Christmas Surprise!

Charlie and I went for a hike in the forest. We eventually wandered down to the first valley and the creek bottom.

Part of the way down the very steep hill.... I thought I heard some birds squeaking out soft calls.

When we got to the creek, I stood still and let my eyes wander through the brambles and trees.

I thought I spotted a Blue jay, but to my surprise. It was a Blue Bird! I called Charlie to me and we both sat in the snow and watched the surrounding woods. More Blue Birds! I counted at least 20 of them.

While standing in the creek [water proof boots], I carefully scanned the thick brush. There was another bird I could just barely see across the creek.

It looked like a sparrow but the markings were different from the ones I see in the yard. If I have my ID right, it should be a white throated sparrow. 

When I got home, I looked this bird up and listened to its song.  I do hear this bird in the spring and they are very hard to spot. 

This bird wasn't singing, it was landing in the creek area and seeking food.

Such a well camouflaged bird!

This was cropped rather tight... hard to spot! But he is there and very hard to distinguish from the leaves.

And then there was this guy....

The birds left the area with Charlie trotting through, so I decided to go home and feed lunch to the hubby and come back out later in the afternoon. I carried a small camp stool to sit on so I wouldn't get soaking wet sitting on the ground or on logs.

This Acrobat was the first one I saw on the edge of the woods before I headed down towards the creek for the second time. 
Red Bellied Woodpecker? Right?

It was near the one of the springs that I settled down to wait. I could hear the Blue Birds, Chickadees, and Nuthatches in the area. So I thought I'd just sit and wait.

Some 20 minutes or so later, the birds came back to the area. 

The Blue Birds put on a delightful show.

I stayed there until the sun started to exit from the valley, then I climbed up and out of the valley and rerouted my hike to go through the large meadow towards home. I didn't get any shots, but I watched as a Baldie got chased by crows.

My afternoon hike was more of a ... few steps... stop ... listen .... walk a bit more .... stop ...listen and look around.

Even more fun. I unfolded the camp stool and sat in the warm afternoon sun and just watched the Meadow.

Even in places you don't think there is anything interesting, one can find something intriguing to look at.

It was a fine Christmas Day. What could be more perfect?

Oh Deer or Gazelle?

Here it is. Autumn with cooler temperatures, and the colors changing are changing quickly. One day they are greenish and gold, the next day all gold. I'll do a recap of leaves later. Yesterday I had to have some fun distractions.

The shot above was one of my projects I did in August.  I took a Lego build of a Gazelle and modified it to look similar to a white tail deer. A Gazelle would look odd in the Wisconsin Forests. 

If you are in the Midwest at this time of year, you often see deer grazing on the side of the road just like this. At least I didn't have to dodge this guy since I was carrying him around.

It was fun to take this 'deer' out and imitate some of the bucks I often see. Here, he is supposed to be scenting a doe.

Here is supposed to be spooked and running!

Last month I won a little contest on a Lego Photography site and received this Mime! The Lego Ambassador sent me this Mime from Spain and said she hoped to see it in action.

Well here he is trying to make friends with his baguette. 

I love to think up little scenarios for using this character. I won it, so I better use it!

Below you can see how I set things up in the woods. The leaping shot and the Mime shot were taken in the very same spot with using different angles.
The little black blob is Charlie hunting for mice or voles while I have my fun.

He used to nose all of my toy shots over after I carefully set things up. Now he just walks around them and ignores them. They are not food. He is not interested.

This set was a 3 in 1 set.

The first build was a Giraffe.
Here is a shot of that:

I did manage to make the baby Gazelle into Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer. We'll see how that plays out later!

In the meantime. Enjoy fall weather.