Birding

We’ve had a week of unusually warm weather. Daytime highs reached 14C with lows above zero. It has meant most of the snow is gone. It also has brought out some unusual birds. [see below]

One that I didn’t get picture of is the ruffed grouse which I’ve heard a number of times and actually saw twice this week. I’m thrilled. It’s very hard to find because of it’s camouflage is very effective!As I may never actually get a picture, I will add one from Wikipedia. 

By MdfOriginal uploader at en.wikipedia was Mad Tinman at en.wikipedia – photo by User:Mdf, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12638421

Since bringing Mom’s bird feeder home I’ve really enjoyed watching for birds! So much fun.

Winter Flowers

In a recent email from Olympus I received a link to a tutorial on taking photos against a black velvet background (https://tinyurl.com/jo8a6um). Knowing I had a piece of velvet (velveteen?) I decided to try it. My results are not nearly as beautiful as Peter Baumgarten’s, but I’ll keep trying!

Winter Garden

It’s been so mild the last few days, nearly all the snow is gone. I took my camera out to “the back 40” to look for beauty.

California, August ’16

Once again I got to spend 10 days with my favourite grandchildren, including Volker’s 3rd birthday. Here are some pictures:

A walk in the Woods

Yesterday I spent some time in Huron Natural Area. I love the wildflowers in the meadows, but the woods were so much cooler. (There, however, the mosquitoes thought I made a tasty snack.)

Here are some of the pictures I took; the variety of dragon/damsel flies was amazing. I saw (but didn’t get a picture of) my first Monarch butterfly of the season.