Stuck inside....

If you like birds and bird photography, there is a guy called David M Bird that does bird photography using characters made from acorns and sticks. I'm probably never going to be a genius like him, but he was a Lego designer who started his own photography business doing these wildly popular photos. If I am having a grumpy day, all I have to do is pop over to his site and look at his fun photos.

There is also a Flickr photographer who is doing the same thing with his Lego characters. This is fascinating in the fact that in order to do this sort of photography, one really needs to study birds and get familiar with what they like to eat and how they arrive at a feeding station.

Below is my sad attempt at a first try of putting a Lego figure on the stump with feed just outside my window.
These are study shots so I can sit at the table and watch the birds behavior. Are they afraid of the Lego figure?
They don't seem to be.
I have been putting a wee bit of feed every day this winter on this stump next to the porch so I could see which seed they liked best and which birds came to the stump.

The Tufted Titmouse will come for peanuts and some other delicious seeds.

The Junco seems a bit more skittish. They are only on the stump for a nanosecond before flying off.

The Blue Jay has no shyness at all.

I used a paper clip I bent to fit through the foot of the Lego figure and then stuck it in a crack on the edge of the stump. 

I'm going to try this again but put a hole more in the center of the stump and surround the figure with delicious seeds.

It will be a fun experiment. Hubby loves watching too. He gives me a commentary on who is visiting the stump and what they are eating as he bemoans the cost of birdseed.

I changed it up a bit and stuck my green dragon in the stump and put seeds around it. The birds were very wary of the Dragon. But by the end of the day, the seed was gone.

I had to wait for a follow up call from the eye surgeon's tech. I hate waiting. I dislike waiting inside next to the phone even more. However, we have to use a land line. Archaic I know. But cell phones don't always work in our Hollow. The land line works with 911 and the cell can't be depended on.

My one eye was still dilated and so the welcomed sunlight was a painful.

My hubby was playing Eye Guard. He told me I could NOT go out to hike or run about and that I needed to Rest that eye and let it heal.

The surgeon had said I could go back to my regular activities 24 hrs later, but I decided to keep Mr. Eye Guard happy and stay around the house except for feeding the mules.

I decided to try some Still Life. I was bored out of my gourd. I am not one to sit in the house for days on end. After two weeks of being careful and being Watched by the Ever Present Hubby, I had to engage my mind in fun projects.

My first try at the light box.
Something for Valentine's Day

That gave me another idea. This time I just tore apart things and made this ---->
I set it on the floor.

And shot straight down. The Gardener is spelling out L O V E in flowers and fence pieces.

I couldn't resist one more effort of doing something more with the Gardener ...

Surprise!
I couldn't resist having a meat eating Dilophosaurus enter the garden and offer the Gardner some flowers. [The dinosaur is a Lego knock off. The real Lego Dino is way above affordable.]

I did a lot more experimenting with the light box and by early afternoon, I decided to rest my eyes and listen to music.

This morning dawned clear and bright. As someone said: 

I can see clearly now ... the fog is gone!
Gone are the cataracts that had me blind
It's going to be a bright bright 
bright
beautiful day....

I think I'll go Exploring some ice formations!

Tweet Tweet ~ For the birds

 Sunrise Saturday morning from the ridge. 

I went to watch the sun come up and not really to look around for birds, but somehow this one did catch my eye. The first shots didn't turn out because there wasn't enough light, but he was still in this tree when I went back home. The morning sun just gave me enough light.

I made some coffee and put in in a thermos and thought I'd sit on a bucket in one of the pastured areas and just enjoy the sounds of the morning.

I listened to cardinals, starlings, red wing black birds and robins. One bird sat in one of the Box Elder trees in the distance. It sat for what I thought was an unusual amount of time. These were the best shots I did get of him/her. I didn't dare move closer because I didn't want to frighten it away.

It was a Brown Thrasher! I have to admit, I just figured it was a very large sparrow at first, but if one can zoom in, you can see his yellow eyes! Wow! I sure was excited.

While I was working on the goat and pony fence under the tree that had been struck by lightening, these birds started a racket above me. They kept coming back so I grabbed my camera.

What punks! I know they are wood peckers but I couldn't tell if they were Downy or Hairy. They sure were noisy.

Is this the same kind? I sure don't know. But this one is noisy too.

But they DO like this old tree!

We are still seeing bluebirds nearly every morning. My photos of them through the window absolutely stink. 

So Sunday, I thought I'd try and 'hunt' them with the camera. 

It was hard to find a spot where I could sit quietly out of the winds but still be in the area where I'd spotted them northeast of the house.

I'm learning a new skill of just sitting still and observing. This is a good time to practice this skill. No gnats or no-see-ums yet to bother me!

Since we have seen bluebirds now both female and male for about 3 to 4 weeks, I am assuming they have a nest somewhere around here.

These moments are good for me. I get to relax my brain and just 'be'.

Allow Nature
to teach you
Stillness ~

Echart Tolle

Twwweet Tweet Lil Birdies!

The dull overcast light of Tuesday's winter weather was actually pretty nice for bird photography. This is a subject I always avoided because I thought 

1. It was easy

2. It was boring

3. It wasn't exciting

I was wrong on all 3 accounts.

It is hard, interesting to watch, and challenging to get a decent shot.

 
I'd washed my windows on Sunday when it was warm and took the screens off in hopes of being able to 'shoot' through the glass. 

I was thrilled when this Titmouse huddled under the porch roof out of the pelting sleet. It took several shots but this is the one I liked because it looks like he/she has Attitude and he is staring right at me. He was also within 10 feet of the window.

None of the shots will be 100% clear and perfect. But it was a fun learning experience.

The cardinals came by to brighten the scenery too. All the birds like to perch on the same general area of the pines that are in front of the house. This male cardinal sat for a long time unlike the Juncos and Chickadees who were darting all about.

One of the things I wanted to do was get a Titmouse in flight. I watched a video on tips for shooting birds in flight. My reaction time is slower than the birds. Fortunately, after a ton of misses, I got a Titmouse launching. 

Ideally, according to the experts, I should have had the camera on a tripod and should have had  Continous Tracking AutoFocus set with the multi shot setting on. I used multi shot, but the CT-AF wasn't on. 

Oh well, it was exciting to see how they fly anyway. There is also the option of Pro-Capture on this camera which starts to take a shot before you press the shutter. I'm not sure how that works, but it is wicked fun.

And I started to watch carefully. I think I can almost predict a take off. But I miss most of the time.

The Titmouse quickly flew out of focus. 

I watched the birds interact. This Junco sat quietly on the branch for a long time before he/she decided that the Chickadee was too close.

Fight Club!

The Chickadee moved higher into the tree.

To celebrate the 2-22-22 event, I kept watching and decided to give up. I started to put the camera away when this happened!

Twos!

So you ask. How many shots did I take just to get a few? Hmmm. Do you want to guess or should I tell you?