Another "Wildlife" Story

[tex]

On Monday, we had to use a truck unloader, (a special auger designed to go under hopper bottom semi-trailers), to unload some oats and put it in a tank. After we were about halfway through unloading the truck, I happened to notice a bird's nest on the auger, with four eggs in it. Since it was a bit late to worry about it at that point, we finished the job and put the auger back where it was originally. Sure enough, the mother bird was back on the nest the next day when I checked.

Today, I checked again, and the bird was on the nest, all right, so I shot a few pictures. Some birds make their nests in the dangdest places.

Here's a shot of the piece of equipment that has the nest. The nest is at the upper left end, between the motor, and the drive belt guard, on the end of the auger. In the background, you can see a green machine. That's a no-till grain drill, used for planting seed in soil that is never plowed. Every year a sparrow of some type makes a nest at the right end of the machine, inside some guard shields, and raises her family there. These are "thumbnail" images, in case anyone reading this is not familiar with them. You can click on the thumbnail and the full size image will open in another window.



Notice the volunteer corn plants that are scattered about the yard in the picture. These came up from seed lost when last years crop was put in the bins. This entire area was sprayed with salt of glyphosate, (commonly known as roundup), a chemical that will kill virtually anything that is green and growing, except for a very few hardy perennial plants. It will kill johnsongrass, a very tough to kill perennial, and that's the main reason why it has been so popular here in the South, where the winters don't get cold enough to freeze the rhizomes, (roots), of Johnsongrass. Anyway, it didn't affect these volunteer corn plants, because the germplasm from which this variety of corn was developed was genetically modified to be glyphosate-resistant. IOW, this allows a farmer to spray a cornfield with glyphosate, and kill everything growing, except the corn--a pretty amazing event, when you think about it.

Here's a closeup of the "head" of that auger, where the nest is located, (between the silver colored beltguard, and the red bracket that holds the motor, (also red, and above the nest, and to the right of it). You can see the sparrow's tail, and her head, (she has her beak open, since the temps were in the 90's). This is not a very large piece of equipment, the nest is only about 4 feet off the ground.



Here's a tighter shot, from the opposite side.



Love,
Wayne

[annie oakley]

Wayne, you take some of the neatest pics of the wildlife. That's Incredible where her nest is. I guess I better get a camera and start taking some pics of the wildlife around here. Love Oma

[Polly]

Tex,

You missed your calling......wildlife photographer. Great shots!

Love,

Polly

[harvest_table]

Great pictures Tex, hope you won't have to disturb the nest again till the eggs hatch.

By the way, I use roundup too. It was a beautiful day here with sunshine in the forecast for a few days so I got the jug out and sprayed the chickweed just coming up. I'm sure you must use barrel quantities on your farm.

Arn't digital cameras fun? I broke mine awhile ago and it's cheaper to buy a new one than send this out to be fixed. What kind of camera do you use anyway?

Love,
Joanna

[tex]

Hi Joanna,

Yep, it's much more economical by the barrel. I'll bet that Jean uses some of of it in various places on her golf course, too.

I usually use a Panasonic FZ10, (the black model). I bought it primarily because of it's lens, which is ideal for wildlife photography. It has a Leica lens, with 12X optical zoom, and built-in optical image stabilization, (to minimize camera shake at high telephoto settings).

It's only a 4.0 megapixel camera, but the lens allows me to take pictures that I couldn't take with any other camera, (as far as sharpness is concerned). I notice that Panasonic has recently released a similar 5.0 megapixel model. When they get to about 8.0 megapixels, (with the same lens, or better), I'll consider upgrading.

Love,
Wayne

[Momster]

Hi Tex:

That's a good picture - I couldn't see the nest in the first picture, even with enlarging it, but the others are really clear. I like the one with the view of the bird.

I've been trying to capture a picture of a new bird in our area, but so far he's escaped me. I was so mad because one early evening he was really visible on a branch with my binoculars, but my camera batteries were on the charger (I've since gotten a second set). Anyway, I first heard him last year and he has a very distictive song so that's why I noticed him. From wha I could see in the bird book I have he resembles a black headed warbler, but the book doesn't show them in our area, so I'm still working at getting a picture.
He is a bit larger than a robin, has a black head right down the neck, then grey/bronw wings, a strip of quite bright orange down his sides following the line of the wing and a light grey breast. His beak is quite thin but not long. Anyway, I'm determined to get a picture because he is a beautiful bird.

I just got back from a power shopping trip, so I need to get my feet up.
Have a nice weekend - Momster

[tex]

Hi Momster,

The first pic was just to give an idea of the general location of the nest. You could develop eyestrain trying to spot the nest in that one. LOL.

If the hatch is successful, I'll try to get a picture or two, now and then.

That sounds like an interesting bird. Aren't most warblers smaller than that, though? I hope you can get a good picture of it. Birds, as a group, are the toughest terrestrial animals to photograph, because they are so fast, fidgety, and always seem to be only a second away from cover.

Tex