David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Visitors to the birdfeeder include: Tufted Titmouse, American Goldfinch, and Chipping Sparrow.
Patio Birdfeeder. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (40.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (8.7 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy and rainy day. Geothermal HVAC system off. A deficit of 33.4 kWh.
Birds (Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, Northern Cardinal, American Goldfinch, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse) and Squirrels feeding on my patio. The squirrels have stayed off the bird feeder ever since I gave them last years crop of black walnuts. They carry the walnuts off to be buried as part of their winter food cache. Later in the evening, I got an image of the frozen bird bath. The pump was not able to maintain the fountain, but the underwater LED lights were still on.
Individual images from the slide show can be viewed here.
The black squirrel returned. I took a sequence of images of it eating a nut on my patio. It then jumped up onto the bird feeder. Time to electrify again! After chasing the squirrel away, the birds came back. Including a shy female Northern Cardinal. Later in the afternoon, the Turkey Vultures started showing up. They are spending the nights in the neighborhood. Some in the conifer trees, and some on the roofs of homes. So far they have not tried to roost on my solar panels. The first set of vulture images were taken using a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 lens. The image quality is degraded since they were shot from inside through a double pained insulated window. The other Turkey Vulture images were taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera using a brand new Fujicon 200 mm f/2 lens. The Fuji 200 mm f/2 lens is heavy, but not as heavy as the Nikon 200 mm f/2 lens. The Fuji lens is white (to keep it cool when in the sun?), and includes a lens mount that fits onto Arca-Swiss tripod mounts. The Turkey Vulture images taken with the Fuji lens look sharp (all were taken hand-held). I look forward to going out and using this lens some more. It also includes a 1.4x teleconverter that I will need to test.
Birds on the patio and bird feeder. Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Grey Junco, Tufted Titmouse.
Even though it was raining, there was a lot of activity at the bird feeders. Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, Tufted Titmouse, American Goldfinch, and new for me a Marsh Wren. The squirrels stayed off the bird feeder — I don’t know if that means the electric shock worked.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.