Either a common or red breasted merganser and her little ones out on our local river. And lucky for me, my 6 year old niece was with us!

What a great bird!!

J. I wonder if the adult is the parent of the little one on the roof? I've heard many people say they don't like Sparrows but I think they are so cute.

Deb: What a great photo of the Merganser family!

It looks like I was right about these birds visiting my yard a lot. I don't have good eyesight so I try to listen for the birds coming and going. Then I can focus in with my camera. There were several times there were as many as four of these little lesser goldfinches on the same stalk of sunflowers. I never caught more than two landing, so it was a surprise to see more through the lens. Unfortunately, I could never capture all of them at once because they were partially hidden by the sunflowers. But I also discovered a new blind that might make it possible to take different photos. My car. If I park just outside where the sunflowers are, I can probably capture them from the sunflowers and the small trees where they seem to have their lookout. It is one of those skinny trees that don't provide shade, but has just enough leaves to hide little birds.

They are the prettiest little things and the beautiful sunflowers are a perfect backdrop!

A few more. I was trying a slowly move closer approach until that last bird came along. I think the last one is a common house finch, male?





















I saw two hummingbirds within three feet of me, without my camera. Back in Denver, I never saw any hummingbirds in my yard, but I had a lot of other birds, so I never put up a hummingbird feeder. I also had many bees and wasps nesting all around my yard, so a messy feeder probably wouldn't work out well. There was a house within a couple miles from mine that I used to see hummingbirds when I went for walks with Reba. A college a few blocks away from home had a lot of different flowers and flowering shrubs that Reba and I spent a lot of time visiting most of her young years, but I didn't have a good camera at the time, so we just watched a lot while I dreamed of getting a better camera.

I like the house finch, also the up side down goldfinch.

Goldfinch in Kong (sunflower)

Those sunflowers are huge compared to mine. I don't even know what kind of sunflowers mine are. I planted some seeds last year, but the sunflowers didn't do well. Then later more sunflowers popped up around the yard, I think seeds from my neighbor's yard. She had a ton of sunflowers. Now that they have moved out, it looks like the owner is totally changing the garden. I saw a lot of landscape fabric and mulch. Also a much shorter wall along the front of their house. I don't think that is a good idea - not enough wall to keep the mud off the sidewalk. I'm waiting to see if he will get rid of all the sunflowers - a shame they don't transplant well.

ckat: Love the photo with the Goldfinch feeding upside down and wow, that shot of the male House Finch is gorgeous!

J: Great shot of the Goldfinch!! I just love those yellow birds pictured with sunflowers!

Cat, photos are real great! Not much here. The orioles have packed up and left. Just have one or two showing up now. The summer just goes too fast anymore.

I hate smart devices!! correcting spelling.

A few photo's from this afternoon.

Female Red-winged Blackbird and one pic with a little Cardinal:


Brown Thrasher:


Little Cardinal:


Mockingbird:


Hummingbird:

Loved the Red-winged blackbird!

What in the world is the Red Breasted Blackbird doing in Florida? It's a South American bird.

Fabulous photos Lin.

@plantladylin, I love your brown thrasher photos and the hummingbird stretching to reach those red flowers.

Ann: that's a female Red-winged Blackbird. I edited my post because I had written it as Red-bellied Blackbird.

ckatNM, Thank you.

I wondered. I didn't even think to consider it was a red winged blackbird. Jokes on me!

A couple from my backyard today ...

Male Red-winged Blackbird:


Downy Woodpecker as the storm clouds were rolling through:


And, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird this evening:

@plantladylin, I love the eye of the first photo of the Red-winged blackbird. It makes him look almost curious about what he sees.

ckat: I'm thinking that Red-winged BB in my above picture may be a juvenile; it looks a bit smaller and chubbier than the adult male in the photo below:

They say if you can get the eye in focus the rest of the shot works.