Black-capped Chickadee, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. Chickadees are reliable. They are everywhere, at least here in the northeast, and they are always there…even on the quietest day…even when we are under stay-at-home orders. 🙂 Occasionally one will strike a pose that lifts the photo out of the ordinary. It does not take much…in this case the angle of the head and way the light strikes and kindles the eye. In most photos the chickadee eye looks completely dark. Here you can see the rich brown iris. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

This is the male of the pair of Eastern Bluebirds that frequent our yard here in Kennebunk, Maine, USA. They started coming three years ago, and this same pair (I assume) comes back every year. They are actually here during all but bleak mid-winter. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

American Goldfinch, Kennebunk, Maine USA

The Goldfinches come to the feeder a few times a day. I have thistle out for them, but they also visit the mixed seed feeders. They are skitterish and I had to wait a long time on the deck to get this one to come in while I was there. This, I think, is a spring male, perhaps last years juvenile just coming into its summer plumage. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

White-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. Nuthatches are notorious for feeding upside down…so this one was right in its element hanging off the bottom of our squirrel-proof suet feeder. It might look difficult, and would be for us, but it is all in a day’s work for the nuthatch. 🙂 And certainly a lesson we might want to learn, in our pandemic “turned upside down” world. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Black-capped Chickadee, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. Still having fun watching birds and taking photos under the back deck feeders while we wait out the pandemic. I have ordered a pop-up photo blind and some more feeders for a photo station out under the trees in our backyard, but until they come and I get that set up, I am just being as patient and as still as I can on the back deck. The chickadees, are always cooperative. My goal with Black-capped Chickadees is to expose so that you can see the eye in the dark mask. Not always easy. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Eastern Bluebird, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. Sitting under the feeders during our pandemic isolation here in Kennebunk, the Bluebirds did eventually come in close. This is the female. I am still waiting for a photo of the male of this pair. They do not nest in our yard…though we have invited them by putting up a box…but I think I have found the box where they do next, about 2 blocks away. They come for the meal worms I put out, and they will bring their chicks when they fledge, later this summer. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Another shot from my back deck feeder watch. A female Downy Woodpecker, attracted to my suet feeder and taking a rest after eating on one of my perches. Too close to fit the whole bird in a 600mm equivalent frame. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

White-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. Another bird from our back deck feeding station. We have a suet feeder in a cage to defeat the squirrels. It took the birds a while to figure it out, but they did. And it does keep the squirrels out of the suet and saves a lot more for the birds. 🙂 Both woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatches hang from the bottom of the feeder to get at the suet. Red-breasted Nuthatches, Chickadees, and Titmice go through the outer cage and use the suet feeder inside just as they would if it were free hanging. It is raining today, but I will still try to sit out under the feeders for a while, in all my rain gear and with camera in its rain jacket, just to continue convincing the birds that I am harmless. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.