John Hamil Photographs

December's Birds on Johnson Creek

Silly is the only way I can describe myself trying to take a photo leaning out the window with the treadmill’s belt moving at a constant 4 mph, my headphone wires wrapped around the treadmill's handgrips.  I don’t get much more of an opportunity to consider my frame than to try to time the swings of a windblown limb or the turns of the suet cage.  Most of these photos are taken at a range that the birds are such a small part of the frame that I have no real idea of what I’ve got until I zoom into the photo on my computer.  I am glad to see that the distressed looking bushtit who got inside the suet cage can be as acrobatic as I feel though he'd best not eat too much.

There were no new visitors but the Thrushes were less timid and came close enough to the house that I could get decent enough images to be able to distinguish between the male and female.

And then there are the ususal suspects. The cold has brought in quite a few birds. Weather or chance has given me better photos of nearly all of these but it never hurts to try. I am missing a December photo of the Nuthatch even though they were fairly busy all month.

I also missed getting an image of the Robin who landed on the birdbath on Christmas day.

The finches and siskins have kept up their presence.

The Towhees seem to be in competition with the Varied Thrushes. The Thruses have a wider range so the Towhees come in when the Thrushes leave.

Song Sparrows have taken over the shrubs near the bird feeder. The way they scurry through the beds I am surprised more are not food for Emily.

I 've been bringing in the hummingbird feeder on the sub freezing nights.

I've come to the end of a year's worth of birds in my backyard. I've taken over 12,000 pictures since last January. For anyone who's tried to keep up with these pages count yourself lucky I've culled as many as I have. I've been posting about 25 a month depending on what I thought was worthwhile at the time. Sometimes I've felt myself fortunate to be able to identify a bird that was new to me. Some images have been posted to see how a kind of bird changes throughout the year. Some have just been good pictures. I've been sorting each months pictures and have about 70 that make exceptional prints.

Addendum2011