April 2009
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Bird Party

Today I saw the first Goldfinch on my thistle seed sack!  Since then I’ve seen several more, a breeding pair in full mating colors.  I thought I’d give a run down of all of the identified birdies to date.  The ones with an * are ones I saw all at once just a few minutes ago.  With the new feeder and thistle sack I’ve been having gathering of 12-15 birds at a time (and usually 2-3 squirrels).  I don’t generally take pictures of the birds since my telephoto lens is spazzing out and I am usually too busy with my binoculars looking for distinguishing traits, but sooner or later I’ll capture some good photos.

Species Seen and Identified

  1. Morning Dove *
  2. Blue Jay *
  3. Tufted Titmouse
  4. Carolina Chickadee
  5. White-breasted Nuthatch *
  6. American Robin
  7. Chipping Sparrow *
  8. Song Sparrow *
  9. White-throated Sparrow
  10. Dark-eyed Junco *
  11. Northern Cardinal *
  12. Common Grackle *
  13. Brown-headed Cowbird
  14. American Goldfinch
  15. House Sparrow
  16. Fat Squirrels

Seen but Iffy on the Species

  • Savannah Sparrow
  • House Finch / Purple Finch

I suspect there are several more type of sparrows present that I have yet to positively identify.

Solo Daddy

Day #1 of Solo Daddy Duty is complete.  Night #1 of Solo Daddy Duty is just beginning.

My new feeder, pictured below, was knocked off it’s perch today.  I was either the wind and the rain or mischievous squirrels spinning the feeder round and round like a record.  I reassembled it, screwing the capping ring on tighter.  I hope it holds.

 

New Squirrel Feeding Technique

New Squirrel Feeding Technique

 

Other diners have to eat below.

Other diners have to eat below.

Cupcake Bites

Every year for Christmas, I make a bunch of sweet treats for friends and co-workers.  Two years ago I stumbled upon a recipe for cake balls, so included them in my mix that year.  I made two kinds: red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting covered in white chocolate and chocolate cake with vanilla frosting covered in dark chocolate.  They came out very nice and everyone raved about the red velvet cake ones.

More recently I stumbled upon a new website, www.bakerella.com, who has taken the cake ball to new levels.  Instructions for making cupcake bites and cupcake pops are available on her blog.  Ever since I saw her tutorials I’ve wanted to try my hand at them.  For my birthday, I used a gift card and bought myself some of the tools to make these treats.  I intended to make them for Easter, but the cold Arcadia brought home from daycare knocked me for a loop and I had no motivation.  So, I attempted to make them during the week once I was feeling better, but these take time, so I didn’t get a chance to finish.  Well, yesterday I set out to finish my cupcake bites.  They turned out super cute, just like Bakerella’s, and were super tasty, just like the original cake balls I made.  I’ll definitely make these again and will probably change up the color combinations for different holidays.  If you’ve got a free day, I’d recommend making these, although make sure you have plenty of people to give them to.  I ended up making around 60 of these babies and both Tysen and I will be taking them to work to share.

090418-cake-ball-treats-0836

Supplies:

1 lb dark chocolate candy melts
1 lb purple candy melts
1 pkg red velvet cake mix
1 tub cream cheese frosting
Easter pastel M&Ms
Sprinkles
PB cup candy molds

Macro Mania Photoday

Today was photoday.  I had wanted to take a few specific shots, but I ended up skipping those and focusing on using my new-ish macro lens.  I was pleased with the results.  More photos are available on the Official Perszyk.com Gallery.  I made many of these into HD wallpapers, let me know if there is one that you’d like to have.

 

Easter RKDy

I meant to post these earlier, but you know how it goes…time gets away from you!  Here are a few photos of Arcadia from the Easter egg hunt at Lauren’s last Saturday.

In the first photo, I think it looks like she’s got Easter candy in her mouth, but I swear she didn’t eat any!  In the middle one, just ignore the hands reaching out for her.  It’s a bad photo crop, but the background of the photo wasn’t that good, so I cut a lot out.  And finally, in the last one she’s really showing off her Easter outfit.  There was a better photo of her, but I didn’t look as good, so I put this photo in instead.  Enjoy!

Here’s 1:1

A 1:1 macro lens has the capability to make objects appear life size on the camera sensor.  My expertise ends there.  My guess this that if you shoot 1:2 then the object appears 1/2 life size on the sensor.  So 1:n equals 1/n size on the sensor.  Just a guess.  The photo of my macro lens shows the focal distance window.  The top line is the 1:n line.  You can see the 1:1 only works on pretty close-up objects.

Squirrels Got Fat

This is what happens when the squirrels eat too much and sit on your bird feeder.

feeder-destroyed-stitch