...said the Spider to the Fly

Here's a little drama... I saw this commotion outside my office window a while ago. Seems a dragonfly's GPS guided the hapless insect smack into this garden spider's web. It only took a minute for the spider to "pacify" the dragonfly, wrap it for transport, and cut it loose from it's moorings. Guess it's stored for winter by now.

We've gotten used to these large, but (supposedly) harmless, arachnids that haunt the eaves that surround our old farmhouse. It's live and let live!

Morning Coffee with the Evening Grosbeaks

This platform feeder I built onto an old fence post has proven a winner from day one. Groups of jays, crows, blackbirds, siskins, finches, grosbeaks, chickadees, sparrows of all kinds, and, of course, SQUIRRELS, enjoy the free lunch from morning 'til night.

I'm going to try growing patches of sunflowers this year to see if I can cut down the expense of buying black oil sunflower seed for these critters. I hope they don't get too disappointed when I shut down my feathered restaurants for the summer and autumn. There's plenty to eat without me footing the bill, so to speak.

Here's a few more of our feathered friends

Yup... More of dem CDs

Some people might wonder why I stand around in bone-chilling temperatures waiting to take a picture of chickadees. Sometimes I wonder myself. But every once in a 100 pictures or so I get lucky. I think the psychological principle of "intermittent reinforcement" is hard at work encouraging me to try again and again.

Spear'd One!

Thank you to this pretty Chickadee for posing with a black oil seed impaled on its beak.

Chickadee taking a one second rest.

As anyone who's tried to capture an image of a chickadee will attest these critters are fast! It's rare when one will pause for more than one second before a hectic flit to another branch. About the only variation from this schedule is when they've retrieved a black oil sunflower seed from the feeder and now, to open it, must trap it between their "talons" and the branch and whack away at it with their beak until they get to the "meat" inside. Reminds me of my attempts to open a package of frozen food.

Chickadees are also difficult to photograph well. Their heads and eyes are dead matt black while their cheeks are almost pure fluffy white. Expose for the black and the white parts will disappear. Expose for the white part and the head has all the charm of a lump of coal. They also have the uncanny knack of pointing their tail end toward the camera most of the time.

Early morning spider web

The early morning sun catches this magnificent web. We have lots of huge "garden" spiders that we just co-exist with. Apparently they catch all sorts of mosquitos and other annoying insects. They don't bother us humans (yet) so it's live and let live.

Bee on chives

The challenge to successfully capture an image of an insect "doing its thing" on the flora is perhaps even more exciting than the resulting picture. Sometimes it's enough that the darned thing is not blurry!

Fleeing Irene

Hurricane Irene blew past us August 28 & 29, 2011. First came the drenching rains. Then the wind. By mid-morning on the 29th we were out enjoying the gusty winds while picking up fallen branches. I say "enjoying" because whatever black flies and mosquitos had been here on the 28th were now several counties away! Yea!

Chickadee on Short Takeoff!

I seem to have startled this black-capped chickadee.

Early Morning Paddle

It's really depressing to know there are those who wouldn't hesitate for a second to destroy this entire habitat by plunking down an oil well.

Evening Grosbeak (male)

These colourful characters arrive in groups at our feeder even on a sub-zero winter day. This good-looking guy patiently waited for me to get my camera to capture his close-up through the front window.

Ruffed Grouse 2

Berry pickin'

Black-capped Chickadee 3

These little guys and gals seem impervious to the cold. I've seen them searching for seeds at -40C - in fact, my book tells me they spend 20 times as long in these temperatures searching for food as they do in summer. Me too.

Black-capped Chickadee 2

It states in my book that these birds can be enticed to land on a hand that's offering sunflower seeds but I haven't tried. It takes all I can do to just follow them with my camera flitting from branch to branch.

Ruffed Grouse

Both the Spruce and Ruffed Grouse take to the trees in autumn looking for berries.

Spruce Grouse

These birds are quite tame and trusting. They often just wander out in the open assuming their camoflage will protect them. Guess that's why their nickname is "Fools Hen."

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

These fascinating butterflies float like yellow snowflakes from flower to flower searching for nectar in apple blossom time in Saskatchewan.

Green-winged Teal

The Green-winged Teal is a fast, evasive flyer but like all ducks is flightless during the summer moult. I must have waited an hour for this male to paddle into position in the reeds for his portrait.

Honey bee stopping by