July 2024 - P52 Challenge

[Cassel]

Do you want to challenge yourself to take photos every week for a year?

Maybe you want to practice your photography skills, or just try to capture "ordinary" daily occurrences.

Let's just encourage each other.

This is a no-pressure thread, and you can share the photos you took or the theme you are going for (if you are going with a theme).

And if you don't want to share the photos yet, and only showcase them once they are in a montage or a scrapbook page, you can just say that you did it.

And it is ok to start your 52 weeks at any time. It does not have to start in January!

[Ann Seeber]

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground. 

[Sue Thomas]

Week twenty six. Nestling tree swallows waiting for their parents to come with  food. I took this shot along  with many others of them, even being fed  late this afternoon. 

[Sue Thomas]

13 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground. 

Cool photo you took with your phone, better than I  can take. You must have a body of  water close by, as typically they like marshes, with cattails, sedges and bulrushes, nesting close to the ground. I'd be concerned for their safety from the ferel cats you feed.. They flock with the grackles during migration. 

Edited Wednesday at 09:51 AM by Sue Thomas

[Ann Seeber]

5 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Cool photo you took with your phone, better than I  can take. You must have a body of  water close by, as typically they like marshes, with cattails, sedges and bulrushes, nesting close to the ground. I'd be concerned for their safety from the ferel cats you feed.. They flock with the grackles during migration. 

They are very aware of threats and spook at everthing! We have cats and hawks galore and the ferals were here long before I was. There are several very large colonies in the neighborhood. My little crew of 7 or 8 is just a sampling. Here's an overhead porch-cam shot of Brandy on the lower far left trying to stalk birds. She's still too young to neuter and goes around chasing squirrels, birds and bugs but is only successful with bugs, so far! 😉 

 

[Sue Thomas]

2 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

They are very aware of threats and spook at everthing! We have cats and hawks galore and the ferals were here long before I was. There are several very large colonies in the neighborhood. My little crew of 7 or 8 is just a sampling. Here's an overhead porch-cam shot of Brandy on the lower far left trying to stalk birds. She's still too young to neuter and goes around chasing squirrels, birds and bugs but is only successful with bugs, so far! 😉 

 

My goodness, there must be loads of them, if your crew is only a small one.   On average cats will kill over one hundred million  birds a year in Canada.  Domestic and feral cats aren't native to any ecosystem. Not only on birds but other native wildlife.  It has been estimated that cats in Australia kills an average of one million birds per day.  About  three hundred and seventy seven million per year. Same, for the UK.  The numbers are staggering world wide.  Although they make wonderful pets for some people, they threaten birds and other wildlife and disrupt ecosystems.  Rarely, I will get a stray tom  cat from the neighbours, as they will travel long distances.  I trap and dispose of them, cruel as that may sound to some.  At least numbers are trying to be controlled in your area.  It is a controversial issue.  Here is a shot of one of  my   Red winged Blackbird's (male) on a cattail.  I haven't noticed any fledgelings yet.

Edited Wednesday at 01:25 PM by Sue Thomas

[Susan Ewart]

17 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground. 

Beautiful shot.  We have them here too, one spot where many gather is right by a very busy intersection on the corner of a golf course in a marshy cat tail area. there is no place to stop to photograph them, unless i become a golfer.

[Susan Ewart]

9 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Week twenty six. Nestling tree swallows waiting for their parents to come with  food. I took this shot along  with many others of them, even being fed  late this afternoon. 

oh, such sweet faces.  Beautiful shot and great light.

[Susan Ewart]

38 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

My goodness, there must be loads of them, if your crew is only a small one.   On average cats will kill over one hundred million  birds a year in Canada.  Domestic and feral cats aren't native to any ecosystem. Not only on birds but other native wildlife.  It has been estimated that cats in Australia kills an average of one million birds per day.  About  three hundred and seventy seven million per year. Same, for the UK.  The numbers are staggering world wide.  Although they make wonderful pets for some people, they threaten birds and other wildlife and disrupt ecosystems.  Rarely, I will get a stray tom  cat from the neighbours, as they will travel long distances.  I trap and dispose of them, cruel as that may sound to some.  At least numbers are trying to be controlled in your area.  It is a controversial issue.  Here is a shot of one of  my   Red winged Blackbird's (male) on a cattail.  I haven't noticed any fledgelings yet.

