Mike’s Photo Blog

Monday, May 11, 2026

Start of a new week

It was only in the low 40's last night and quite chilly so it was long sleeves and jeans when I went out this morning. I did a bit of work in the yard this afternoon, got all hot and sweaty so showered to cool off and changed to shorts and a tee before I headed out to the blind. It was a bit slow but the Swamp Sparrow got me going for a while, the Indigo Bunting didn't stay long before he was scared off by a Robin.

Common Grackle

Mourning Dove

Northern Cardinal

House Finch

Indigo Bunting

Swamp Sparrow

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Rainy Saturday

It was raining on and off all Saturday morning but did stop in midafternoon. The light wasn't too bad and I headed out to the blind to give it a whirl. It was slow; very slow, mostly Robins and Catbirds with the occasional Grackle. The highlight was a nice Common Yellowthroat which came back for a second splash in the waterfall. I didn't get to process the shots in the evening and after trying this morning to pretty much the same without the high points of the Yellowthroat I decided to photograph a few of the flowers for a change instead.

Common Yellowthroat

American Robin

Star of Bethlehem

Bugleweed

Dandelion

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Yesterdays Birds (the ones I managed to photograph).

The forecast rain did actually arrive so Ive been going through the photos I took yesterday. The ones I took in the early morning with the sun in my lens I didn't bother with. As I mentioned in my teaser preview post of yesterday there were loads of birds around in the morning following a huge push of overnight migrants. Here's a few of them that Merlin heard:-

It wasn't until around 3PM that I got out again as I was doing 'stuff' in the yard and shopping etc, the afternoon light is better as the sun is over my right shoulder at that time anyway.

The Robin horde has thinned out a little but there's still a lot of squawking as they sort out their territorial boundaries leaving the waterfall as semi neutral territory. The Catbirds are just as bad, I have no idea just how many there are but at least 6 birds I reckon. Theres a lot of Grackles too but they are much more passive and come down for communal bathing. Unfortunately the Warblers had mostly moved on by the afternoon but I did see one or two during my afternoon and evening session interrupted only by coming inside to make dinner. I stayed out until 7:30 ish hoping the shyer Thrushes would coming for a bathe but the light was fading fast so I came in and called it a day

Song Sparrow

American Robin

Common Grackle

Chipping Sparrow

Baltimore Oriole

Orchard Oriole

Baltimore Oriole

Eastern Kingbird

American Robin

Common Yellowthroat

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Just a Teaser

With over 3.9 million birds on the move last night it was no surprise that Merlin was reporting loads and loads of birds in the yard. Although it was quite clear skies and sunny I decided to give it a go at the waterfall even though the sun was right in front of me. The best bird by far was a female Summer Tanager which I didn't get a shot of because I was using a software focus range limiter and by the time I'd adjusted it the bird had flown. The increased range did allow me to get a few shots of an Eastern Kingbird that was fly catching right in front of me. I didn't stay out long because the light direction just wasn't conducive to good photographs. I did go out again about 3PM and it was pretty damn good. While I normally add my days shots to the blog in the evening going through over 4000 shots just wasn't enough time before I fall asleep. Here's one as a teaser and as it's going to be raining tomorrow (allegedly) I hope to get a full blog post done then.

Orchard Oriole

Monday, May 4, 2026

Merlin was right all along.

During migration first thing when sometimes it's still dark I put Merlin outside listening to see what birds are about. Recently Merlin has been reporting Swamp Sparrow quite frequently but as I've never come across one in the yard I was rather dubious of the claim. This afternoon the light wasn't too bad so I gave it ago at the waterfall. As usual the first bird was a Robin but shortly after a sparrow arrived and lo and behold it was the reported Swamp Sparrow. I was rather pleased to add another Sparrow to the backyard photograph list. Merlin has also been reporting a Veery this afternoon and just looking out of the kitchen window I saw a Thrush coming down to bathe and yes Merlin was right again, it was a Veery.