So as to spoil my backyard birds even more I got a new setup just for the carolina wrens
This is the very first picture I shot
Oh yeah, I like this feeder!
It took the carolina wrens less than 1/2 hour to find it!
Yummy - the good stuff

Word spread fast!

Erm......this looks familiar somehow, Jane.

You mean like exactly cut and pasted! Shhhhh!!!

Thorny that bird picture you posted at shakepeare's grave is killing me... i think it is in a text I have!!! Darn you man!

That lady in England said she took it herself with her digital camera, but she coulda been pullin' my leg. I don't think it's a commercial photo; it looks too amateurish, although Great Quality1

JANE!!!

Those pictures are FABULOUS!!!
What camera did you say you were using again - don't mind me - I'll probably ask you a few more hundred times - I can't remember my name 1/2 these days!

That looks just like the wren I get here, but didn't Thorny say it was a different one here in NY?

Naw, Lynne, That's a Carolina Wren; you have them in New York. They are one of the most COMMON Wrens in the Eastern U.S. There was one at my suet feeders this afternoon. As a matter of fact, I have FIVE Carolina Wrens that live in MY yard. I don't feed them mealworms; mine prefer peanut flavored suet and Black Oil Sunflower Seeds.

Thorny.... trust me they prefer mealworms
But, in good weather will have to settle for peanuts and suet! I adore the carolina wren... he is such a busibody and you just don't know where he'll show up. And looking for "cheezeburger cheezeburger"

Lynne... Keeping in mind that professionals pay over $1000 for a stinkin' tripod and their cameras have car payments --- I love my camera.

I bought the sony cybershot (I paid $400 and I think newer and better is already out and mine is $300). Then we ordered the tele lens online for $100. I have never had a $500 camera set up. I never cared to until the birds!!!

My camera is 6 megapixels... that's new additional thing that matters to us onliners. You got your iso/f stop/ shutter speeds all that stuff that I leave on autopilot -- but more megapixels the better for on line. you can crop the hell out of a 10 megapixal picture and still have clarity.

Six was good when I bought my camera... but the newer cybershot I think are 10!!

I love my camera... but now they have 10 megapixals and I don't :p

Omg Jane.....you have done it again, they are so cute and so close up....well done

Thanks for all the info, Jane!

My father actually had a camera store years ago, so I have a complete Pentax set-up, with all the lenses and filters one could want... BUT... I don't use it anymore as it's too cumbersome and big. I'm in the market for a nice digital camera that's not too expensive, and not too involved - I never got into the manual settings anyway... but that camera was fantastic the year I lived in Alaska!

I still can't believe that you even "like" that wren (sorry Wrennie!)! I just can't even convey how INSANE that one drove me 2 summers ago with its non-stop screaming!!!

Lynne, He was your pest!! Omg, this my first spring with birds ever... Omg there are at least 1/2 dozen out there!!!!!

Lynne, I highly recommend my the cyber shot. I point and click - or you can chose the settings manually -- yeah like I could do that!

I think the cybershot is out with 10 megapixals... Then I ordere the lens at amazon I think

You'll love the camera. It even feels like a camera should.. YOu are not taking pictures with an earring box!!!!

I just LOVE your comparison, Jane - an earring box!!!

I have discovered, that with my "aging" hands, the teeny cameras are just not for me! We were in COSTCO the other night, and I was looking at the cameras there, and the ones that were so tiny cramped my hands terribly! It would be sooooo nice to have the convenience of popping it into a pocket or purse, but not at the expense of not being able to hold the darn thing!!!

I am looking at a few others that have 10 megapixels, but they don't have a good enough zoom, so I'm still undecided...

As for birdwatching and your first season - you are going to get deeper and deeper in love with your birds! Just wait til that mocker sings his endless song - you begin to recognize all the other birdcalls that he is mocking!!! Great fun!

Mockingbirds are FASCINATED by sound and try to imitate new sounds all the time. I have whistled notes at a Mocking bird before. They will stop what they are doing, **** their heads and look at me. Then I repeat the phrase I just whistled. They will take a stab at whistling it back to me. We keep this back and forth whistled conversation going until the Mocker has it down PERFECTLY. From then on the phrase I taught it becomes part of THAT Mocker's repertoire.

I have been teaching Mr. and Mrs. Mocky Beethoven's 5th Symphony for a year or two now. I call them over to eat by whistling the first few notes of the Symphony. That is how they recognize me.

Well... not meaning to hijack Jane's thread on wrens...

Thorny - that sounds like great fun!
I haven't tried that yet, but sounds like a good experiment for this summer!

I don't think I've ever seen "Mrs. Mockingbird"?
We usually only get the one, who stays most of the day, but never brings any friends.

An earring box!!!! Now wonder I couldn't get any pictures! I kept pushing and pushing but NO flash or beep came out of it, just a bunch of rattling. I opened it to check the batteries and there wasn't anything in there but a bunch o' cotton padding and some Sterling Silver hoops and Cubic Zirconium Solitaires.

I better go look for my camera!

I had Mr. Mocky for a couple of years, and two years ago he showed up with a second more gracile, slender Mocker. Mockers fight each other constantly UNLESS they are mates. They apparently mate for life, so I now have the pair of them spending much of their time in my yard sharing and helping each other. It is quite sweet to watch the two of them together, and they BOTH LIKE ME!!!

The man just said he has been teaching his bird's Beethoven's 5th for years

"DIT-dit-dit, DAAAAAAH"

Here is the church where Shakespeare is buried, Jane:

What a beautiful church!!!

And here is a picture of Ludwig von Beethoven's skull they recovered when they had to dig up his grave.

BEETHOVEN'S SKULL (NO KIDDING!!!)

OH they make gorgeous churches in england, Penny. This church is over 500 years old!!!

Its incredible looking!!