Cold Saturday

At 10am it's still only 26f and todays high is getting up to a whopping 33f. Considering Wednesday was 70f I'd say that was a false start. After going out in the semi darkness to fill up the feeders I was watching the activity and when it got a bit lighter around 8am I decided to take a few pictures. I decided it was bright enough to forego the flash and just used high ISO's and lower shutter speeds. I only gave it an hour but took well over a thousand shots. Heres a few I processed.

Black-capped Chickadee

Blue Jay

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird

Hairy Rodent

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Mockingbird

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Blue Skies, Dark Skies

 Just a few without birds or felines.

Blue Sky

Dark Sky

Snowdrops

Snowdrops

Snowdrops

A couple from this morning

 The light was perfect early on before the rain.

Eastern Bluebird

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Saw-whet Owl

 Only one more to go. With the Saw-whet Owl I only have Barn Owl to see in Pennsylvania. I've seen loads in the UK, in fact they used to breed every year just down the Fen about a mile away so they were regulars. I'd seen the Saw-whet during an evening banding session and lecture several years ago but I dont count those.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Juno

 This is a shot of the very aloof Juno. She was named after a favorite actress from the 2007 film of the same name. Unusually the said favorite actress is now an actor 😥 Oh well. She's a hairy little beast (the cat not the actor/actress). She sheds clumps of white fur where ever she goes, I'd brush her if she'd let me, but she doesn't. She's cute, just like her namesake from the film.

Juno

Hershey Butterfly Atrium

Prior to a lunch date with Kelly I popped into the Hershey Gardens Butterfly Atrium for a little while. Due to a 7 year old screeching so loud and shrill in absolute terror because a butterfly looked at him funny I didn't stay long at all. I took photos of the flowers outside instead. It was too wet and rainy to walk around the gardens or I would have done that instead. 

African Violet

Blue Morpho

Egyptian Star-cluster

Orchid

Orchid

Orchid

Mixture

Middle Creek Again

It was unseasonably warm today, I saw 70F (21C) this afternoon. A nice gentle breeze and mostly blue skies so I popped over to Middle Creek. The car park was full so I parked just off the road and walked out to Willow Point.

Snow Geese before Spook

Snow Geese During Spook

Snow Geese After Spook

Middle Creek Looking West from Willow Point

It wasn't me

 Mischief looking guilty.

I've been framed, it wasn't me.....honest.

Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area

 A day off from my usual House Elf servitude so what to do, where to go? Middle Creek sounded like a worth while trip so that’s where I went early afternoon. The light went downhill quite a bit until it brightened up around 4pm. Still you work with what you get. Nice entertaining afternoon. The Snow Geese have superb Air Traffic Control.

Middle Creek

Hooded Merganser

Snow Geese

Snow Geese

Snow Geese

Snow Geese

Sunday birds, mostly manual.

Another cold morning but heavy overcast and I even saw snow flakes at one point. I decided to use flash so outside to fill up the feeders and set the flash up on the tripod. I did everything but the focussing in Manual, ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed, even the flash was on manual instead of TTL. I gave it just an hour as I have things to do so I had to resume my House Elf duties.

Blue Jay

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird

Northern Cardinal

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Tufted Titmouse

Saturday Birds

 It was hovering around freezing when I went out to feed the birds this morning but there was very little wind from the SE so I could safely open the West facing window to take a few shots.

Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco

Eastern Bluebird

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Fuzz

 Fuzzy looking cute on top of the Scratching Post which Sandy Paws brought them for Christmas. 

Fuzz