Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Author Archives: dawnkinster


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Tangled titmouse

My husband surprised me with a new camera a couple weeks ago. It’s actually the same as my old new camera, a Nikon Z6, but with upgrades that are supposed to make the focusing issues much better. It’s a Z6 II. Both of us have spent a bunch of time setting up menus but there’s a lot I don’t know about the inner workings of the changes.

Early this morning I went out to my favorite park intent on looking for some swans and ducks. I wanted to do something different than my usual birds in the hand images. Oh, don’t think I didn’t have a pocket full of seed, I thought I’d stop by the nature trails to visit my little birds after I found that perfect image of a duck.

As I was driving through the park I saw a bunch of swans in the early morning light, and a parking lot not so far away. I smiled.

Sitting in the car I switched to my long lens and then headed out into the freezing cold, windy day. I was half way to the edge of the lake, sneaking up behind trees so as not to alarm the swans, when I turned on my camera and got an error message. Something about not updating something or other related to the adaptor used to connect the long lens to the new camera body.

Drats.

Early morning light and some far away swans.

No long lens meant no swans and ducks and deer and…well…drats. I wasn’t smiling any more. Who knew that there would be this sort of error. I remember the days when cameras were easy, but that’s another blog post.

Back in the car I switched back to the short lens, then grabbed a shot of the swans just because, and headed over to the nature trails and my little birds. I thought I’d spend a few minutes with them, and then head home.

Mission not accomplished.

The usual crane greeters were in the parking lot, but I ignored them. They weren’t what I was looking for, I had plenty of pictures of cranes. Come to think of it, I had plenty of pictures of birds eating out of my hand too. It was cold and windy. I didn’t have gloves.

I decided I’d only stay a few minutes.

Looking to collect the entrance fee from all visitors.

You know that nightmare where you’re parked in a dark parking garage and you get out of your car and turn and there’s some guy standing right behind you? Well. That sort of happened with me and the cranes.

While I was parking and considering whether to go feed the little birds they had come up behind the car. And as I got out and turned toward the trail they were both right there, in my personal space. They were inches from me, and very intent on getting something to eat. My bag of seed was jammed in my pocket and I couldn’t get it open very fast.

They moved closer.

They were almost as tall as me and their red eyes were focused on my hand in my pocket. If I couldn’t get that seed out they were going to get it out for me!

Finally I tore the bag open, grabbed some seed and flung it as far away from me as I could. They dutifully trotted after it and I retreated in the opposite direction. I scampered down the stairs to the trail and what did I find?

Four very large, very hungry turkeys.

Hey lady! Did you bring us breakfast?

When they saw me they started running. Toward me. (They must not realize how close it is to Thanksgiving!) The image above is out of focus because I hadn’t had time to adjust the settings for fast moving birds in dim light. Plus I was grabbing for some seed to distract them before they ran into my legs.

I tossed some seed as far away from me as I could fling it and they ran after it as I retreated down the trail.

Wow. So far all I’d done is get one bad picture of swans and fended off large birds. I hadn’t even fixed my camera settings. So I stopped part of the way down the trail and began fiddling with dials.

All of the sudden there were little birds flying all around my head. The sound of their wings was confusing because they were coming from all over. I looked up and there were titmice flying at me from everywhere, with a chickadee or two and a woodpecker thrown in for good measure.

Kinda out of focus woodpecker choosing his treat.

They were swarming my head, one landed on my glasses (which, by the way, were on my face) one or more was on my head, and at least one was tangled up in my hair, and a few more were flying around me looking for somewhere to land.

Every one of them was hungry.

It was early on a cold morning and they had obviously not eaten since the day before. I managed to get my seed out and didn’t try to get pictures, just enjoyed having them so close and personal.

When things settled down everyone got something to eat.

I got a few bad pictures and a couple good ones before I headed on down the trail. I’ll post about the good ones in the next blog. It’s possible you’ve figured out by now that I stayed longer than just a few minutes.

Stay tuned.

Yep, another out of focus shot.


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Abby and me

Katie here. Hey! Bet you’ve been wondering what I’ve been doing lately – right? What? You’ve been busy with all the craziness going around, the virus, the election, the weather?

I’m not on your radar?

At a new park!

Huh.

I think mama’s been slipping. I hired her to be my agent, my marketing advisor, and my general manager, but maybe that’s too much for her, what with her being elderly and all.

I might have to reevaluate her contribution to my franchise.

We had a pretty beautiful day to enjoy the park.

I guess I’ll have to tell you about an adventure I had last weekend myself. I can’t believe it’s already a week ago and mama hasn’t put it up on my her blog.

You might remember that last year I got to meet aother sheltie-girl, Abby. We met her and her mom down in Ann Arbor and walked in the Arboretum. We said we’d get together again, but you know how time flies, and here it is a year later and we still hadn’t gotten back together.

This is Abby and her mom Shawn just last weekend.

So I told mom she better get to getting and arrange another walk date with my friend. And you know what? She listened to me and the next thing I know I’m in the car and the ride is much too long for us to be going to my usual parks.

