My Office

[SCraig]

I had a disk fail in one of my servers late Friday so I had to go by the office today to replace it. Behind the office is a walled patio with flowers in planters along the wall, and I've been wanting to get some photographs of a few of the insects that enjoy the flowers.

The Mocking Birds are very protective of the area. They tend to run other birds off as soon as they show up. I've seen them chasing Crows off, other small birds, even a Hawk on a couple of occasions. You can see by the look on this one's face in the second shot that he's thinking about trying to run me off. I saw one take a shot at a girl that works in the building last week so they aren't afraid of much of anything

These are not macro shots. They were all shot with my 70-300 at 300mm and about 5' (minimum focus distance) and then cropped some. I used a flash on the Bumble Bee but the others are available light.

 

[JohnnyBlack]

Love the 2nd shot, can see the menace in his eyes

 

[wyogirl]

Nice shots... the second one I want to caption with "Mr. you are two steps away from getting dive bombed, back it up".

 

[matthewo]

those mocking birds think they run my back yard, they used to chase everything off the feeder, but now they don't, I have never even seen a mocking bird eat anything from the feeder. I guess they don't like seeds.

 

[SCraig]

Love the 2nd shot, can see the menace in his eyes

Nice shots... the second one I want to caption with "Mr. you are two steps away from getting dive bombed, back it up".

Thanks guys. I apologize for not responding to this earlier, but to be honest I had forgotten about posting it

The Mocking Bird is the Tennessee state bird and I think they know it. They have a strong superiority complex and don't want anything else in their area and they are totally fearless at protecting it. When we lived in the country we had an outdoor cat and she had a real hate/hate relationship with the Mocking Birds there. They would dive at her and she would swing at them. They never got her and she never got any of them though, they just spent the day squabbling over who was in charge.

those mocking birds think they run my back yard, they used to chase everything off the feeder, but now they don't, I have never even seen a mocking bird eat anything from the feeder. I guess they don't like seeds.

You know, now that you mention it I don't think I've ever seen a Mocking Bird eat out of my feeders either. I've seen them chasing other birds and squirrels away from them, but like you I don't think I've ever seen them take a single seed. I'll have to watch now to see if you're right

 

[snerd]

....... Thanks guys. I apologize for not responding to this earlier, but to be honest I had forgotten about posting it

My forum bookmark points to:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/search.php?do=getnew&contenttype=vBForum_Post

which is new posts since I last visited. I don't miss much, except the subscriber and nude forums posts. I think.

 

[Designer]

I have never even seen a mocking bird eat anything from the feeder. I guess they don't like seeds.

I think they eat the young of other bird species. And the eggs.