I have also read about the cat predation of birds.  It's really quite sad people still let cats out to run freely.  You don't see people letting their dogs out to run freely.  Bird window strikes is another bird killer.   It's amazing we have any birds left with those two strikes against them.  I have Acopian Bird Savers (strings hanging outside in front of the window) on the windows I've have bird strikes and have had only 1 strike (pigeon) in the 5 yrs they have been up.  Just yesterday I saw it work in action.  the young magpies were in the yard all day and one flew straight at the window and then did it mid air halt right before the strings and went straight up to the roof.  (NOTE: if you want more info google Acopian Bird Savers or check out  https://www.birdsavers.com/  I used velcro to attach the ones I made (they give instructions if you want to make your own) to my vinyl window frames so I could take them off if I needed to change the parachute cord.  

[Sue Thomas]

7 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I have also read about the cat predation of birds.  It's really quite sad people still let cats out to run freely.  You don't see people letting their dogs out to run freely.  Bird window strikes is another bird killer.   It's amazing we have any birds left with those two strikes against them.  I have Acopian Bird Savers (strings hanging outside in front of the window) on the windows I've have bird strikes and have had only 1 strike (pigeon) in the 5 yrs they have been up.  Just yesterday I saw it work in action.  the young magpies were in the yard all day and one flew straight at the window and then did it mid air halt right before the strings and went straight up to the roof.  (NOTE: if you want more info google Acopian Bird Savers or check out  https://www.birdsavers.com/  I used velcro to attach the ones I made (they give instructions if you want to make your own) to my vinyl window frames so I could take them off if I needed to change the parachute cord.  

I too have bird window prevention collision strips on all the house windows.   Also all my feededs are out  in the trees, far the house.

[Susan Ewart]

16 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

I too have bird window prevention collision strips on all the house windows.   Also all my feededs are out  in the trees, far the house.

I did the same with feeders too.  

[Ann Seeber]

1 hour ago, Sue Thomas said:

My goodness, there must be loads of them, if your crew is only a small one.   On average cats will kill over one hundred million  birds a year in Canada.  Domestic and feral cats aren't native to any ecosystem. Not only on birds but other native wildlife.  It has been estimated that cats in Australia kills an average of one million birds per day.  About  three hundred and seventy seven million per year. Same, for the UK.  The numbers are staggering world wide.  Although they make wonderful pets for some people, they threaten birds and other wildlife and disrupt ecosystems.  Rarely, I will get a stray tom  cat from the neighbours, as they will travel long distances.  I trap and dispose of them, cruel as that may sound to some.  At least numbers are trying to be controlled in your area.  It is a controversial issue.  Here is a shot of one of  my   Red winged Blackbird's (male) on a cattail.  I haven't noticed any fledgelings yet.

That's why, being a cat lover, I'm involved with TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) to keep the feral population down. We're trying to avoid kill shelters so we set up a sanctuary for those ferals that can't be returned to the neighborhood or domesticated. We do foster all the kittens we rescue. My Brandy One is now in foster as she's too young to be spayed and returned. Meanwhile, I have Brandy Two who showed up for meals and will soon be trapped and sent to foster.

[Susan Ewart]

37 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

That's why, being a cat lover, I'm involved with TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) to keep the feral population down. We're trying to avoid kill shelters so we set up a sanctuary for those ferals that can't be returned to the neighborhood or domesticated. We do foster all the kittens we rescue. My Brandy One is now in foster as she's too young to be spayed and returned. Meanwhile, I have Brandy Two who showed up for meals and will soon be trapped and sent to foster.

What you are doing is incredible.  we humans created the feral cat populations so we should also take care of them. And you are doing just that.  I don't know of feral ones in my area, mine are all neighbour hood cats with collars or I know who owns them.  So I tend to put my donation dollars to disadvantaged animals in need.  It's hard to educate people that cats are not wild animals who need to roam. Nor, do I get into discussions with people like that anymore.  Unless it's only to say, your cat will likely die a horrible death at the mouth of a coyote or tires of a car, can you live with that? It sounds cruel but you can't talk to people who don't want to change, and I dont need that kind of drama anymore.  Thank goodness for you and animal groups that take on educating people.  

