Where have all the PRETTY birds gone......damn it!!

So I have always liked birds.  My grandfather raised budgies, my sister at one time had a menagerie of exotic birds and I have had a few of my own.....and I like wild birds as well...pretty cardinals, blue jays, yellow finch's, blue birds, hummingbirds....you get the idea

and the above ladies and gentlemen are the extent of my "pretty bird" pictures....I will elaborate...... I started a Nature Photography course which required a few pictures taken in the 10 week period of at least a couple of pictures of wildlife....we did two field trips with the class and one in class assignment and the rest was up to us.....as you can see from below I just can't help going back to my roots as a people photographer :)

Well I thought this wildlife thing should be a breeze....I live across from the bush and our area is well known for a wide variety of different birds....so off I went to our local feed Store Cayuga Pets and purchased a cheap gazebo type bird feeder and a big bag of feed, which I promptly came home and hung on my deck....

I was so excited as the first bird discovered it's new feeding spot, little did I know then what I do now and I would not have been....a blue jay even perched on the deck but was gone before I could grab my camera...I have seen hide nor hair of him since that day....then my hubby came home and informed me that I was to move the feeder or we would get squirrels....grrrr....I ignored him for a few days, but then gave in....you know how it is ladies, give into the little things so they think they have won, besides I had already formed a better idea....I would plant some sunflower seeds by the old hydro pole which was still close enough and hang the bird feeder there....

There was already a bird house on the pole and I added a suet feeder, in hopes of Mr Blue Jay coming back, hung up a plant for foliage until the sunflowers got big enough and put a bird bath below....what more could a PRETTY bird ask for??? So I waited....and I waited....and I waited, and while I waited I took pictures of the birds that where visiting....

to post anymore would just be redundant....for weeks now I have been waiting for my PRETTY birds....I know they are here because my neighbour Jan has pictures of them on her Facebook taken from her window or her deck or her backyard....grrrrr......she tells me to be patient and they will come....I think she has done something so that they only like her place or she has some special seed that she won't tell me about! Now there is a Robins nest perched up on the satelite dish on my hubby's Mancave so I thought although I can't use them for my Nature course (manmade elements are not allowed) I should still probably get some pictures.....so after sitting for over an hour, on a ladder, with a lens on my camera that wieghs like 6lbs and no tripod, I finally got these ones....

So although I am only attracting what I now to refer to is "ugly brown birds". I am learning a few things. The cheap gazebo bird feeder I mentioned that I bought, is cheap for a reason....not only are "ugly brown birds" ugly they are apparently also picky and messy

at this rate the feeder was needing to be filled up morning and evening....and the seed on the ground now was attracting Morning Doves, again ugly brown birds, there is now always a convention of them down below picking up what the other "ugly brown birds" threw away. Once again I headed to Cayuga Pets and bought a new feeder, a hummingbird feeder, hummingbird feed and of course to replenish my feed.

I even bought one of those birdseed bells made of sunflower seeds for Mr Blue Jay....alas I believe the squirrel that my husband was mentioning climbed up the pole and took it away, netting and all...oh and on it's way down it landed on one of my sunflowers which are now about 3 feet tall and broke it off...I have also put up a makeshift feeder which I have been putting oranges in for the cardinals....uh no...they just dry up or the "ugly brown birds" check them out and fling them to the ground.....and although I have discovered this cool camaflouge netting my hubby has to hide me from the birds (I'm sure our new neighbors across the road think I am bonkers)....for some reason I scare them, although they see me feeding them ALL the time....I still only have "ugly brown birds". One night I decided that since "ugly brown birds" where the only things coming and I was patiently out there waiting for the PRETTY birds to show up I decide to capture them in flight to fight off the boredom...did I mention that I don't sit well...after like 2 minutes I am usually ready to move on....

Now although I was kind of happy with the flying pictures, again they are, when it all boils down to it....just more "ugly brown birds".....sigh!