For my birthday, the wonderful Mr. Red House got me a telephoto lens for my camera. I took it out for a test run and had so much fun getting close-up pictures of the birds.
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| Red-bellied Woodpecker |
This guy is a frequent visitor of the Red House Garden. He first came to my attention when I pulled open the blinds in an upstairs room only to look into the startled eyes of the woodpecker on the other side. He was perched on the edge of the roof holding a large seed in his beak. I don't know who was more surprised, me or him! He stared at me for a long second, apparently decided I was harmless, and then went about tucking the seed under the eave of the roof.
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| Here you can see red patch on the belly for which the Red-bellied Woodpecker is named. |
I've seen him up on the edge of the roof several more times, sometimes peering at me over the edge of the gutter. Red-bellied Woodpeckers will store food in the crevices of tree bark or fence posts for later. They obviously sometimes store food under roof eaves as well!
Some other photogenic and common visitors to my bird feeder are Tufted Titmice, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Carolina Chickadees.
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| Tufted Titmouse |
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| Dark-eyed Junco |
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| Carolina Chickadee |
With the telephoto lens, I could sit on the other side of the yard and still get close-up pictures of the birds at the bird feeder. There were one or two shy birds who still looked over at me and checked me out before getting seeds, but most ignored me, as I was so far away. This will also be a big help in identifying the various species that come to my garden, which has been a challenge for me with all the different birds.
I'm definitely going to enjoy this lens!