[Ann Seeber]

On 7/3/2024 at 12:03 PM, Susan Ewart said:

Thank goodness for you and animal groups that take on educating people.

Thanks, Suz. As you know, I advocate for big and small wild cats and these ferals seem similar. I recall reading about the Dark Ages when the bubonic plague hit and it was blamed on the street cats. Little did they know the cats were killing the actual culprits, the rats that were arriving by ship. The plague got worse when the cat population was decimated by ignorance and fear. I get defensive about blaming cats for being cats. They were revered in Egypt in ancient times and their fortunes waned when religion used fear to control the populace. Cats seem to be the first victims of a conspiracy theory! 

[Corrie Kinkel]

Where I live we don't have many stray cats, most that are roaming the streets are from people in the neighboring houses. The biggest danger to them is being run over by traffic. However we are getting wolves nowadays that wander around and are mostly coming from Germany or further into Europe. Birds hitting a window is something we know too, even in the cities. Around my village it are often doves or sparrows. In the house we are living now it hasn't happened but in our old house it did.

[Corrie Kinkel]

This week no photos of flowers or plants in the rain/sun, but of the yearly fair in the middle of the village. I wanted to go and take photos in the evening too because of all the lights that come with a fair, but that didn't happen. We had company and we were invited somewhere else for dinner. When I could have gone it was pouring with rain!

[Sue Thomas]

Week 27.  It is prooving difficult to single out a photo to showcase for this challenge. Never the less, I won't be short of  photos to showcase down the road.  North America sow badger with her 3 cubs.  They are not closely  related to the UK badger. American badgers breed between July and August. The embryos don't  start to grown  unitl  December or February.   They don't hibernate.   I see their tracks in the snow throughout the long winter months. Also the UK badger is a social badger, whereas the American is solitary. Mother was keeing a close eye on me, and I wasn't going to antagonize her either, as they can be  aggressive, espcially when  felt threatened.  Her set is  impressive,  just over  half way up the drive, which also runs under the drive, with several entrances and exits on either side.  A rare treat to see them out in  daylight, as they are nocturnal.

Edited 15 hours ago by Sue Thomas

[Susan Ewart]

23 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

This week no photos of flowers or plants in the rain/sun, but of the yearly fair in the middle of the village. I wanted to go and take photos in the evening too because of all the lights that come with a fair, but that didn't happen. We had company and we were invited somewhere else for dinner. When I could have gone it was pouring with rain!

I love how colorful this is.  It would have been a fun night shoot if you had been able to go.  

[Susan Ewart]

3 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Week 27.  It is prooving difficult to single out a photo to showcase for this challenge. Never the less, I won't be short of  photos to showcase down the road.  North America sow badger with her 3 cubs.  They are not closely  related to the UK badger. American badgers breed between July and August. The embryos don't  start to grown  unitl  December or February.   They don't hibernate.   I see their tracks in the snow throughout the long winter months. Also the UK badger is a social badger, whereas the American is solitary. Mother was keeing a close eye on me, and I wasn't going to antagonize her either, as they can be  aggressive, espcially when  felt threatened.  Her set is  impressive,  just over  half way up the drive, which also runs under the drive, with several entrances and exits on either side.  A rare treat to see them out in  daylight, as they are nocturnal.

Beautiful family.  This is the only chance I'll get to see them up close.  The information you give to us is always informative and interesting.  

[Sue Thomas]

2 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Beautiful family.  This is the only chance I'll get to see them up close.  The information you give to us is always informative and interesting.  

It would have  been wonderful to have seen them  when they were  much younger, and smaller. Still you can see that she is still suckling them, even though  they are as big as mum. I was so excited to see them, a real treat.

Edited 9 hours ago by Sue Thomas

[Susan Ewart]

5 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

It would have  been wonderful to have seen them  when they were  much younger, and smaller. Still you can see that she is still suckling them, even though  they are as big as mum. I was so excited to see them, a real treat.

I did notice that and was surprised that I could see that in the picture.  They are such neat creatures.