@carpingdiem@med-mastodon.com
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carpingdiem

@carpingdiem@med-mastodon.com

Retired doc. POC. Blue dot in a red U.S. state (Indiana). All pictures were taken or created by me except for ones I have boosted. My avatar is "Power Puff Girls" me; my banner shows a male bluebird feeding his offspring. I may block followers who have no bio information or posts. #birds #birding #birdphotography #flowers #insects #nature #medicine #knitting #sports #photography #virtualphotography #IndianaStateFair #HoosierMast

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carpingdiem, to random
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Here in Indianapolis, we had a totality around 3pm EST. The bird chatter was deafening all afternoon around the feeders, but once totality hit, it was dead silent (not one peep) until the sun came back. And the temperature dropped about 10 degrees.

Here we are approaching totality.
We are almost at totality here. You can just see a thin ring of sun. It was still sunny, but the sunlight was very weak.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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Still cold. Still rainy. Still January. #birds #birding #birdsofmastodon #birdphotography #bluebirds #flicker #goldfinch #housefinch #HoosierMast

A male Northern flicker, which its black polka dotted chest and belly is perched on a feeder and a male bluebird (wings spread) and female bluebird have joined him.
A male American goldfinch in muted yellow winter feathers perches on the side of the birdbath before drinking.
A male house finch with bright red head and chest perches on a tiny branch.

carpingdiem, to Flowers
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I checked the half dozen milkweed plants we have growing in the front yard today and found 2 Monarch butterfly caterpillars. There were lots of bees and some ants, too. Detailed descriptions with each picture.

This is a small Monarch butterfly caterpillar (maybe 2nd instar out of 5). It is horizontally striped in white, black and yellow and has big black antennae. It has eaten a big chunk out of the common milkweed leaf and is still going.
A big, fuzzy yellow and brown bee is probing pink common milkweed flowers for nectar. It is a brown belted bumble bee.
A chestnut carpenter ant is an orange, large-ish ant. It is usually nocturnal and found under dead wood, but I found this one climbing a milkweed plant in the afternoon.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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The Cooper's hawk stopped by the bird feeders at the back of the house and then flew around the house to the bird feeders at the front of the house. I didn't see it take any birds, but I saw it take off after several.

Here is a Cooper's hawk in repose (it's watching the feeders closely). It has a dark grey cap, neck and back and a checkerboard white and orange-ish chest and belly. It has thin yellow legs and wicked black talons. But the most spectacular thing about it are its red eyes and its curved beak.

carpingdiem, to nature
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I went to my local park to see the spring chorus frogs in one of the many vernal pools there. Vernal pools are seasonal wetlands that appear in the winter and spring and dry out in the summer. I was shocked to find that all of the vernal pools that I checked out were bone dry. So this is a video from last year. The male chorus frogs are singing in a vernal pond. But there is no singing this year.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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I needed a new iPhone wallpaper (I got tired of the guinea pig), so I made a couple using my bluebird pictures. Then I thought that maybe other people need new wallpapers too and maybe they like bluebirds. So take them if you want them, they're free.

A male bluebird perches on a branch. This is a smaller image of the bluebird than the first image so there's more room for stuff at the top of the picture.
A male bluebird perches on the rim of the birdbath. This is the one on my phone.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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The bluebirds in the nest box in our yard have fledged! Here, Papa Bluebird feeds a baby that's bigger than him. The baby pushes him around quite a bit, trying to get more food. #birds #birding #birdsofmastodon #birdphotography #fledgling #bluebird #nature #HoosierMast

Adult male bluebird on the right has his beak (with the food) deep in the baby bluebird's mouth.
Baby bluebird (on the left) pushes the adult bluebird, trying to get every last crumb of food in the transfer. You can see that the only blue is on the fledgling is on the tips of the wing feathers and the rest of the body is covered with mottled white and dark brown feathers.
Baby finally lets the adult go and it flew away almost immediately.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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It was sunny, but very cold today. A flock of starlings has taken over the mealworm feeders and driven the bluebirds away. I try to scare the starlings off, but it is a losing battle. We have found that if you fill the mealworms feeders just before sunset, the starlings have already left, but the bluebirds are still there. (The picture is soft because the light was fading.)

carpingdiem, to midjourney
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PSA. It's time to get the newest COVID booster, if you haven't yet. The CDC says a new subvariant, JN.1, is responsible for a rise in COVID hospitalizations in the US. The new vaccine works, as it boosts antibodies 13-27-fold against JN.1, but <16% of US adults have received it. Make a plan to get it today. And if you haven't gotten your flu vaccination, you can get that at the same time. Healthy Holidays!

carpingdiem, to Birds
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It was sunny but cold today. The whole bluebird flock showed up. A female flicker has been coming to the feeder every day for the past few days, but she's very shy.

A female flicker has come to the feeder in the last light of the day. She has black polka dots on a beige background and a little red line across the back of her head. Flickers are the only woodpeckers that spend most of their time on the ground.

carpingdiem, to Flowers
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It's the heart of summer. All the insects are here. (IDs with each picture.)

