Feeder Time

Now that the pine tree has lost half it's branches we get a lot more sun on the birdfeeders.  Most of my birds are acclimated to my camera leaning out the bedroom window through my vertical Blind.  Some of them more than others.  It took over a year for the Red-bellied Woodpecker to allow this and the Hermit Thrush, who just appeared two days ago, was having none of it.  So he's shot through the window and during the snow storm.  But the rest were shot in the brilliant, pine treeless sunshine.  The snow makes a great light reflector.

Out for a Walk

I went out for a walk at Heinz on Friday to test out the new camera in my favorite location.  Bad news is that my 300mm lens is still stuttering and reving and, I guess, failing.  But the good news is that I love the new camera.  I'm still working out all the settings and options.  I have two "user" settings in additional to all the other goodies.  I haven't even tried to take a video yet.  So much to learn and try!

Birds in Snow

Female Cardinal

Song Sparrow

Female House Finch

Grey

It was neither sunny nor warm today but since it wasn't actually raining I decided to take a much needed walk.  It was, in fact, so dark this morning that I had to set my ISO to 1600 which means I can't really crop the photos.  So while there are birds in each of these photos the images are really about the branches and the colors.  If you walk out into a day like today, to say, go to your car, you may be struck by how incredibly dull and grey it is.  In fact, if you look out the window it seems even worse.  And if you do this for several days you may be on the verge of running away to some place with sunshine.  However, if you actually get out and walk through the woods with your camera you will see that the grey world is full of beautiful color.  And you will be glad that the song and field sparrows made you take photos of the branches and grasses.  And you will be very happy to look back on these photos from a sunny day and admire how smart you were not to let the endless, horrible, grey prevent you from enjoying life...very much.  If, in fact, such a day ever occurs again...

Winter Sparrows

Fox Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Tree Sparrow

I'm really pretty sure it was another White-throated but I'm having doubts.

The sparrows were also out enjoying Tuesday's sunshine.  The Fox Sparrow is the newest to me and I really like to see them.  Unfortunately I did not get as good a shot of the Tree Sparrow as he deserved.  His "rusty" cap was really quite red.  Last year I determined to learn the sparrows and I have made progress but it is still a bit tricky for me.  You can see the problem if you look at both White-throated Sparrow photos.