Isn’t she beautiful? She’s 13.

I got kinda nervous, but figured I’d trust mama this time, and I was happy I did. Cause we got out of the car at a beautiful little park in Ann Arbor, and there was Abby and her mom!

It was nice to see Abby again!

Both of us are a year older now and we don’t go on real long walks any more, but this little park was perfect, with lots of places for the moms to sit and talk while we rested.

Abby liked to sit between her mom’s feet.

Well, sometimes we rested, sometimes we asked how long the moms were going to sit around.

I liked to spend our walk breaks checking for treats.

Abby and I were OK with posing for the moms as long as we were maintaining our social distancing. It’s really not that hard, neither one of us understands why people are having such a hard time with this concept.

Abby will pose for NO TREATS! I’m going to have to explain my ‘one shot, one treat’ rule to her.

Anyway, it was really good to see Abby and her mom. We decided we might try to get together again before the weather gets too bad. But knowing mama, that will probably be next spring!

I think our beauty enhanced this park. Dont you?

Abby. She’s so beautiful, she still reminds me of a regal queen. Queen Abby and Princess Katie. We were quite a beautiful sight, as we were told by numerous people out there in the park.

Hanging out together, but not too close together.

People are pretty good at spotting royalty, even when we leave our tiaras at home.

Definitely royality.

Signing off for now,
Park Princess Katie

It’s good to have a girlfriend when you want to go on a walk.


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Morning smile

Wow, what a crazy time we are living in. But this morning I received a gift and I thought I’d share it with you.

A couple weeks ago, while in a wildlife store purchasing thistle seed for my finches I heard that evening grosbeaks were being seen on local feeders even though their range doesn’t normally come this far south.

I’d never seen an evening grosbeak, so I looked them up in my birdbook and began to keep watch. Nothing much showed up, at least while I was watching, but this morning as I was passing by the glass door in my kitchen I noticed a shape on the railing that didn’t fit my regular bird visitors.

The early morning light is bad, but there she is!

Whatever it was was bigger than my little birds, and sort of the shape of a smallish robin. And then, in the early morning light there was a slight flash of yellow. And that white bar on the wing. The light was so poor, but I couldn’t help but grab the camera, change the lens to the long one, amp up the ISO and try.

I was satisfied with the bad photo because I had proof of my visitor. And that made me smile.

Then the bird, I think it’s a female, flew up into the tree above the birdfeeder, watching the chaos that always surrounds morning breakfast.

A little more light, but still not great.

Still the light was bad and I had to up the ISO until the image looks more like an illustration than a photo. But I was smiling.

She dropped down for a try at the feeder.

“Maybe I’ll grab a quick bite during this lull in activity at the breakfast bar.”

She made it in to grab a seed but the bully bluejays were right there chasing her away.

“Gotta be quick!”

I put the camera away to tend to the dog. But passing by another window I saw morning light slice across her as she sat on the railing, picking up seed others had left behind.

The rising sun gives us just a peek at how beautiful she is.

And then, wonder of wonder, she dropped down to the deck, right into a patch of light.

“Nom, nom, nom.”

I think she did that just for me.

I especially liked this shot, that shows the dog footprints on the frosty deck. Katie and I had just been outside, filing the feeders and sniffing for good stuff.

“Hmmmm…smells like dog around here.”

I’m sure glad she stuck around to show me herself. She’s definitely part of the good stuff around here. She was a gift this cold November morning.

And now I’m sharing it with you.

Smile!

Look how pretty the wings are from the back.


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Magic in the morning

As I stepped off the front porch this morning at 3:30, Katie tugging on the leash looking for her favorite early morning spot to do her business, I searched the sky, as I always do, to find the big dipper.

And just as I found it a shooting star flared right through the middle of the constelation.

Then I noticed the pair of deer in the next yard, watching me watching them. When Katie was finished we casually walked back toward the porch, the deer walked casually off into the darkness.

Later in the morning I was tugged out the back door by Katie, intent on going to her pen the better to enjoy the beautiful early morning sun.

The doe, almost hidden by the forsythia bush, glances back toward her guy.

There, feet away from the deck, were our deer couple. They watched us for a moment, we standing still on the deck, Katie at full alert, fur puffed up, tail in the air, and they just on the other side of a small garden, tails in the air as well.

Then they raced off into the backyard. She went behind a forsythia bush, almost far enough to be hidden, but not quite.

He veered off to the left to stand behind a pile of brush along the back of our property.

Do you see him back there?

I didn’t figure they’d be there long, but I put Katie in her pen where she could bark protectively, and went for the camera. They both watched me as I circled the brush pile to get a better shot of him.

Here’s a better angle.

He watched me and glanced over at her. Eventually he snorted and lept into the air, headed toward her.

I almost got this shot. Looks like he got injured sometime recently.

One last look at me from over near her, then they bounded back into the woods.

See you later, lady!

Everything about this morning was pure magic.

