When you feel the urge to …….

photograph something there's always a willing kitty. Whatever pheromones Badger possesses that make him such a hit with the girls I just wish I could bottle it. I would make a fortune. I kid you not, he sleeps with two at a time. They all adore him, actually thinking about it the boys do too. maybe the pheromones are not such a good idea after all.

Badger

Nice Spring Day

What a change from all the snow pictures of the front yard. The daffodils are out, the little violets are all over and best of all the cherry trees are in blossom.

Spring Day

Amber was sleeping

I went into the library and Amber was sleeping on the chair in the sunshine. Hairy little beast. I never noticed before her whiskers are asymmetrical, black on the right side and mainly white on the left. She's a cutie.

Amber just woken up!

Wood Stork and Dewdrop

The Wood Stork has a little dewdrop hanging from his rather ginormous beak!

Wood Stork

Miscellaneous photos from today

Saturday lunchtime and a good deal warmer than yesterday. So Kelly and I went out to lunch at Moose's up at Ft. Indiantown Gap then swung round via Marquette lake to see the Bald Eagles and then finally a walk at Memorial Lake.
As we were walking out the door, me carrying my photo gear I though I'd take a quick shot of one the ferns about ready to unfurl outside the front door.

Fern

If the mood takes me I'll set the tripod up and do a focus stacked picture tomorrow.

Once we parked the car at Memorial Lake and were starting out over the dam I noticed this bright yellow flower. I haven't got a clue what it is so if you can identify it let me know.

Yellow Flower

Once across the dam we saw a Horned Grebe and I managed to get some pictures of him, the light was awful but it is what it is.

Horned Grebe

Horned Grebe

Walking back to my camera bag to switch to a macro lens I noticed these little Violet type flowers.

Violet ?

A little further on I found a whole load of these Dogtooth Violets or Trout Lilies. Pretty little things but none of them were holding their head up.

Dogtooth Violet or Trout Lily

Dogtooth Violet or Trout Lily

Carrying on a bit further I came across these and I haven't a clue as to their identity.

Wild Flower 

Finally I found this Song Sparrow singing away so I took his picture.

Song Sparrow

Ruddy Turnstone and Black Oystercatcher

A bird that rarely leaves it's coastal habitat is the Ruddy Turnstone. They wander along the seashore without a care in the world just turning over rocks and shells looking for juicy morsels to eat. The Black Oystercatcher on the other hand is often found inland on golf courses or wet fields where they can use the long probing bill to dig down and pull up a nice worm.

Ruddy Turnstone

Black Oystercatcher

Landscape

I haven't done a landscape for a while so in my best Blue Peter presenters voice, "Heres one I prepared earlier". English joke folks, you lot wouldn't understand.

This is somewhere in Yellowstone back in October 2007.

Yellowstone Grasses

Winter visitors gone Summer visitors here

The Snow Geese have all headed North to their breeding areas in Canada I  shall miss hearing them  flying over and seeing them land in the fields. Still I was bitching long enough about the long cold winter so I'm not going to miss them that much!

Snow Geese

Looking out the window a few minutes ago onto one of the flower beds covered in leaves I saw there were 7 Grackles just lifting and turning over the leaves looking for bugs. They looked like a herd of cattle grazing in a field. The grackles are summer visitors to the yard and although some call them them Blackbirds they are anything but black.

Grackle

Any day now

Any day now this little beauty will be showing up in my yard. I saw my first Black and White Warbler on the Garrison on St. Marys, Isles of Scilly in the mid 90's I think it was. Superb bird and it's always been one of my favorites since then.

Black and White Warbler

Baltimore or Northern?

Although the official name has changed from Baltimore Oriole to Northern Oriole I still prefer the old name so Baltimore Oriole it is.

Baltimore Oriole

Lady

Heres Lady keeping the Macbook Pro warm. We call her Lady for short but her real name is Grey Lady from the Harry Potter novels. She's a Russian Blue as far as we can tell, got the purple paws to prove it.

Lady

Oh happy day!

My Bloodroots are blooming.

Not as sharp as I'd like but as it was really windy it will do. It's very still out there today and overcast so I might get out there and have another go.

Bloodroot

Bloodroot

Bloodroot

Bald Eagles

On the way back home today we called in at the Pine Road Bald Eagle nest to see if there was any activity. When we arrived one of the adults was on the edge of the nest giving junior (juniors?) some sunshine. After 10 minutes or so the other adult appeared high to the South and the adult on the nest took off to join it's mate. Nice fly around views of both Eagles.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

A couple of years ago….

about this time I was down in Florida. I was just reading a blog about a bloke that popped over to Florida from the UK for a long weekend to photograph the birds. Not that flying the Atlantic for a long weekend is unusual, I used to do it regularly before I moved here permanently. The bloke took some really nice photographs in the same area that I like to visit which is just South of Ft Myers at a place called Little Estero Lagoon. Little Estero Lagoon There is a series of muddy tidal pools along the beach with mangroves and sandy beaches. You can lie down to photograph a wading bird, get all muddy and then you can just walk into the Gulf of Mexico to clean up. The birds are ridiculously tame down there, they actually come towards you.

I'm getting my D810 and 80-400 lens back today and I hope to start taking some new shots at the weekend.

Snowy Plover

Sanderling

Willet

Yep, Spring is here.

Damn it was hot last night, whereas it's been freezing every night, last night it was 55f. It's rainy today though so a short trip out to Middle Creek didn't produce many birds but these Tree Swallows posed for me on the wire.

Tree Swallows

Opportunist

Just after lunch I popped out onto the lower deck to check out the hose to see if it was still blocked with ice. Look what I found. The light was all wrong, I had on the wrong lens but it was too good a chance to miss. I love skunks they are so damn cute. I want one as pet but for some reason Kelly won't let me.

Skunk

Not long now

Even though it's still freezing at night the days are getting longer, theres more sunshine and the daytime temps are getting up  there. Lots of birds are arriving, Red-winged Blackbirds, Tree Swallows, Grackles, Cowbirds, assorted Sparrows and I'm waiting for the warblers. I sent my D810 off to Nikon to have a bug fix performed on it. The bug from what I can remember is that if you are taking a picture of a black cat in a coal cellar at midnight on a moonless night during a power outage you might get one or two white pixels following a 30 minute exposure or something stupid like that. I've known about it for months but have been reluctant to part with my baby. Hope it comes back to me soon.

Heres a picture of one of my favorite summer birds, the Eastern Kingbird. Beautiful flycatchers that are often perched on the wires around home.

Eastern Kingbird