Food, a Perch and they will come!

As it's colder than a Reindeer Fart outside I was photographing the birds from the comfort of an armchair and a nice cup of tea. It's much more civilized than walking round freezing your nuts off. It started out quite well then all the birds spooked and I saw the reason why. Cooper's Hawk looking for a meal. I ventured outside and shoo'ed him off and within a minute or two they came back.

Blue Jay

Coopers Hawk

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal

Snow and Cold

Not only is it damn cold out there we now have several inches of Snow, yeah the white stuff. Whereas I had every intention of staying in by the nice warm fire today I now have to fire up little John Deere and shift the snow from the drive. It's certainly not going to melt anytime soon looking at the frigid temperatures we're going to get over the next week or so. In the meantime here's a Cardinal and a Blue Jay to brighten things up.

Northern Cardinal

Blue Jay on Winterberry

Cold Nights

One nice thing about these frigid nights we're currently experiencing is the clear night skies that are partly the cause of the low temperatures. Clear night skies free of haze means excellent views of the moon and stars. I ventured out for 5 minutes and took this one of the moon.

Its the moon.

Christmas Eve

Sunday 24th December, that makes it Christmas Eve.

Started off with a nice Sunrise.

Christmas Eve Sunrise

We went off to Hershey Gardens and Butterflies!

Postman

I think this is a Sara Longing

I think this is a Sara Longwing

Raptor, the only bird I photographed today!

Don't think I'd walk round here in the dark.

Nice Red Brick Path

Bit of Greenery

Little Hunters Beach, Acadia National Park

This is Little Hunters Beach in Acadia National Park, Maine. To reach it you have to carefully climb down some rickety, wet, mossy wooden steps. I would love to be here on a misty morning it would be magical.

Little Hunters Beach

Dunlin in Flight

Last February we drove out to Barnegat Lighthouse in New Jersey to photograph the Harlequin Duck in particular. There were lots of other avian sights as well. As we're planning another trip out the next month I was looking thru the 1444 photographs I took that day. Here's one I liked of a flock of Dunlin in flight along the Jetty.

Dunlin 

Sturnus vulgaris

Yep, common Starling. Still a nice looking bird when it's not in a huge flock.

Startling

Foggy day at Ravens Nest

Late Sunday afternoon just before I feed the herd. I'm having a look through some photographs from Maine and liked the look of this one from Ravens Nest.

Ravens Nest on the Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia NP Maine

Twinkle's New Bed

Petsmart had a sale last weekend and as Twinkle needed a new bed we went over and bought her a nice 3 layer one. Rascal has taken a fancy to the ground floor but Twink likes the Penthouse.

Twinkle's New Penthouse

Willow

This is Willow. We were 650 miles away when she joined the household. She appeared the day before we were due to leave for Maine. I tried to get her then but she was spooked by another cat so I missed my chance. I asked Diane our cat sitter to try and get her and she did! The very next day! Well she was fixed, tested, vaccinated, de-flea'ed etc. She's a cute little thing so we'll keep her.

Willow

Turdus migratorius

In other words an American Robin. This is a nice adult that paid me a visit at my bird feeder one morning last week. I've been screwing around with a new lens and it's looking promising so far.

American Robin

Turdus migratorius 

Bluey had a hard day.

Bluey's had a really hard day today, poor little boy.

Bluey

Rolling Rascal

Rascal was rolling around in the sunshine this afternoon so obviously she wanted her picture taken.

Rascal

The early Cardinal gets the mealworms

I don't actually know if Cardinals eat dried mealworms but this one was at the feeder early this morning so he got his picture taken. It was still quite dark and overcast so I used flash which is why the backgrounds dark.

Northern Cardinal

Acadia in Black and White

These were taken at Sieur de Monts on a bright sunny midday using a Sony A7R converted to Infrared then turned into Black and White.

Sieur de Monts

Sieur de Monts

Sieur de Monts

Acadia - A few more.

We spent Friday evening sitting on Schoodic Point looking at the night sky. There was a cool breeze blowing but by opening the sunroof and reclining the seats we had a marvelous view. I've added a panorama I took on the way down to the point and another shot of Ravens Nest.

Ravens Nest

Milky Way over the Gulf of Maine

Schoodic Sunset

Acadia - Schoodic Skies

Looking out over the Gulf of Maine by 7:30pm the core of the Milky Way was very spectacular. I tried a flash to lighten the pines through which I was shooting. A cruise ship out of Bar Harbor came by which added a little bit of unwanted light pollution.

Acadia - Ravens Nest Sunset

Yesterday was quite a long day cos I was up way before Sunrise and went out again to get the sunset from Ravens Next. After that the Milky Way from Schoodic Point seemed a good idea, more of this later.

Ravens Nest 

Ravens Nest

Acadia - Schoodic Sunrise

After falling asleep around 7:30pm last night I was up and about at 5am just as it was starting to get light. I decided to go and photograph the sunrise at the causeway to Little Moose Island. It was cold! I saw 37f on the way there and there was a Roads Maybe Icy warning from the car.

Schoodic Sunrise

Schoodic Sunrise

Acadia - Little Moose Island

Little Moose Island is reached by a short walk across a shingle bank exposed at low tide. I took a walk across this morning and found this little flower between the rocks. The island is covered in Blueberry and Juniper bushes. Theres a narrow path of sorts out to the end of the island. About 3/4 of the way out there I started getting bitten by bloodsucking flies. They must have got a couple of pints at least. Of course it would be first day I've worn a short sleeved shirt! I bought a tube of Benedryl on the way back to the cottage. 

Flower

Looking towards Schoodic Point

Looking towards Schoodic Point

Looking out to sea.

Acadia - a bit more of this and a bit more of that.

A few more from yesterday. I went over to Mount Desert Island for the day and visited a few of my favorite places avoiding the more popular sites. A drive out to Schoodic Point after dinner was nice with a beautiful sunset. After dark I was stargazing.

Otter Cove

Monument Cove

Schoodic Sunset

Schoodic Sunset

Schoodic Sunset

Night Sky

Acadia - a bit of this and a bit of that.

Little Hunters Beach

Little Hunters Beach

Little Hunters Beach

Little Hunters Beach

Cadillac Mountain Infrared

Sieur de Monts Infrared

Sieur de Monts Infrared

Sieur de Monts Infrared