/362 - Thanksgiving

Some moody pictures taken today which don’t at all reflect how I feel about today.

Spent a nice day with Ash and Emi. Watched movies, played a little music, video-chatted with friends. Took a walk at Mendon Ponds in the gray misty rain. Heard a strange thumping and looked up to see a pileated woodpecker. Unfortunately not close enough for a pic, but I had the binoculars so we all got to take a close peak. We had one in our yard for a split second once, so it was really cool to see another. Further along, there’s an area of the trail known for the birds coming to eat from your hand. I’ve been here with the ladies before and never put my hand out, but today I did. So amazing and wonderful to have these tiny creature land on a finger, cock their head and look at you. Ash said she heard me giggle. haha Come back, made a great dinner, watched Charlie Brown and at 2 kinds of pie. Not too shabby for a day.

It was weird and wanting not being able to be with the rest of our families today, knowing that feeling was being shared all around us. Still — very thankful for our health, our friend’s/family’s health and prosperity. Hope we can all be back together soon.

/341 - Changing of the Guard

The usual crew is still around (minus the Goldfinches — haven’t seen them in quite awhile) but there’s also some changes in the yard. The cardinals are back, I hear them chip chip chipping very early every morning. The house finches (red, top right) have been around more lately after being gone most of the summer. I’ve seen the dark-eyed juncos (bottom left) a few times, but they take off as soon as they see me and don’t come back for a week or more.

Lastly — the wrens. We don’t see them all that much, but I do hear them and they pop up regfularly enough that it seems like they’re sticking around. The other day Emi and I went into the garage and I could hear them so clearly I thought that maybe they had somehow gotten in there. Turns out they’ve made themselves at home in the brush pile and didn’t seem to care at all that we had our faces pushed right up against the garage window to watch them. They’re sort of our favorites.

/326 - Different Lately

We’re all happy that the woodpeckers are back a lot more regularly since we put the suet out. The hairy woodpecker comes around a lot more than it used to, even if it has to fend off the jays and doves that are typically camping on the platform feeder.

A few weeks ago I saw a large something land in the neighbor’s tree, about 20 feet from us. Managed to grab the camera and get a few shots through the window of this incredible peregrine falcon. Never seen one before, much less in our yard. It just sat there slowly looking around as all the birds made a crazy amount of noise. Haven’t seen it since.

The goldfinches disappeared for about a month, but recently returned in their winter plumage.

We have still been seeing the wren around here and there (and once I even saw a pair together) but he’s still proving an elusive capture. This day I saw him on the platform and when I moved to grab the camera he flew up to the roof to belt out a song. One snap and then he disappeared.

/309 - Sundaze

This is a picture of a wren. I thought I saw one for the first time the other day, but have been doubting myself because it was quick and I haven’t seen it again. Tonight just before dusk I heard a lot of sound coming from the back porch and spied this little one singing its heart out. Then it flew up and hid in one of the hanging plants. It was too dark so the picture blurred. Still happy about it.

This is a short recording of some piano and pitched loops. Happy about it.

298 - Suet To It

When we stopped putting out suet cakes for the birds the woodpeckers almost completely stopped coming to our feeders aside from an occasional peanut grab. Since the weather is getting cooler (it melts in the heat) we are now able to put homemade peanut suet so Emi and I made a batch from this recipe I found online. The only change I made was to use up some cashew butter we had in the pantry. I put 2 cakes out — one with the front feeders and 1 below the platform in the back — and they were busy almost immediately. We had visits from the male and female downy woodpecker, the mail red-bellied woodpecker, and the male hairy woodpecker, who very rarely came around before. Not only that but also the red-breasted nuthatch who we’ve only seen once before. The only one missing is the northern flicker, but hopefully he will come back too. Very, very happy with how this turned out.

/294 - "Weekends"

Weekends fill up with things so fast. Spent most of the day working on chores, which were necessary but not very glamorous. I did get the platform feeder up on a more steady pole though, and the birds seem to like it a lot. It’s right outside the office so I sat here for awhile watching the chickadees and titmice play with each other. Pretty funny! I’m going to make a bracket so I can attach a few peanut suet blocks below the feeders since it’s getting cool enough that it won’t melt. The woodpeckers will be very happy.

/291 - Visitors, The Changing

I got the platform feeder up today, but by the time we finished, then had dinner/bath/bedtime it was too dark for a good picture. The birds didn’t seem to notice it yet anyway. It’s right outside the office window so I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it.

Otherwise the feeders in the front yard are still hopping, from top left: Red-breasted nuthatch who we’ve only seen that one time; the teeny female hummingbird takes a rest; male downy woodpecker sneaking in to grab a sunflower seed while the house sparrows have their backs turned; goldfinch waiting for said sparrows to disperse; sign of (fading) summer; sign of autumn approaching.

/290 - The Good and The Bad/Ugly

L: The platform feeder Emi and I are building is turning out great. It’s currently hanging to dry the last coat of finish and should be ready to mount on the pole and put up tomorrow. Probably time to start researching DIY squirrel baffles.

R: Took Axoloti apart this morning to try reflowing the connections on the weak oled screen. There was no improvement so I decided to change it out and managed to drop a bead of hot solder on the good screen. It still works, but there’s a divot in the glass and a distortion in the display. Once again I am reminded to SLOW DOWN. Sigh.

