1 - i.e. you get about 1.1 Australia per green back. If you are looking at prices, remember that tax is already shown in the price of Australia stuff - in AZ the price was quoted without tax, and that messed me up a few times! I don't know if they do that in other states.

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

Susan said...

One of my favorite birds. The young ones are so cute with their big feet. What a pleasure to watch this sweet family in your yard!

Hootin Anni said...

Awwwwwwwww, I am so jealous.

And your nesting pot is really cool. I LIKE IT!! A lot.

Unknown said...

Cute little things!

NatureFootstep said...

best story I heard for weeks. :)

BumbleVee said...

Well, good for you...I still haven't managed to capture any chickadee dee dees ...so far...too quick for me... but, I'll get 'em ....see if I don't....

EG CameraGirl said...

How sweet they are! Chickadees sure can move quickly when they want to!

A Colorful World said...

So adorable! Not to worry about the "fuzzy" pictures...not disturbing the little family was more important, and the story is so sweet!

Rain Frances Creations ... Excuses, Excuses ...

Excuses, Excuses ... I post this picture every Christmas because every Christmas I seem to be overwhelmed with all there is to do to be read...