A Place to Rest and Eat

I though this empty milkweed pod looked like a cozy chair, maybe suitable for a little bird.



Or, if you filled it with peanut butter and birdseed, a place to eat. Remember those pinecone bird feeder creations you made in grade school, drenched in sticky peanut butter and coated with seed? I don't think kids make those anymore - maybe too messy... but for those stuck at home because of the weekend blizzard, perhaps a great activity to benefit the birds.

Speaking of birds, I learned about the cutest Lego Bird set while watching a Lego documentary and had to buy it. The Lego Birds features three beautiful birds, intricately designed and rendered - the European Robin, North American Blue Jay and South American Hummingbird.



While I bought it for myself, my son immediately took to building the Robin, and completed it in 15 minutes.


I built the Blue Jay (it was pretty complex and fun), then we shared duties on the hummingbird (truth be told, I was merely the assistance in this endeavor). Highly recommended if you are a bird fan. I believe the designer, gardener and bird enthusiast Thomas Poulsom, is developing additional birds for future sets.

Update - Lego Birds 2 is in the gathering support phase at this link: Lego Birds 2. I am excited to see the Cardinal included in this next set.

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Peace, Faith, Grace

Three words, simple sentiments for this world. It's a new day and even in the chaos of world events, may you find and give peace, faith and grace in the simplicity of the earth's beauty.

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For the Birds

My husband recently relocated the platform bird feeder so that it sits less than a yard from the back of the house, conveniently situated close to the living room windows. He also bought and filled it bird seed, an important element to attracting birds to the feeder (yeah, obvious, but something I just never seem to remember to do, LOL!).

I like my new photo set up!




This set up also attracts birds to the pond.


Of course, the cats love their new entertainment package.

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Even the Blackbird Knows It's Spring

We'll just get through these next two days (snow expected tonight, ugh) and continue with Spring, please.

The photo reminds me of a great song, Blackbird, from the Beatles

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Performed here by Paul McCartney

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In the Snow Globe

It feels like we're in a perpetual snow globe - yesterday, the precipitation that fell from the sky included huge snow flakes, granular hail, freezing rain and some actual rain. There was lightening and thunder, too.

While I am admittedly tired of the snow, slush, and all the cold we've endured this winter, I couldn't help but marvel at the pretty, soft flakes falling from the sky as I drove around town. I decided to stop and go for an impromptu photo walk along one of the numerous trails that weave alongside the local slough.



I run with a group on Sunday mornings, and we often take this trail. It winds along the water's edge, away from the road traffic and keeps us sheltered from the wind - I often want to stop and capture it, but that would interrupt the flow of the run. Today was a perfect time to capture its essence.







Shared with Tuesdays Around the World. Hoping this is the last snow of the season, but I'm not holding my breath!

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Along My Evening Walk

With Baseball season officially behind us, I found myself on Tuesday evening free of any sort of obligation. I suppressed the urge to pilfer that time away by lying on the couch watching Love It or List It on HGTV; instead I hauled my butt outside with my camera in tow.

[Side Note: If you have ever watched Love It Or List It, why is it that 90% of the time the family decides to Love It? I had to watch at least 10 episodes before the final verdict was "List It". I would love to see follow ups with the families a year later to see if they regretted their decision.
End of Side Note]

I should have headed out earlier - the evening sky was beautiful, but the light was fading quickly and I am sure there was a prettier show a mere fifteen minutes before I shot this one.


I crossed over the foot bridge over the local slough and spotted an egret. I have seen them occasionally around the retention ponds, but never this close, wading in the water. Edited to add - I have been informed by my mother that the bird is a great blue heron, not an egret!


Lucky for me, he was walking against the current, towards me on the foot bridge.


I may have spooked him a bit because once he was under the bridge, he took off.

It's not the greatest capture - my shutter speed was too slow to get a perfectly sharp image. What a beautiful bird - I am amazed by the wide wingspan, the elegant neck, the stick legs.



I'll admit I didn't walk very much that evening but I'd rather stalk a pretty bird anyways.

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Unexpected Visitor

We had a surprise visitor to our backyard pond the other day - a young hawk! Scott noticed him (her?) perched on one of the stones, looking down at the water.



He appeared to be watching the gold fish in the pond. Maybe hoping for an afternoon snack?

Then he moved closer to the house - on to the cover of the pond's recirculation pump, where he continued to look down at the water. He was less than 3 feet away from the house - certainly the closest I've been to a raptor in the wild.


I love how the tail feathers are fanned out, and notice the slight lean forward in this next photo - just prior to him taking off in flight:



I didn't get a decent photo of him in flight, but it was cool to watch. He never did take anything from the pond, either. We only have little goldfish in the pond and since some of them swim very close to the surface, I thought he would grab one.

I am not any sort of raptor expert, so if anyone out there knows what type of hawk this guy is, please let me know in the comments!