/288 - It's Sunday?

Spent the first half of today somehow thinking it was Saturday. What a harsh realization.

Had a first go at fixing the failing oled screen on my Axoloti. All I really did was reflow the board connections since that’s all I could get to without taking it all apart. No luck. Next step is dig in deeper and take it apart so I can check the header connections, and then replace it if that still doesn’t work. If it is broken then it’s my fault — when I was putting it all together originally a stray nut was under the screen when I tried to tighten it down so it flexed a bit. I don’t think it enjoyed that, but I’m honestly surprised it’s lasted this long.

Emi and I also got the building done on the platform bird feeder project. It’s glued and clamped, just needs some sanding and a finish before we can put it up. It’s turned out great so far.

/287 - Inching Towards Mobility

Took my mobile mess out to the table this afternoon for testing. Still working on the Axoloti patch (and it appears that my damaged oled screen might finally be giving out, making it very hard to troubleshoot the patch) but things worked well running the jazzmaster into the mini > norns (mlr) > axo synth and reverb > portable speakers. Tons of variables so it definitely needs more use, but once I started playing it was a lot of fun.

The video is a synth drone with guitar loops playing from mlr, and live guitar over the top with bonus bird sounds. It was a beautiful day so the windows were open and the chickadees were really enjoying themselves at the feeders. Wasn’t planning on recording so it was done with the iphone mic. Sounds pretty decent, considering.

/263 - Visitors Come and Visitors Go

We’ve had hummingbird feeders up off and all summer, but have had no visitors that we had seen. And then this little lady showed up at the orange flowers near our main grouping of feeders out of nowhere. We have since put the hummingbird feeder back up and she’s been around multiple times every day this week. Such beautiful and fascinating little animals.

Meanwhile all the woodpeckers are mad at us because we stopped putting out suet. Total duh moment on our part not realizing that it’s made with beef fat. We’ll put up more when it gets cold enough for veggie peanut butter blocks to not melt all over the place. Hopefully they will come back.

/253 - A Veryful Day

We didn’t get any work done on the planters today. We did all go and take a walk in the park and visit the animals at Wild Wings Rescue. So amazing to see these (HUGE) birds up close.

Otherwise we just sort of laid low. Ash did some photo work while Emi and I played. Got to spend a bit of time with my guitar on the back porch — I should really do that more often. Between that and our morning in the woods I want to get a small travel setup together so I can go play music outside. I’ve never done anything like that, but it seems like it would be fun.

/231 - A Feederful

Our feeders continue to increase in activity and types of birds that visit, so much so that I started a list to keep track —

Common: House Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, American Robin, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay , White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse

Infrequent: Northern Flicker, Brown-headed Cowbird, Mourning dove, Common Grackle

Rare: Baltimore Oriole, American Goldfinch, House Finch, Downy Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, European Starling

I never believed I would become a birder, but it’s been fascinating watching them and learning their habits. I should rig something up to be able to record them so that they can’t land on the zoom or mics.

/210 - The Birds

No offense to the sparrows, but we’re finally starting to see more color in the yard/at the feeders. Managed to get this picture of the Northern Flicker (L) and Goldfinch. The goldfinch was there for quite awhile, going to town on sunflower seeds. Meanwhile the magic finch sock went untouched.

/186 - Critters

The tadpoles have taken over the pond and the birds have finally found our window box.

Ash and I both installed the Cornell Lab Merlin app and have been trying to id all the different birds we have coming to the feeders in our yard. As much as I love animals I never gave birds that much thought, but between getting the field recorder and having so many around us all the time, I find myself always looking for them these days.

/176 - Dawn Chorus

We forgot to water the garden last night so I was out there very early today and brought the h4n. Despite living so close to the school and some main intersections (we’re on a dead end street) we’ve always got a yard full of activity. It’s very nice, even if the huge yard can be a lot to take care of. I like to leave it as wild as I can though. ;)

/170 - Visitors

Ashley got a window feeder for her birthay a few years ago — the kind with a one-way mirror so the birds can’t see you as the fly inside to grab the seed. She and Emi put it in the window this afternoon and we immediately had a lot of traffic around the window as the birds (and others) tried to figure out what it was and how to get into it. I ended up having to move it to another window because the squirrels figured out that they could use the planter crook as a springboard to raid the feeder. On the other side there’s nothing to assist them but I assume they will figure it out eventually anyway.

I’ve never seen an Oriole before, so was pretty happy I happened to walk by when it was there and that it hung around long enough for me to run and get the camera.

/094 - Back To The Park

Stopped at the park this morning after not having gone for quite a few weeks. It was still cold, but definite signs that spring is trying to break through. I sat and stared at the choppy lake and listened to the birds for awhile before having to admit that I was going to be late to work.

/088 - Flutter

It was warm (and therefore soggy) again today and the bird feeders were full of life. Put the recorder out on the porch and got about 5 minutes of very active conversation between 6-8 house sparrows that live under our eaves. I don’t think they were happy watching the squirrels eat all the seed.

Played around with the file a bit in Audacity and pretty happy with how clean the audio came out.

/087 - Dawn Chorus

The sky was much brighter on my way into work this morning. I also saw several large flocks of birds along the way. Of course, by the time I managed to get to a safe spot to pull over most of them were already gone behind the trees.