Skywatch Friday

Two Buzzards (Turkey Vultures) doing some lazy circles.  The sky went from that clear blue to this:

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Sunday Stills Challenge: Bird Watching

This week’s challenge of Bird Watching couldn’t have been timed better, our humming birds returned, and I saw a couple buzzards circling, but of course I was nowhere near the camera!

One of my favorites from the February archives.

Red-tail Hawk across the canyon…

First humming bird of spring.

Checking out the feeder…

Sunday Stills Challenge – Birds

Thanks to the weather this week I had to raid the January archives for the challenge.  First it was non stop snow  – over a foot and a half – and then torrential rain that added up to at least 11 ½”, not exactly weather to be out snapping photos, unfortunately!

Cold Wren

Our pair of Redtail Hawks.

Macro Monday: Wren, But No Stimpy

Ahhh, late getting my post up…  This week’s is a little bit of a different Macro Monday than I usually do.

I found this nest in our raspberry patch about a week and a half ago when I was out picking.  It’s a funny story, actually.  The particular bush that the nest was in hangs down a lot over the wire and you have to pick it up to get all the berries underneath.  So I was out picking and had already lifted the branches and picked all the low berries when I straightened up and there was a little nest with eggs nestled in the branches where the bush bent over the wire that had somehow survived!

The momma hen.  She flies off to the post at the end row and nervously hops up and down while cussing anyone who comes to check on the nest, especially if the ever-present dogs are lurking.

The little hatchlings – they hatched a just a few days ago.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Fins, Feathers, and Fur

Interesting challenge, but fun!  I thought of this photo that I took back in July as soon as I read the title of the next challenge last Sunday.  This was in one the little islands in the road on the way to the meat processing place that we take our beef.

Blue Herons are supposed to be good luck, right?

Blue Merle fur…

Black Tri fur.

Macro Monday

Sunday Stills Challenge – silhouettes

I think this week’s Sunday Stills challenge was one of my favorites so far.  All we had to do was have a sunny day and something to get a silhouette of!  I got quite a few, plus a couple from the archives.

Took this in the in one of the fields left for hay.   Had a gorgeous sunset that night, too.  With this picture I was trying to duplicate a picture I took last July in the same field. 
This is the one I took last July.  It actually happened by accident.  I didn’t know as much about the camera and had it on the wrong setting and got this amazing silhouette of the grass instead of the sunset.

Blue Jay on the house roof.  I can’t believe he actually stayed there long enough for me to go get the camera.  They’re so flighty that you usually only run to get the camera, come back, only to discover that he’s gone.

This one’s from the archives.  Took this back at the end of April.  He just had to come over and investigate!

In the hayfield again.  Trace is just waiting patiently for me to stop clicking away so he can go back to the house.

Out for an evening ride….

And now my absolute favorite out of all my silhouette shots.  The colors just come together so well.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Stills Challenge

Ed over over at Sunday Stills was out of ideas for this week’s challenge, so he left it up to us to decide what to shoot.  I decided to try wild life…

  
“Lurking In the Dark”  This one just kind of happened by accident, the deer were too far off  for the flash to illuminate them…

Our resident tame squirrel.

Lucky shot! shutter speed is an amazing thing…

I guess he decided that I had gotten close enough; time to fly to a different tree.
New tree, but still within the range of my lens.

◊◊◊ Note:  These are all straight out of the camera, in case you were wondering.  All I did was crop them to make the pictures/files were smaller.

Tranquil Tuesday

This is one of the two Red-tail hawks that have been  hanging around lately.  While the cows were still out in the field, he/she would be waiting in the old dead cherry tree in the Fourteen acre field, just watching us and keeping a watchful eye on things.