Glorious Birds

It's that time of year again when I keep the feeder full and watch the beautiful birds come to feast. I have a mixture of corn, sunflower seeds and millet out for them along with a suet and it's really bringing the birds in lately. Yesterday, I had chicadees, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, a nuthatch, a downy and a hairy woodpecker. Not to mention chipmunks and squirrels.

There are few things in this world that bring me as much pleasure as my bird feeder does. There is something about the cheerfulness that birds seem to approach life that lifts my spirit. Both wild and domestic birds seem to be such optimistic, content animals that I can't help but feel the affect of their attitude on my own attitude.

I am hoping to take more pictures of the birds from the screen porch. I took these of the chicadees as I stood a few feet away with my 70-300 mm lens on my camera. The lighting was decent and the chicadees were calm enough to let me get quite close. When they would hear my shutter close, they would fly back to the bush, but would quickly return. The second photo below was a fluke, but I really like how it turned out. I only wish the whole bird would have been captured.

Quote:

"One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats."

--Iris Murdoch