Nature Photography through a Window

My office window provides a great vantage point of our back yard and I’ve cleaned it so that sometimes I can get good pictures just steps way from where I write this blog. The deer wonder through

And the squirrels are active in the yard.

They climb up the sycamore or the steps to get to the deck if I have seed in a bowl in addition to the squirrel-proof feeder. It is surprising how fast they discover the seed in the bowl!

But I enjoy trying to capture images of birds. There have been some successes this past month. The dove sat for a very long time on the roof of our covered deck that is visible from my window. It was cold day but that was a sunny spot.

The cardinal sometimes shares the seed bowl with others…and sometimes chases them away but he doesn’t stay long so the others get their share.

The female cardinal seems to need water more often than seed!

The titmice come as a pair.

The blue jays sometimes come from water but they often move so fast that there is not time to even get the camera turned on. This one sat for a few more seconds than usual!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – October 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for October 2015.

Several celebrations involved the volunteering I do with the Howard County Conservancy:

A rainy day hike with 1st graders – It could have been a disaster…unhappy wet children…but instead we moved quickly from covered are and to covered area when it was only sprinkling and the children were very happy all during their field trip. I celebrated their resilience (and my own)!

The snake and second graders – The response of children to snakes is hard to predict. I had a group of eight second graders and three chaperones that simply enjoyed watching the small snake move through the grass and then moved away from the direction the snake wanted to go, allowing it to escape. Fascination rather than hysteria…something to celebrate.

The 25th birthday of the Howard Country Conservancy – I am celebrating that the non-profit I enjoy volunteering with has been around for 25 years!

There were a lot of things at home to celebrate in October too:

Bringing the glass bird bath indoors – We had a first frost and that triggered the retrieval of the glass bird bath. I cleaned it thoroughly and it now is in its winter role: holding potatoes and onions on the dining room table. Making this change is always a celebration of seasonal change.

Bountiful CSA shares – Wow – we are getting full bags each week at the CSA season comes to an end....celebrating a riot of fall veggies!

80 daffodil bulbs planted – I actually celebrated when the job was done. The bags did not seem that daunting when I purchased them but 80 bulbs requires some effort to get in the ground! I am already anticipating how pretty they will be at the edge of the forest next spring.

Zentangle® on a soft drink bottle – I saw an article about making the patterns on Christmas balls and decided to try it on soft drink bottles as a practice. The first one did not turn out so well; the curved surface is very different than a paper tile. With practice – I now have some that I like…and I still have a few more weeks before I’ll switch to ornaments. I’m celebrating my developing skill.

Blue jays in the maple – The small flock of blue jays that I’ve noticed the past few fall seasons is back and visiting the maple I see from my office window. I am celebrating their return.

Our October road trip had at least one celebration each day…but I chose 2 to not overwhelm the list for the month:

Staunton River Star Party – I did not know what to expect…but it was fun and comfortable. I am celebrating the beginning of a new tradition since I am sure we’ll go again next fall.

Fall foliage – I suppose I could have listed this in the ‘home’ category too. October is the month to celebrate the beauty of deciduous trees preparing for winter.

Found Feathers

Back in June I posted about finding a lot of feathers on a walk around Centennial Lake. It probably resulted from a sad ending to the bird.

Most of the time I find only one feather at a time and feel happy about finding it - a little treasure. The blue jay feather I found in Texas is a good example. It was still in near pristine condition so I must have found it shortly after the bird lost it.

Feathers get bedraggled very quickly after they are lost. It’s an indicator of the effectiveness of the preening birds do.

This feather was in grass that had been recently mowed. I wondered if the feather had survived the mower or whether it had been already scruffy looking with the bird lost it.

Zooming - February 2015

It is often hard to find color in the middle of winter. The colors seem to be mostly white and brown…so the bits of color are appreciated more:

• The flower and fiddlehead in the green house
• The red of a pigeon’s eye
• The flash of blue when a jay pushes the leaves around in the forest
• The blue sky on a sunny day
• The blue powder design on a butterfly’s wing

It is very cold today and there is still snow on the ground from a few days ago. But I enjoy the scene of the forest in winter from my office window - staying warm indoors.

Enjoy the February zoomed images!