Backyard Food?

Sep 12 2014

BBQ is not the only food in my back yard. Here is a Coopers Hawk that flew in hoping for an easy lunch! I saw it fly in and land on the neighbors shed. I quickly put my telephoto lens on my camera. I opened the door quietly and was expecting it to fly away before I could get a shot of it.

It was perched on my fence right next to my finch feeder. I was able to get about 10 shots of it on the fence and one on the high wires where it flew to. They are a pretty bird. I was shooting in burst mode; its back was facing me, after the first shot it turned its head to the right to see me then stood up and looked before flying up to the wires.

I used to see these hawks in my yard more often when I was feeding all the birds and got some nice photos of them over the years. I haven’t seen one for a while so was glad to get these photos of one.

More Hummer photos

Sept 21 2013

I have not set out to watch and take hummingbird photos this summer as much as I have in the past. Late August and September are best for getting photos anyway since they start their migration south and I always get more in here fighting over the feeders. I still had two in here yesterday, Sept. 20th and I believe that was the date I last saw any last year.I am ready for them to go; getting tired of keeping fresh sugar water out for them!

I have been busy visiting my wife in rehab after she had both knees replaced. She is doing well and hope to have her back home by next Thursday. I did have time to set out the other day and got some nice shots so I am sharing them with you. They are amazing little birds; weigh less than an ounce, can hover and fly any direction, fly a steady 35 mph and can reach 50 mph burst speed.

The Ruby Throated Hummingbirds we get east of the Mississippi River migrate here every summer from South America and go back in the fall. They make a 500 mile trip across the Gulf of Mexico but more and more they are following the coast into Texas and North.

Hummers are Headed South

Aug 30 2013

In about 20 years photographing humming birds I finally got some decent photos of two doing a little aerial combat. Usually the battles are so quick and the two are gone before I can ever get a shot. These two today seemed to not be that aggressive and they were staying close to the one feeder. I sat in a chair about 10 feet away and shot 80 photos.

The hardest part is getting the birds in focus; the birds are too small for me and the camera to get a good focus on the birds. I have to focus on the feeder and hope the birds will be in focus. After looking at the photos I could see the reason they were not that aggressive is it was two young birds and on the one I could see it was a young male just starting to get his red throat. They were probably born around here and not transients.

This time of year they are starting their migration south. I think my place is marked on their built in maps as a place to stop and tank up a day or two. For the past two weeks I have seen them a lot every day. Here are four of the better shots I took.

Why do I Blog?

Why do I blog? I guess the simplest answer is I like to cook and like to share. My hobbies over the years have been cooking and photography. Recently at a family gathering my wife was telling one of my cousins & his wife that I liked to cook and I always had to take photos of my cooking. My cousin looked at me with a confused look & said “What the heck do you do that for?” I answered because I like to. I should have said for the same reason you take pictures of your horses and carry that album to show everyone. He and his wife have been avid horse people and have seven riding horses.

You won’t find pro looking photos here but I take the clearest & sharpest photos I can. I don’t have the time to take my plates to a light tent to take the photos. What I cook I eat and I like hot food so my backdrops are my cupboard top, my range top, my smoker, and my dining room table. This way I can get the photos over with quick and sit down to eat and enjoy.

My Mother was a great cook, she could throw a good meal together quicker than anyone I know. My favorite from her was baked smothered steak, cheesy scalloped potatoes, & corn pudding. She used to do some great porterhouse steaks too, as big as a plate.

My wife’s Mother and her sister, of German descent, were great cooks. Her Mother fried the best chicken & wild rabbit you ever ate. She also made fried squirrel then simmered it slow in gravy, delicious. I was glad she showed my wife how to do Knopfles, German drop noodles. My wife’s aunt made the best hot German potato salad. It was so good that is all you wanted for a meal. I have her recipe but cannot do it like she did.

My wife was not a very good cook when we got married. She says she never told me she was a good cook, only that she was good at typing and taking shorthand. She did turn into a pretty good cook before I took over. I was laid off one summer so she went to work to help out. I had to cook for our daughter & son and that’s when I learned to appreciate the work a woman usually does. I would get the kitchen cleaned up after lunch & only had an hour or two to relax before it was time to fix supper for when the wife came home. I kinda took over the cooking after that but did full time after I got on day shift for my last 10 years of working. She does most all the clean up and that works out good.

So I just enjoy doing this blog, I hope people from all over the world can enjoy my site, my cooking, & some of my recipes. In this way maybe I can spread some good will. Our Governments don’t seem to do a very good job of it!

Below is two of my best bird photos from the summer. A Goldfinch perched on a dead cone flower, for the seeds.

Smokin Don

Photography, Goldfinches

I think my new smokin deck will serve one of my other hobbies too, bird photography. It puts me closer to one of my hummingbird feeders. After lunch today I sat out for awhile trying for a hummingbird shot. I have an upside down thistle seed feeder for Goldfinch’s. They are the only bird that can hang upside down & eat. This makes them able to feed on some of their natural food like sunflowers. I have plenty of photos of them on the feeder & a few decent ones of them on sunflowers. At the corner of my house I have a bed of blackeyed suzans, cone flowers, that come up every year & the Goldfinches feed on them at times but could never get a good shot of them. While sitting there today I saw one on the cone flowers. I stood up slowly & shot 38 shots. 20 of them were good. I have an Olympus E620 & use a 50-300MM lens for my bird photos. It is a good lens for birds if I am close & there is a lot of sunshine. It doesn’t do too good in low light, at least for birds.
I found for the hummingbirds I could get the best photos using the sports mode, it gives me a low aperture & fast speed, which will at times be fast enough to stop the fast beating wings of a hummingbird, when they are in full back stroke or full forward stroke. Their little wings move fast enough you need a good strobe flash the stop them in mid stroke. This also gives me a shallow depth of field, the bird is in focus & background blurred so this works out good for other birds too. This is some of the best shots I have of a Goldfinch. They are starting to lose their summer yellow color. Photos were cropped & slightly enhanced using Photoshop Elements.

Some of my Photography

For a little change of pace from cooking to see my other hobby photography. I love to take bird & butterfly photos. Here is a Yellow Tiger Swallowtail I caught the other day on one of my Purple Verbena's & a little while later caught a Monarch on a Red Verbena.

Yellow Tiger Swallowtail

Monarch