Blog - catandturtle

Baby Birds Growing Up Around Us

Posted Sunday, September 6, 2026Sunday, September 6, 2026 Jess Yarnell1 CommentPosted in Birds

It’s been a busy year and I haven’t been taking the opportunity to introduce my readers to the baby birds growing up around us. So without further ado, meet our newest neighbors!

The tree around the corner got very loud this spring. First as the hawks courted (and mated with us watching). They called to each other while Mom incubated the eggs. Finally, we heard some new voices in the mix. Then these little two white fuzzballs made their appearance over the walls of the nest.

So I don’t have baby pics for this next species, but I do have a fun pic of Papa. The Eastern Bluebirds have definitely made our neighborhood their home. A few years ago I was excited to hear just one bird, now we heard them all over the place. One day we saw babies getting fed – the little guys flew towards us and kind of froze when they realized we were not Mom! Maybe next year I can get a good photo of the babies.

It’s not hard to photograph the baby cardinals. We usually get several families each year growing up in our backyard. You hear them before you see them. The little ones are very good at begging for their food. They keep Mom and Dad busy flying to the feeders for more seed. I make sure to put out plenty of black oil sunflower, suet, and even mealworms at this time of year.

Then Mr. Red-bellied Woodpecker flew in to see who the crazy photographer was sitting in the backyard. He said his babies had already grown up, but that I met them on our walks. They fussed incessantly as they learned to fly.

The American Beautyberry bush has put on its berries, and the Northern Mockingbird has claimed them all for himself! Except there’s just one problem – he can’t eat them all, and the other birds like them too. So when he notices that they’ve invaded his territory, he darts in and chases them away. I had to laugh when I saw this was a juvie mockingbird. They sure learn early.

Northern Mockingbird Owns the Beautyberry

Note: Baby cardinals are also fans of the beautyberries. Mom is not a fan of being chased away by a bratty little mockingbird. Much fussing ensued. The baby cardinal won the berries!

We’ll leave you with a laugh. Have you ever noticed the finials at the top of some bird feeder poles? Mine has a hummingbird on it. So the baby cardinal was begging for food, and Mom wasn’t coming fast enough to feed him, so he started biting at the finial’s beak instead! Unfortunately the metal bird didn’t respond to his pleas – but Mom finally did. It’s so hard to be a baby bird sometimes!

Lunar Eclipse

Posted Friday, August 28, 2026Friday, August 28, 2026 Jess Yarnell2 CommentsPosted in Backyard photography

There was a lunar eclipse last night. Our area was supposed to see near-totality conditions.

So what’s a photographer supposed to do? Haul out the Beast of course! Because it’s perfectly normal to do that in the pitch black backyard at midnight, right? :) (Yes, the neighbors have come to realize that I’m a little crazy!)

Rich joined me to squint up at the sky, marveling at the tiny patch of normal moonlight remaining as the rest of the surface took on a dusky red tone. Pretty cool.

Then I played with some selective Lightroom masking to balance the tones, which are always the hardest part of eclipse photography. Tone down the highlights in the “normal” lighting, open up the shadows in the eclipsed shadow. Modern mirrorless cameras and higher ISO processing make this so easy. I remember photographing eclipses when I was just happy to get the camera to even focus during totality!

I’d say this fun was worth being a little sleepy this morning.

Aerial Acrobats

Posted Saturday, August 22, 2026Saturday, August 22, 2026 Jess Yarnell4 CommentsPosted in Backyard photography, Birds

We’ve been lucky to have Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in our yard this summer. When they first arrived, they seemed very curious about every plant and a bit erratic in their flight patterns, making me think they were recent fledges. I spent several happy mornings with my camera watching them sip at the blooms in my flower beds.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Sipping Salvias — Ruby-throated Hummingbird – Sipping Salvias

It’s always fun trying to photograph hummingbirds. They are tiny and hard to focus on. They dart silently into the yard, nectar at a few flowers, then dart up to a protective perch area to survey their kingdom. 20 minutes later, they repeat the process. So making good images takes a lot of patience and some luck.

Then you get your images into post-processing and find that many of them look alike. Wings up, wings back, wings blurred, purple flower, red flower, etc. But on this particular morning, my little aerial acrobats were putting on a show and giving me lots of fun little moments – like when “Holly” revealed to me that she is in fact “Harry” with her one little red spot on the gorget.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Juvenile Male! — Ruby-throated Hummingbird – Juvenile Male!

Then it was a competition between the hummers and the bees – would could get to the nectar first? The hummingbirds dive-bombed the bees who were hogging the best blooms. It reminded me of an avian version of Quidditch.

How often do you see a hummer from this angle? He looks like a little speeding bullet!

Or this angle, where I caught him in the middle of a hover-horizontal-zoom maneuver?

Then the hummer found a wasp at the top of a plant. He had to stop and check that out, hovering from many directions to see exactly what was going on with that particular flower…

Ruby-throated Hummingbird with Dragonfly — Ruby-throated Hummingbird with Thread-Waisted Wasp

Look at all the feathers on his tail splayed as he hovers! I think he was wise to leave the wasp alone.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - The Tail Splay — Ruby-throated Hummingbird – The Tail Splay

I’ll leave you with a last chuckle – I’ve photographed many birds pooping in-flight before, but I think it was the first time I’d photographed that behavior with a tiny hummingbird. At least he aimed it away from his breakfast nectar! :)