Good Morning!

I left for Terrywile Park early in the morning today. I went to a side I have never went before and tried my luck at one of the smaller berry tree out there. There were only Robins around the berry tree and were not coming out of the shadow of the tree leaves.

Suddenly this Squirrel came out with the fruit and was enjoying the beautiful morning sunlight.

I learned a lesson that to get the great images of wildlife it is very important to go out very early in the morning.

Camouflage

Some animals hide in plain sight in order to survive in the wild! You might be thinking, how does this work!? When you play hide-n-seek can you just sit in the middle of the room? No, you will be found immediately. The difference between humans and some animals who hide in the open is that these animals have colors and patterns that allow them to disappear, almost becoming invisible before your very eyes.

Cryptic coloration is the most common form of camouflage, found to some extent in the majority of species. The simplest way is for an animal to be of a color similar to its surroundings.

I was trying to get some macro shots of flower around the mud standing right next to this frog but never saw it until lens mistakenly focused on this amphibion.
I was thrilled to see the natures beauty.

Field Sparrow

This was the last picture of my today's visit (18-Jun-2010). The sun was setting and I saw this house sparrow bathing in the warm twilight of setting sun.
I took four pictures before I get the correct exposure. I wanted to get the exposure exactly the same as I was getting through Worlds best lens (My Eyes) Finally I succeeded and liked the outcome very much. It looks beautiful with the orange light reflecting from its wings. I am happy I could retain the details and been able to produce and share the picture exactly as I saw it.

I returned home with satisfaction and was charged enough to upload and share the images.

Identification:
Entirely pink bill is distinctive. Gray face with reddish crown, distinct white eye ring, and indistinct reddish eye line. Back is streaked except on gray-brown rump. Rich buffy-orange unstreaked breast and sides; grayish white belly; pink legs. Juvenile: streaked below; buffy wing bars.
The American tree is most similar but has a 2-toned bill and a black central breast spot. The breeding-plumaged chipping  shares the rufous cap but has a dark eye line, is plain gray below without buff on the breast or flanks, has a dark bill, and lacks the bold eye ring.

Squirrel

I visited the berry tree to find if I am lucky to find few new birds there but today was a dull day and not many birds were interested in the free berries. But this squirrel appeared from somewhere and was waiting for me to get out of its way to the tree. So we struck a deal...it gave me a pose and in return i moved out of its way.

Within five minutes I was furious at this mischievous squirrel...It went straight up the tree and on the branch right on top of my head and tried to shower me with its pee... I was aware of its wired behavior and was alert enough to get out of the shade of tree.

Vikas and I have seen it other day doing the same thing to keep us away from the tree... :-)

Downy Woodpecker

I love the way woodpeckers hang on the trunk of the tree. Even on straight branch (Like the one on berry tree pic) they prefer vertical grip.

Today I found woodpecker in more natural environment in the deep woods.I could hear the noise but it took me a while to find it on this tree.
It was picking some soft wood to fill it in its nest. May be it was preparing bed for the young ones :-)

Downy Woodpecker

Yesterday evening I decided to take a walk at the Terryville park and carried my camera along (it was cloudy but not raining). The conditions were overcast and at 07:00pm the sun was pipping out of clouds once in a while so it was very difficult lighting situation.I came across this berry tree where I saw some movement and saw many birds were making round to this tree. But most of them were hiding in the shadow of tree leaves and with the kind of lighting it was impossible to get any sharp image but this woodpecker came out in the open for a moment and finally I got to capture the Downy Woodpecker collecting the berries (Still waiting to capture it at nest feeding the babies).

Baltimore Oriole

I also got to see some more birds in the shadow of the berry tree but could not nail one single sharp image of any other bird except the Downy Woodpecker and this Baltimore Oriole which is not as good as I would have liked but still this looked good to me as the pair of this beautiful bird kept coming back to this tree for number of times. I am sure they have their kids some where in the nest Hope I will get some more bird shots at this tree before all the berries are finished :-)