Well. I think I have a few thousand images of birds. But I went out to my favorite park today and got a few more. Just in case.
You can never have too many pictures of birds. Right?
Tag Archives: fun stuff
A little barn magic
A few weeks ago husband and I were over near Lansing Michigan picking up a leftover campaign sign and I noticed the area was full of beautiful barns. And me with no camera. So I vowed that one day I’d go back and see what I could gather for my collection.
Yesterday was sunny, and I didn’t have any commitments, so it seemed like the perfect barn collecting kind of day.
On the way over there I passed a barn I showed you last summer. It was so pretty in the morning light that I had to stop and grab another couple shots. I’m sure you won’t mind seeing it again either.
This is one of my favorite barns because it’s off by itself and it has this tree and photogenic fence. Plus there’s somewhere safe to park.
The hardest thing about hunting for barns is that you might see them, off across a field, or down a road, but there’s often no safe place to park. I love lonely dirt roads where you have time to park on the road, stand just outside your car and grab a shot before anyone else comes along.
Yesterday wasn’t like that.
No, yesterday almost all the roads were paved, and some of them were way too busy to be stopping. No shoulders either, though I generally don’t like parking on the shoulders of a busy road and will forgo the image if that’s the only parking option.
But some roads, though paved, were totally empty. And it helped that I was out there early, searching for the morning light, before too many people were up and about.
Sometimes the whole farm, shot from across their field, and on a side road, is pretty too.
I love farms. Even when I can’t get the shot I am always glad I saw it.
I caught the morning light glinting off this orange equipment out of the corner of my eye. I turned around and went back for it.
But I’m also aware these are people’s homes and maybe they wouldn’t be happy to have a barn stalker driving back and forth in front of their property. Not sure how they’d feel about me parking in their driveway and walking down their lane to get a better angle.
So I don’t do that.
Sometimes all I can get is a quick, crooked shot almost out of the frame, fixable once I get home.
I guess most people would be happy that someone found their barns, mostly old and sometimes falling down, beautiful. But I don’t know how I’d answer the question, “What are you going to do with the picture?” if they asked. Because the answer really is, ‘nothing, I just like looking at them.”
This was on a dirt road, with manicured lawn all around the outbuildings.
I do. Last night I made a slide show out of several images I’ve taken over the years and sat quite contentedly watching them go by. I can’t remember where some of them were, but I sure like looking at them.
Overgrown by trees, it was still a pretty barn.
Yesterday I could have used a few clouds in the sky to add interest. Some of my favorite barn shots are those with big fluffy white clouds hanging low over red or grey barns. But I had to settle for crystle clear blue sky yesterday.
My favorite barn from yesterday’s adventure, and the reason I went back after seeing it weeks ago.
Oh darn.
This one is hanging on, fighting gravity.
I had fun, spent a few hours driving around in the country, and grabbed a few beautiful barns for my collection.
Barns aren’t always red. This one glowed and I had to go back and forth a few times because it was on a busy road. By then the cows that were in the yard had moved off for breakfast. You’ll have to imagine them there.
Kind of a perfect morning.
All barns are beautiful
Now for the good images
When last I left you I was being overrun by hungry birds. A few of them might even have been angry birds, but I don’t like to judge.
The new camera did a fabulous job, notice the detail in the feathers!
As I moved further into the woods I noticed I was being followed by lots of little birds. So I stopped again to see who was hungry. Naturally the titmice dropped down immediately.
We have lift-off!
And the chickadees, who were very noisy about waiting for their treats.
“I’m so excited I dropped my peanut!”
But most intriguing was a female red bellied woodpecker who was watching me while keeping some space between the feeding frenzy and her perch high in a tree. Yet…the longer I fed the little ones the closer she got. She’d move to a different tree and then feign indifference as she checked out her new position for any stray bugs. Then she’d move closer.
I decided to ignore her, turned my back and kept feeding the busy little birds. And suddenly …
I wasn’t sure I could trust you, lady, but I’m really hungry.
She watched me for a bit, both of us seemingly holding our breath. Then she picked out her breakfast treat.
You can make this and any image larger by clicking on it. Check out how beautiful her eyes are.
She went up to a nearby tree to eat her peanut, but she was right back for more.
“This peanut looks good.”
Each time she visited my hand she flew off with her prize to enjoy just feet away.
Displaying her red belly and her amazing wingspan.
