A Morning at Middle Creek

My parents came up for the weekend on Saturday, and Dad and I took the opportunity to run up to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for sunrise on Sunday morning.


While the large flocks of snow geese and tundra swans have moved on, a few individual geese were still to be found. A group of three were foraging within a few yards of the road for most of the morning. This is one of the three. Two of the three were noticeably holding a wing at an unnatural angle; they will not be making the migration this year.


Dad and I were exchanging lenses and equipment, and I am not 100% sure if he or I took this picture of a flying cormorant. I think it was Dad, but I enjoy the cormorant's unique silhouette, and since I took the liberty of cropping and otherwise adjusting the photo, I am posting it here :)


And lastly, the song of the red-winged blackbird could be heard throughout the morning. Many were perched at various intervals along the wire fencing used in the park. Here, a blackbird breaks into his call.

A cat can dream ...

... of a pine siskin snack.

Blue Birds

The last time I was at my parent's house, my Mom told me I should take my camera, go outside, and try to capture a pair of bluebirds nesting in her birdhouse at the end of the driveway. I was up for it, obviously :)

After about ten minutes, I had some shots of small blurry birds. Then, I noticed that Dad had come outside and was getting his tripod out of his truck. "Hmmm, maybe he's going to bring that over here?" I wondered. Yep, here he comes, the tripod attached to his camera, the camera attached to a supermondo lens. But the birds weren't cooperating too well, and it was cold, and Dad grew impatient. I was more than happy to take over the operation from him. This is the only picture I have where both male and female are in the shot at the same time.

Judging by the number of caterpillars going in, and the amount of "waste" carried out, the happy couple's eggs had hatched and hungry mouths were being fed.

Birds ....

This weekend, Mom's birdfeeders were filled with gold and purple finches. I was able to capture a few of them sitting pretty:

The goldfinches have, for the most part, returned to their brilliant yellow summer coloring, but many still had olive-drab patches.

In a few more days, these branches will be obscured by the emerging leaves of the chestnut tree they are perching on. I was lucky to get the shots while I could!

... & Blooms

Dad and I spent some time Saturday morning, looking for wildflower shots. We stopped over at Salty's place first, taking shots of a few of his ornamental shrubs. This first is my best shot of the cherry blossoms.

This next picture is cardinal bush. I've always been fond of it, due to its color. I'm happy to have a few nice photos of it now :)

And lastly, we went to a little area in the woods were wildflowers were peeping up. We found plenty of rue anemone, dutchman's breeches (shown below), spring beauty, trout lilies, and one small patch of hepatica.

I'll have to post a few more of these, as the week passes.

First Shots with Increased Firepower

This past weekend, my father handed down to me a camera of his that he doesn't use much anymore, a Canon, of course. I immediately put the 10D to use on the short but fierce snowstorm that blew through Saturday morning:

The snow fell furiously for all of about 20 minutes, just enough to coat the grass and trees.

Within two hours, the snow had disappeared and the weather cleared off. I caught the above shot before the snow (hopefully the last of the year!) melted away.

On Sunday, I was able to capture some very close shots of Mom's favorite little red-breasted nuthatch.

Mom regularly sees one red-breasted nuthatch, along with four or five white-breasted nuthatches. I imagine its the very same bird that I posted a picture of back around New Year's, here. I had much better lighting this time :)

Harbingers of Spring

My grandmother was a dedicated gardener, and her garden always had a healthy percentage devoted to flowers. But the flowers weren't limited to the garden. Over the years, she planted crocus bulbs throughout the yard of the house, mostly at the bases of the large catalpa trees that ring the house.

Much has changed, but still quite a few crocuses were peeping up through the grass this weekend. As a kid, finding these out in the yard was as good as finding easter eggs!

Ash in Action

A comment was made on my last post, wondering if anyone had ever taken a photo of me chasing the cat around with my camera. I'm happy to say that a fellow blogger, and my uncle, Salty risked attack by the giant cat and came away with the following rare shot. I have his permission to post the incredible photo on his behalf:

Remember folks, when approaching "wildlife," stay calm and snap those photos quickly, before you get stepped on!

(Also, beware family members who are proficient in Photoshop!)

Ansel the Red-Nosed ReinCat

Ansel's "grandmother" got him a laser-pointer toy for Christmas. He loved it! However, he couldn't see it when it was pointed at his face, even though it made his nose glow like a certain famous reindeer. I just had to nab and share this picture :)

So, once again (just in case the moose wasn't enough), the ReinCat says MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Holidays ...

and a Merry Chris-Moose!

