Snow...drops

Thursday morning I planned to walk around Hildacy through what I expected would be at least two inches of snow.  Instead there was no snow.  Not even a flake.  Instead there were snowdrops. 

Experimentation

This Red-bellied Woodpecker visits my feeder every day.  He's very beautiful but more skittish than the other birds.  As a result most of my photos of him are through the window.  This is the result of my experiments editing in Camera Raw.  I wouldn't try to print it but you have to start somewhere.

An Incredible Tree

Keeping Track

2nd Generation

This post is for Fr. Heet and Darrell Anderson.  Two men who made stage crew in High School and College so much fun.  I am proud to pass that love down a generation.  And happy to see that my math and science loving daughter has some outlet for all those art genes I gave her.  Here she is putting it to good use with the Dragon Boat she designed for Willy Wonka.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

I stopped by to see the Northern Saw-whet Owl again today.  I don't know if this is the same owl I saw earlier this year but these photos are from two separate visits to the same little owl.  You can see from the first two photos that he's sitting in exactly the same spot, just in a different position.

Working Hard

On both my recent trips to the Jersey Shore I've seen lots of evidence of people working hard to repair the damage done by Hurricane Sandy. 

Dunes

Last week I somehow managed to take trips on the only two sunny days.  I say somehow because both trips were planned in advance.  And in fact when we left for Cape May on Wednesday it was raining.  Happily the skies cleared and by the time we were heading home we had spent a beautiful day outside.  Just before leaving we stopped by Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area and scouted the area near the canal for an eider which we did not see.  Nevermind, the beach and the sun are always enough.

Still Standing

I first photographed this tree 5 years ago.  It's hard to believe its still standing. 

Variations on a Theme

I took a trip up to Middle Creek on Monday with some friends to see how the snow goose migration was going.  The snow geese were hidden back out of sight but the Tundra Swans made a pretty good showing.  As you can see from my last few posts I'm not the only one made more irritable by February this year.  Looking forward to March and Spring! 

A Different Sort of Struggle

These Mallards had hoped for a bit of bread but the geese did a pretty good job of eating it all.  So they wandered of to other pursuits, a bit of a spring fling, so to speak.

Smackdown

I drove over to Crum Creek today to test out my polarizing filter.  I didn't expect to test it on anything so dramatic!  As it happens I pulled up about the same time as a man who'd come to feed the geese.  (This isn't strictly allowed but the powers that be hadn't thought to post a sign on the bit of road that barely fits two cars let alone a photographer, a guy feeding ducks, AND two cars.  At least they hadn't thought of it yet...) So wow!  I lucked out.  Who knew a goose could stick out it's tongue?

Junior Duck Stamp Drawings

I spend a lot of time at the Heinz NWR.  (In case you want to know how much time click the Heinz "label")  Sometimes I just wander around taking pictures but I also do some volunteering there as well.  Last week I got the opportunity to help out with a middle school Junior Duck Stamp project.  I taught the students a bit about drawing.  These are a few of the 40 drawings the students made.  Next week I'm going to teach them a bit about watercolors and set them to work.

Savannah Sparrows at Barnegat

Preparations

Barnegat Lighthouse State Park

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Mergansers are pretty funny on a windy day.  That hair kind of blows all over the place!  The duck numbers at Barnegat seemed to be down from last year (just based upon my personal viewing.)  But to compensate the ducks that were out stayed nice and close to the jetty.  This is absolutely the closest I've ever been to a Red-breasted Merganser.

Something Different

These are the Harlequin Ducks in the shadow of a rock.  I love the color palate in these photos, very different from my other 1,000 Harlequin photos.

Long-tailed Ducks

I had a great time out at Barnegat today.  There were not nearly as many Harlequin Ducks as last year but the Long-tailed Ducks were worth the trip.

Red and Green