WINGSCAPES

Martha Stewart Loves Her BirdCam!

Martha Stewart continues to enjoy her Wingscapes BirdCam and share her photos with fans. In her post this week on The Martha Blog, she gives an update on her BirdCam and posts some photos from home. The Martha featured the BirdCam on her television show this past February.

Expressive Birds

Let’s face it; some birds simply have more expressive faces than others. Oh, of course this is simply giving them human characteristics that are the accidental results of the markings on their feathers and the structure of their beaks. However even knowing this, it’s difficult to look at particular birds and not immediately assume that you understand what they’re thinking by the “look on their face.”

For example, take this male Rose-breasted Grosbeak image recently submitted to the Wingscapes Photo Gallery by Colin in Marietta, Georgia. Doesn’t it look as though he is clearly irritated?

Ode to an Oriole

In her poem "To Hear an Oriole Sing," Emily Dickinson famously wrote "To hear an Oriole sing / May be a common thing— / Or only a divine." Miss Dickinson was almost certainly writing of the Baltimore Oriole, perhaps the most famous songster of the orioles appearing in North America.

What would Miss Dickinson have written about others of the oriole family, such as this pair of Hooded Orioles recently posted to the Wingscapes Photo Gallery by Pam from Redwood City, California? With their faster, choppy, and sometimes raspy sound, would the Hooded Orioles have inspired such praise?

Resourceful Sparrow

Birds are remarkably resourceful. Take, for example, this BirdCam-recorded image of a Chipping Sparrow submitted to the Wingscapes Photo Gallery by our friend David from Cary, North Carolina.

You might notice that the feeder on which it is perched is not the type normally frequented by sparrows. However, as David reports, the ant moat on this hummingbird feeder has proven a valuable resource for this local chippie. In addition to being a drinking water source, the sparrow might also be picking up an ant or two to crush and rub through its feathers to prevent mites – a process called “anting.”

Memories of Nutkin

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it’s still difficult to deny that there is something charming about squirrels. Take this BirdCam-recorded image of a Gray Squirrel recently submitted to the Wingscapes Photo Gallery by Eugene from Watervliet, New York, for example.

Yes it’s eating through what looks to be some rather high quality (and expensive) black-oil sunflower seed, but the way in which it uses it’s paws to do so, the classic curled-up posture in which it sits… Who can look at it and not be reminded of the animal stories from childhood? I certainly can’t.