Mr. Moose is wishing everyone a very happy holiday season and hopes everyone is safe and sound and having good times with family and friends. And sends a big thank you to all the well-wishers who stopped by, too!

Christmas equals family and tradition in my eyes, so I'm going to share this picture of my grandfather. I'm looking through a door in his house, out across the porch to where he's doing some chores. My grandmother (or maybe even my great-grandmother) hand crocheted the pineapple-pattern lace that covers the glass.

When I was younger, I would hang small bulbs and wreaths and other decorations all over the window coverings. Grandma and I would also bake hundreds of cookies, especially sugar cookies, on the days I had off from school. It would take Pap quite a while to get through all those. I made a double batch of sugar cookies last night; we'll see how long it takes Pappy this year!

Birds on the Brain

I've noticed quite a few posts about birds lately and felt the need to add another to the mix, as they are one of my favorite subjects :) But I had to cheat, this one is from a few months ago.

I was sitting on the deck at Mom's and she wanted me to take pictures of the hummingbirds. The hummingbirds sit in the chestnut tree at the side of the house when they are not at the feeders. I was having trouble with them, and started taking pictures of whatever bird would sit still long enough. I thought I had a nice shot at a goldfinch. But when I reviewed my pictures, I realized it wasn't a goldfinch at all!

After a great deal of time with two different identification guides, Mom and I decided it was an immature Chestnut-Sided Warbler (after the oven bird incident, Justin tries to tell me this is a yellow-headed crab finch - yeah right :). This shot makes me smile, because I had no idea what I was shooting at the time I took the photo: a type of bird I'd never seen before!

ETA: Ack! I tried to post from Picasa's "Blog This" feature. I assume that's what caused the problems. Here's the bird :)

To See & Be Seen

One final picture from last weekend, before I head to my parents' house to enjoy the Fulton Fall Folk Festival (I'll call it the 4Fs from now on) this weekend. If you've been keeping up with the Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer, you'll know about the deer below already. They are quite trusting when people familiar to them are near, and and we got to stop in for a visit .


Normally I avoid placing shadows in the frame, but this time I thought they added a sense of being watched to the deer in the picture, and also helped to show how close we were to them.

I have a feeling Salty and I may have dueling 4F blogs come Sunday :)

A Family Affair

One thing I've realized about my photography is that I rarely have people in my pictures. This last weekend was a welcome change!

It was wonderful how my Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin made the shoot a family affair. My Aunt did not have a camera with her. But several times she pointed out interesting colors or compositions and the camera crew started shooting away. When a daisy wouldn't stop blowing in the wind, my Uncle steadied it so Chad could work his magic. And then, all three were willing to reenact the daisy shoot, to allow me to get some shots.

Teamwork gets the job done!

Framed in Fall

This weekend, I was lucky to be in the complete company of my "Family of Bloggers". We haven't all been in the same place since before we started blogging! We had a blast traipsing through the woods and playing with the fall leaves.


Some of my favorite effects are ones that happen completely by accident. This time, I was trying to take a macro shot of a leaf, and noticed that I could see Justin through a tiny hole. I told him to hold still, changed a few settings, and got this interesting perspective. Once Chad returns home, we'll post some shots we got using leaves as filters.

Corny!

Because I am going home for the long weekend, I am posting a picture of my grandparent's farm. I have spent many a happy hour roaming these acres, and plan to spend a few more here shortly.


I am lucky to have been born into a gifted and camera-crazy family. Both my father and my uncle are crack photographers, and both have taken many wonderful images throughout the years of their time on "the farm". I cannot tell you if the vintage shot below was taken by my uncle or my father, but I do know that a neighbor took one look at it and said "Corny!".

Mom's World E-Debut

Having done a Father's Day post, I realized that, back in May, I left Mother's Day unmentioned on my blog. Definitely not meant as a slight! So on the topic of Mothers, the last time I was home, I threatened to put Mom on the internet. Here goes:

She didn't want "millions" of people seeing her picture, but felt better when I told her it would be more like ten people :) And I'm including some flowers for her birthday, which was June 10th. Love you, Mom!

Hummingbirds and Home

One staple of visiting Mom's house in the right season is hummingbird-watching. This particularly bossy individual staked out a feeder right outside the kitchen window and chased any other hummers that dared to approach. The little female spent a long time grooming and contorting herself, allowing me to take pictures through the window. This picture is probably the best of the session.