She came down a total of three times, and I felt like we were becoming best friends. She chased all the little birds away each time she arrived. After her third trip I tossed some seed on the ground for her or anyone else and I moved along.
The little birds were grateful. The blue jays were jubilant, they’d been screaming about being left out for several minutes.
“Than goodness she’s gone! I thought I’d never get anything else to eat!”
I kept playing with the settings on my camera, intent on catching the wing of the birds as they landed and took off again. Each time I fidled with the camera birds became impatient.
“Hey lady, you know little woodpeckers are pretty cool too!”
The blue jays followed me for quite awhile, picking up the leftovers.
They’re pretty, but man they can be noisy!
And a male red bellied woodpecker followed me too. He wanted to come down for a treat. He’d get close, but couldn’t quite make himself do it. My shoulders ached from holding one hand out with seed, and the other hand holding the heavy camera ready just in case
Little stinker would wait until I moved along, then come in for the leftovers.
I guess he figured I wouldn’t leave him out, and I didn’t. I always left him a couple peanuts on the trail.
Least you think I wasn’t paying attention to things other than birds, I assure you there were plenty of pretty things without wings.
I don’t know what these seeds were from, but I thought they were pretty cool.
It’s just that every time I concentrated on something else, every time I rested my tired shoulder and lowered my seed filled hand, someone would fly around my head in protest.
Double incoming!
The day had started out cold and very windy, but as I wandered in the woods the sun broke through, and I warmed up. Trapising up and down hills while being pursued by birds warmed me up too.
A little chickadee ready for takeoff.
I thought about sitting on a bench for awhile, just take it all in.
Morning light on one of my favorite benches.
But there were more and more people wandering in the woods, and I had plenty of pictures to share. Plus, I’d been there a couple hours longer than the original few minutes I had planned on.
Sunshine makes everything art.
So I headed back toward the car…past the crane parking lot greeters who were now wandering down the path. They were much less interested in me than they had been when I arrived, when they almost mugged me for something to eat.
A crain and her shadow.
The sun was out now, the sky a brilliant blue. Part of me wanted to stay, but my shoulders and back ached. And since I had forgotten to eat breakfast before I left home, I was starving too.
It was turning into a beautiful day!
I didn’t think the birds were going to give me anything to eat, so it was time to go. I had a wonderful time even if it wasn’t anything at all like what I had come to find.
That’s the cool thing about this park. No matter what you plan, no matter what actually happens, it’s always going to be beautiful.
Love the heart on her head.
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.
Look how pretty the wings are from the back.
Cee’s black & white photo challenge: patterns in nature
Yesterday was sunny, so I went over to a bird sanctuary I’ve been curious about. I was kind of disappointed, but that’s anther post. I did have one shot I immediately thought of when I read Cee’s challenge – patterns in nature.
There was a huge leaf on the trail, wet from the rain the night before, and the veining was so beautiful I took a picture destined for my post about the sactuary.
But I think it looks pretty cool in black and white too.
Two looks, one princess
Katie here. Mama said I could hijack her blog again, even though you’ve heard from me a lot lately, cause since she and daddy got sick she hasn’t had a whole lot to talk about.
Hey everybody! This is one of my parks!
Me? I’m a sheltie. I always have something to talk about.
So anyway, mama scheduled an appointment for me to go to the groomer. It’s been a gazillion months (2) since I was there, and she said she was tired of trimming my foot furs.
I have so much fun when we walk here!
But she didn’t tell me that right away. Instead she took me to one of my parks, one where I can walk and run around without being on a leash so much, cause no one ever goes there. Plus it’s the right size walk for me, a trail between two picnic areas, it winds through a beautiful woods.
Mama says she never gets tired of watching me run through the leaves.
Mama says it’s just beautiful, no matter what season, but I say it’s the most beautiful in the fall when the trees compliment my coloring.
I picked out this spot myself, just ran up on this little ridge and sat down. Mama said it was a good choice.
Don’t you agree?
Mama says she figures if she’s going to pay a lot of money to get me all nice and clean and white, well, we should probably go muck around in the woods the day before my bath.
Did you say BATH?
You’d think I’d figure this out by now, it’s mama’s normal mode of operation. Take me somewhere really messy and fun, and then drop me off for a bath. Yep. I should have known that was her plan
But instead I just spent a couple hours having the best time running through the leaves.
I picked these two red maple leaves just for you mama!