An Indiana robberfly is a frightening looking insect, with a beige abdomen with black stripes, big legs with grasping pincers on the ends, big black eyes and a nasty looking proboscis. It eats other bugs and when it flies, it's very loud. I heard this guy before I saw him.
An ornamental onion flower with pale pink buds with a domestic honeybee on it.
The teasels are starting to bloom. It has a spiky looking shape, with numerous light lavender tiny flowers all over the spikes. Butterflies and bees love them.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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The bluebirds continue to make up the majority of the birds at the feeder. I believe the male red bellied woodpecker has finished pecking out a nesting cavity, as I haven't seen him working at it lately. Meanwhile, the female is dining at the feeder a lot. The weather continues to oscillate between numbing cold and heat appropriate to early summer.

A female red bellied woodpecker delicately pulls a suet nugget from the feeder.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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"Let me sing you the song of my people!" A juvenile Cooper's hawk on a cold January day.

Juvenile Cooper's hawk, feathers puffed out in response to the cold wind, looking off to one side, showing its yellow/brown eyes. When it matures, it will have red eyes and a different color scheme.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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All the woodpeckers are coming to the feeders now and frequently, too. They must be feeding hatchlings.

This woodpecker has a reddish-orange stripe on its head and neck, a cream colored face, neck, chest and belly with an orangish blotch on its belly and black and white polka dotted wings. This is a male red bellied woodpecker. They are at the suet feeders constantly throughout the day.
This is our largest woodpecker, with its red Woody Woodpecker crest, and black and white body and wings. Since it also has a red mustache, it is a male pileated woodpecker. It's call is a lot like Woody Woodpecker's too.
This medium sized woodpecker with its white chest and belly and black a white head, back and wings looks like a downy woodpeckers, but it's bigger and its beak is longer. It's a hairy woodpecker.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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You hear them well before you see them. There were dozens of squads flying today; I saw hundreds of individuals, but who knows how many were in the air. They were headed north. The sandhill cranes flew over my house today.

There were many sandhill cranes flying today. This picture shows 2 dozen or so individual, flying in a V formation.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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It's currently 9F/-13C, headed to -1F/-18C by morning. The birds were eating well today, so hopefully they have enough calories to keep warm.

A male Northern cardinal, which is all over brilliant red, including its beak and with a black mask on its face, perches on a tree.
A male Northern flicker, a type of woodpecker, visits the suet block. It usually forages on the ground, but this one is hungry and isn't picky.
Four deer bedded down for a nap in my backyard during the afternoon. Unfortunately, I could only get 2 of them in the shot.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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It's about time for the pelicans to swing by in their migration north.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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Just some of the usual suspects, enjoying the sunshine and the 50F/10C temperatures.

A male flicker, with its tan and black spotted body and wings and black collar and mustache forages for food on the ground, unlike other woodpeckers.
A gold and tan American goldfinch, with black and white wings enjoyed the sunflower chips.
A male eastern bluebird, with its blue head and wings and cinnamon chest, is enjoying both the sun and the dried mealworms. He's not too busy to pose for a picture.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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The good news: the temperature is above freezing. The bad news: it's raining.

This tan and cinnamon colored Caroliina wren is singing. It's saying, "Get out of my territory, you bum," to another wren.
A bluebird flutters above the feeder, preparing to land. I like its wings.
A ground of bluebirds have piled onto the mealworm feeder. In the front, a male and female bluebird have their heads together and appear to be conferring.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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Another beautiful day--cool, partly cloudy, breezy and totally lacking mosquitos. Because it was so cool, the birds were waiting in long lines by the time the feeders came out at 10am. (We lock them up at night to keep them away from the raccoons and deer.)

An adult male house finch, with his red face, feeds a fat fledgling in this triptych.
A male summer tanager scrapes up the suet flakes that have fallen from the feeder above (I don't know if he's clever or just lazy). He started out on the jelly feeder, since he loves jelly and now is gathering something with which to feed chicks.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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The weather is odd for January. It was so warm today, I took the heater out of the birdbath since it appears that low temperatures will remain above freezing for the next 2 weeks at least. And despite the rain, it is still foggy.

Foggy forest. It has been foggy for several days and it was supposed to clear after the rain last night, but I guess no one told the fog.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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There are so many bluebirds hanging about, as well as the usual suspects. And finally, the rain has let up and we have some sun. #birds #birding #birdsofmastodon #birdphotography #nature #bluebirds #titmouse #goldfinch

A female American goldfinch, looking pale in the winter sunlight, sits on a branch, all puffed out.
A blue-grey tufted titmouse leaps from its perch, wings still furled, as it moves closer to the feeder.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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Dad is still feeding the fledglings, though they are starting to get the idea that they can pick up the food themselves. From the way they are behaving, I'm guessing it doesn't taste as good that way.

The adult male bluebird has landed next to the fledgling and is preparing to jam the mealworms down the fledgling's gaping beak.
The fledgling is spreading its wings as it grabs the mealworms from its dad's beak.
The fledgling's beak is full of mealworms and dad looks on.

carpingdiem, to InitialD
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It's been raining for the past week and the dry places have some water in them now, though not close to the usual amount. Now that the sun is out, I went looking for western chorus frogs... and I was not disappointed. Because there was so little water, they were really crowded together. Bad for them, good for me.

Western chorus frogs are about an inch long, and usually are difficult to spot. But they were crowded together in this temporary pond, so they were easy to spot. And also, they are very loud so that they are easy to find. I was standing some distance away and my watch registered 85-90 decibels.

carpingdiem, to Birds
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The Cooper's hawk dropped by at lunchtime, looking for a bird to lunch on, erm, with. It didn't find any and left straightaway.

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