Morning light.


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Contemplation on this historic day

I’ve been pretty distracted while waiting on election results. Day after day with seemingly little movement.

It’s been a dark and stormy process.

I’ve been trying to stay out of the fray on Facebook and twitter. Once in awhile I’ve weighed in with my opinion that the reason it was taking so long was the inordinate amount of mail in ballots, the record level of turnout for this election, and the care that ballot counters were taking to get it right.

But to be honest my nerves were frayed.

Everyone is feeling a little prickly.

I know that a good portion, maybe even more than 50% of my friends are from the other side of the aisle. I know that today, when the election was finally called, they feel the same gut punch I felt 4 years ago when I woke up to a result I didn’t expect and didn’t like.

Bits of sky show the promise of sun.

I know it will take them a few days, maybe longer, to process the results and decide how they’re going to move forward. I know they are just as scared about the future now as I was four years ago.

Most of us have some inner soul searching to do.

And I know that we will continue to be friends, and I hope, as the physical evidence of which side we’re on, those pesky yard signs, are put away that we can move forward together.

The winds of politics are changing.

The world won’t have changed so very much after January 20th. We’ll still have covid, economic hardships, climate change, world squirmishes, racial tension, job insecurities, and probably some stuff we don’t even know about yet, to deal with. If we work on these together life will be easier.

If you need a hug, I’m available.

Here’s hoping there’s a big table somewhere that everyone is invited to as we begin the work.

Lean toward the light.


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All we can do is wait

A nod to Justice Ginsburg with the pearls.

As my husband said, after we delivered the last campaign yard sign to our last assigned precinct last night, “All we have to do now is vote.” And now that we’ve done that, well…all that’s left, after months of discussion and work and meetings, well, all that’s left to do is wait.

I’m hoping you’re all waiting patiently too. This year it’s going to take a lot of patience, and perhaps it’s best not to spend too much time watching those pundits on TV tonight. Maybe play a game, or watch a movie, even get to bed early and catch up on some sleep.

Tomorrow will come soon enough and if we’re very lucky we’ll know the results then. But we may need even more patience, days or weeks of patience.

I guess, thinking about it, I’m wrong when I say all that’s left to do is wait. I think it’s also our jobs to keep things peaceful, tamp down the rhetoric, keep family and friends calm. Come to think of it, that might be the most important thing we do during this election cycle after all.

Wishing all of you a peaceful, restful evening this election day, and in the days ahead.


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Haehnle Bird Sancuary

This week I decided to explore a new (to me) bird sancuary over near Jackson Michigan. I’d heard vague things about it over the years, that it was filled with migrating birds, particularly sandhill cranes.

This path leads down to a space where lectures are held.

Every year I meant to get there, either in the spring when the birds were coming back or the fall when they were heading out. Every year time gets away from me.

The day was beautiful, with sunshine and a breeze kicking leaves out of their trees.

So this year I was determined and I did some research before I drove over there. Seems the migration period would be late September to the end of October. I was cutting it pretty close.

Heading away from the wetlands and into the woods.

The website also told me to be there at sunrise or sunset when the birds were moving from or back to their perches for the night. So I had a plan.

But you know how it goes with plans. I got a later start in the morning than I had planned, and it was later in October than optimal too. On the hour and a bit drive I did see a huge flock of sandhills in a field, about 2 miles from my house, but I didn’t stop for pictures because I was going to a bird sanctuary.

A few trees were hanging on to their color.

When I got to Haehnle the parking lot was a muddy mess. Leaves covered everything but it was obvious there were huge muddy holes that you wouldn’t want to drive through. I turned around and backed into a spot up next to a fence where I had a straight shot getting out.

As I left my car to begin exploring I did hear some cranes flying, but it was already almost 9:30, really long past sunrise. There was one flock of geese that flew over, but nothing really special.

In a meadow the sun glinted off the dried weeds.

So I decided to just walk the 1.5 mile trail and not worry about finding birds.

It was a pretty trail, that started out skirting the wetlands where I could imagine thousands of cranes visiting. Then it turned left into the woods.

Walking on all those leaves was fun.

There were still very beautiful colors in a few of the towering trees. The trail meandered through a meadow and then back into the woods. I didn’t see another person until I was almost back to the car. This mother and her two children were enjoying the sunshine and the crisp autumn air.

Taking a walk.

All in all this was quite a disapointment, but I think I will try again in the spring, maybe go at the right time of year and earlier in the day. I figure most of the disappointment was my own making.

The details were beautiful, I just had to look for them.

And the drive over there was often spectacular, roads through golden tree tunnels. You’ll have to imagine those as there was nowhere to safely stop.

This place could be interesting at the right time of year.

Regardless of the lack of birds, I can’t complain about a pretty walk in the woods. And on the way home I found a couple barns.

At the exit where I stopped to get gas.

Because what’s an adventure without a barn?

Not sure what a barn sanctuary is. Maybe I should have explored there.

Why, no adventure at all!

I don’t know what this was, but it was cool.