And since mama remembered to bring treats I was pretty patient when she asked me to sit in all those leaves. She said she needed photos for our 2021 calendar. Did I ever tell you I’m a calendar girl? Yep. Mama makes a calendar for her and daddy and my Aunt Beth every year from the Katie-girl photos the year before.
Coming in for a treat, mama!
I think she’s silly. After all these photos look just like the ones she took of me last year. But mama says she can look at each photo and remember where we were and what the woods smelled like and whether she was cold or hot or got rained on.
I look good in red, too, don’t you think?
She says every photo makes her smile, and I can understand that. These little adventures make me smile pretty big too.
Then after the park we drove back through a little town that always has a giant pumpkin on display.
What’s over there?
And every year mama asks me to sit next to it for a photo. It’s hard for me because it’s right downtown and people are walking by and worse, cars and trucks are going by too! Every year the people on the sidewalk stop and watch my photo shoot. They know a celebrity when they see one!
Posing pretty for all my admirers.
The next day after my park/pumpkin adventure I found myself at the groomer. Not fair. But mama has found a groomer that takes me right in at the appointment time and I get done in an hour and then I’m safe back in my princess chariot.
This is how I looked when I got home. Mama says she thinks I look like a boy. But most people think I look cute, so mama just needs to get over it.
I’m not sure about this, but I’m glad to be home.
Then this morning mama said might be our last sunny day for awhile, so she took me up the street for a mini photo shoot in a neighbor’s yard.
The morning light was sure pretty today!
She says she guesses my fur cut turned out OK, cause I look pretty spectacular today.
I have to say I agree. Otherwise I wouldn’t allow her to show you photos of me. A princess only shows the good stuff, you know what I mean?
Yea, I got a treat for this one too.
Of course you know.
Signing off, your princess-girl Katie.
Off to have mama polish my tiara.
Always something.
I’m a happy girl.
Walktober in times of covid
Part of our back yard showing up in fall colors.
I look forward to Robin’s Walktober all year. She has hosted it for many years, a period of time in October where we all go for a walk, take a few (or a lot) of pictures, and share the walk with all of you by linking back to her blog. She’ll gather all our walks and present them in a compliation near the end of the month.
Color in the trees dances with the clouds.
I had a lot of plans for this year’s walk. I’ve been thinking about it for months. There are a couple of bird sanctuaries I haven’t visited that I considered exploring. There’s a hilly park closer to home that I think is photogenic no matter the season that I could share.
Light plays in the dying maple leaves.
Our weather has been beautiful, sunny sky, trees bursting with color. Perfect for a Walktober. I just had to decide which direction to take you.
Bitersweet – summerizes how I feel about this fall.
And then covid.
Shortly after Katie did her Walktober covid invaded our house and now we’re isolating at home. My isolation will be up October 18, and though I know Robin would give me a few more days, I don’t know if I’ll be up to tromping up and down hills even then.
The pond across the road provides any number of photographic opportunities.
So this year, reluctantly, my Walktober has been around my own back yard. Katie says I shouldn’t feel sad, that we have a very pretty back yard, and she’s right.
Our yard is beautiful, especially when I’m in it!
Still, the adventurer in me wishes I could get up early some morning and drive across the state to somewhere not seen before. Wishes I could walk new paths, shoot new vistas, breathe free.
The oaks are beginning to glow.
So far the symptoms my husband and I are experiencing are mild, and we hope they stay that way. The hardest part, for me, is the staying at home part. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s only two weeks.
Last bit of summer hangs on for a few more days.
So, I hope you enjoyed the images in this post of my official Walktober meander through my back yard. And I hope each of you can go for a walk and share it with us too! Just link to Robin’s blog, we look forward to seeing another part of the world.
Royal color welcomes fall.
Especially since we can’t go there in person.
The view from our deck.
Katie’s Walktober
Hi everyone, Katie here. Mama told me Ms. Robin was hosting Walktober again this year. I’m so glad, it’s always good to have an excuse to go for a walk. I think everyone benefits from getting outside, don’t you agree?
I did my Walktober on an interesting weather day!
I definitely believe in getting mama off the couch as often as I can. She’s not always so appreciative.
Well, anyway, this time I owe mama cause we walked at a new park, Rose Oaks, which is about 6 miles from our house. Even though it’s not far I’ve never been there and mama has only been there once.
Those are the clouds that hailed on us!
