BEAUTYoftheWILD.com: Jay's Backyard

Tropical Depression Ernesto is now merrily on its way out of Florida. There appears to be very little damage left in its wake other then the temporary business interruption caused by the first hurricane scare of the season for South Florida. While we waited out the storm indoors, it gave me some time to finish up the August updates to BEAUTYoftheWILD.com. The August gallery is now complete, including a visit to Butterfly World.

Braving the heat of August, Snail Kites and butterflies were the most abundant subjects at Loxahatchee, while subjects at Wakodahatchee and Green Cay seemed few and far between. You don't have to travel far, get up early, or stand in the sun all day to get good pictures. Sometimes the best place to go can be you very own back yard, balcony, or patio. In our backyard we've set up a few feeding stations for the local birds, and our daughter Arwen loves watching the birds through our sliding glass doors. So last Sunday I took out the camera and spent some time with our backyard friends.

One of the more colorful, and definitely my favorite, visitors to your backyard is the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). You can attract Blue Jays to your yard with feeders that use mixed birdseed. Once you have attracted the Jays to the feeder the key to making them pose for you are peanuts. Blue Jays love peanuts.

If you're inclined to try to get your own pictures of backyard birds, here are some tips: First, set up a feeder to attract birds. When birds start appearing at your feeder, it's time to find a nice location to photograph them. Set up a chair and your camera, including tripod if necessary. I recommend a telephoto lens in the 200mm to 300mm range. You'll probably scare off the birds at first, but if you're patient they will get used to you and return to the feeder. To keep the background in your pictures from becoming distracting, place the feeder closer to the camera and some distance from the background. This way the background blurs into a pleasing solid color. You should be able to see this effect in your camera's viewfinder (keeping the aperture as large as possible f4.0 or f5.6 helps).

During the hot summer months, many birds will get infestations from feather mites. The birds are able to preen these mites from their feathers, except for the region around their head. To keep the mites from infesting the feathers around the head, the birds molt and loose all or most of the feathers around the head and neck. This results in the "bald is beautiful" look for many birds during the summer.

This e-mail is being sent to you because you, or someone you know has subscribed you to receive updates to the BEAUTYoftheWILD.com website. If you would like to be removed or would like to add someone to the subscribers list, please send an e-mail to jayparedes@hotmail.com. When replying to this e-mail please take the time to delete the images.