Shared with Tuesday's Muse and Communal Global.

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London Times | Chiswick House and Gardens

My sister has Friday's off from work, so we set out that morning for a nice walk along the Thames via the Chiswick Mall. It was a perfect morning - a little cloudy with an occasional glimpse of the sun.



The walkway, or Mall along the river was dotted with pubs, restaurants and private houses with beautiful gardens.




Most of the gardens were in a strip of land between the river's retaining wall and the walkway. The house would then be located across the street - you had to cross the street and the walkway to get to your garden. Because of this arrangement, most of the gardens were tucked behind gates and privacy hedges.





There are a couple of river access points along the walk - the girls took their cousins down to the muddy banks by mistake (the adults were lagging behind) and subsequently turned back when they realized how muddy it was, but there was an adventurous group of students exploring down along the banks.


We caught a sculling team practicing:


We headed away from the river to the Chiswick House Gardens where we enjoyed lunch outside and the kids played in the playground.


The Chiswick House itself was closed, but the gardens are so nice it didn't matter. The gardens were created in the 18th century and served as inspiration for other grand gardens such as New York's Central Park.
Water flows through the center of the gardens, home to several new families:

Egyptian Ducks:


Then there was the amazing conservatory and formal Italian Gardens in front:


In a large city, Chiswick House and Gardens is a perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle of the crowds. We really enjoyed our visit.

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Bird Watching

Just a small collection of the winged species I captured during my trip to the UK:







Shared with Tuesday's Muse and Communal Global.

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Looking Out

looking out from the inside
looking out from the branches
i see you, but what do you see?



does anything look "off" in this photo?
it was taken on Mother's Day,
yes, the branches are bare,
when all should be green....

while i'm certain the tree is dead,
i'm glad i at least got to see
the bird looking out,
not looking at me
and so we're going to pick out another tree
from the local nursery

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On Golden Pond

The Crow perched, Calling
Listening for a Warble
A Distant Echo


From the other side
Another responds, trilling
As the sun sets low

Enjoy your Tuesday!
Sharing with Tuesday Muse, Sweet Shot Tuesday and Communal Global.

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Flap Your Wings Like You Mean It

Monday's snow provided a great background for this male cardinal.


I recently read a photography article that listed a few techniques for getting sharper images - one was to have a contrasting background which allows your subject to pop. Normally when I shoot our bird feeder, the background grass is green (or recently, dead, dull winter brown). The white really makes him stand out. I happened to get lucky with him preening or flapping his wings.

The snow is almost gone now, thanks to ample sun (yay!) and slightly warmer temperatures. We are all looking forward to the start of spring!

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I Have A Song to Sing

I used two textures and added in the text. The original is below.

For Texture Tuesday and Tuesday Muse.



I added a fresh batch of sunflower seeds to the feeder out back and voila - visitors! I have yet to order another feeder to be positioned closer to the house, but we enjoy the birds none the less - they are a harbinger of spring.

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Random Photos

Just some photos I have taken over the last month that I never featured on the blog.

Taking Flight

This was one of those point the camera at the flock of birds that just took flight and hope for the best. I was lucky that the auto-focus found a bird to grab on to. I was using a 105mm macro lens that doesn't always focus fast on moving objects.

It's still not perfect because as I cropped it tighter, I noticed the depth of field rendered the background windmill out of focus. My aperture was set to f3.5, and with a full frame camera, that was too low. Oh well - I'm still amazed how much detail I still got and I am always fascinated by how flocks of birds take to the sky together.


Now for some fun photos - from a Dodgeball outing my friend Jill arranged during Christmas break. Picture 15 or so kids, ages 5 to 16 playing dodgeball. Add in Jill's husband, Buck, who is really serious about his dodgeball. This is what you get (Buck is in the blue).

Jill has title the above "Proud Wife Moment".


And everyone playing had to sign a waiver before playing.... but really, no one was hurt....

Shared with Wordful Wednesday, as I guess I had a lot to say today....

Shared with Deb Duty and her last edition of This or That Thursday.

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Peace

No words, just prayers for Peace.

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Water Fowl and Photo Tips for Capturing Action

I was going through my flickr stream and thought these photos of water birds might brighten your day.









Photo tips when shooting birds in flight (or any action - I follow these steps when shooting sports):

• Use the Continuous Focus Tracking mode on your camera. Some cameras have a "Sports Mode" which is a continuous focus mode.
• Use the Continuous shutter release which will actuate your shutter continuously when you depress it.
• If you have plenty of light, use the Aperture Priority Exposure mode, and set your aperture at least two stops from full open. (although I don't always follow this rule, as the top two photos were taken at f2.8)

With birds, you need to be patient! That was probably the hardest part for me, although when you're in Florida and have the entire afternoon free, it's not too bad.....

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