She went this summer but the mosquitoes made her run out of the woods. She said she wanted to go back and she thought maybe she’d do her Walktober there. But when she told me she was thinking about heading over there I made it abundently clear that I needed a Walktober too, and this park sounded perfect for me.
There weren’t a lot of flowers, but this one was pretty!
So she sighed and said she’d let me use our walk at Rose Oaks as my Walktober this year.
Turns out it began to rain and then hail on our way to the park. But it cleared up just after we arrived, so we got to explore almost right away. First thing mama took me out on this long dock.
You sure you want to go way out there, mama?
I wasn’t sure I liked being on the dock, I could see water right under my feet! As you know I am a Princess, and I do not like getting my feet wet, so I wasn’t happy that water was so close. But I’m also a good girl, and since mama wanted to go out there I went too.
Well come on then mama! I’m always waiting for you!
The view was pretty spectacular, what with the storm clouds moving overhead. Still, I wasn’t all that comfortable out there, so mama and I headed to the woods. But first we had to walk over another long bridge.
Hurry up, mama, the woods are right over here!
Finally we got to the woods. Since mama forgot to look at the map she wasn’t sure which way to go. So she let me decide.
Which way should we go, mama?
I thought this way looked pretty. What do you think?
There’s a little bit of color over this way, mama!
To be honest, mama took a lot of pictures of stuff that wasn’t me. She kept stopping, and the worst thing was when she was taking pictures of flowers I didn’t get a treat!
Mama liked these yellow flowers with that red background.
I think I’ve made it clear that when she takes a picture I’m supposed to get a treat. It’s in my contract. There’s nothing in there that says the picture has to be of me. One shot, one treat, that’s the rule.
Sometimes mama likes me to sit next to big trees just because they’re cool. I’ll do that for a treat.
We walked a ways into the woods looking for color.
There wasn’t a lot of color, but what was there was really pretty.
And then you know what happened? It started to rain! Well, not on us, not at first. We could hear it coming though, mama said it sounded really cool coming from way off in the woods. And then she said I needed to hurry up because we were a long way from the car.
Wait mama! You said we needed to find color, how about this?
I, of course, was not in the hurrying up sort of mood. I wanted to sniff stuff some more. And don’t forget I’m almost forteen, a forteen year old does not hurry. Unless treats are offered.
The sun came out and so did my shadow!
So we mosied along toward the car and you know what happened next? Nothing! The rain never got to us. So when we came to another trail I decided we should go explore that one too and mama signed and rolled her eyes and followed me along.
It was, after all, my Walktober.
Come on, mama, let’s keep walking!
We wandered a bit more, until mama said we should turn around. At which time I sat down and refused to head back to the car unless I got a treat. She gave up after she saw I was serious. Not turning around mama unless I get something!
Not going anywhere, mama, without a treat.
Sometimes mama is smart and just goes with the flow and this time was like that. Mamas can be trained.
Pretty when the sun shown through them.
After my treat I trotted along willingly. To tell you the truth I was getting kind of tired anyway.
Mama stopped and took a few more pictures but pretty soon we were back at the car. I know there’s a whole lot more to this park than we got to see, and I hope mama takes me back again, maybe when it’s cooler and I feel more like trotting along.
Wait up mama!
Meanwhile, I thought you’d enjoy seeing my new park. I call it Katie’s Park III.
Last bit of sun on the leaves before we left.
Time for a nap now. I bet Mama will take one too, we’re both getting older, don’t you know.
Thanks mama, I got sort of dirty, but that was fun!
And thanks to Ms. Robin for hosting Walktober. Mama and I look forward to it every year and we know it isn’t always easy to host these kinds of things. We sure appreciate it!
Reflections
Now I need to get mama off the sofa and out into the woods somewhere so she can go on her own Walktober. Personally I think she should take me along, because I’m the best Walktober pal she’s ever had.
Don’t you know.
Your park guide gal,
Katie-girl.
Mama’s artsy-fartsy picture. She always has one.
2 smiles, one weekend
I’m a lucky lady, I got to experience two big smiles jammed into one weekend. Plus we are experiencing beautiful weather, warm and sunny with the trees starting to turn color. The morning and evening light makes the trees just glow.
But that’s a different blog post.
My first smile of the weekend was Saturday evening when I got to play in a pop-up concert with some of my Clarkston Community Band mates and several professional musicians who came to fill holes in our orchestration.
The neighbors came out to listen to us play on their cul-de-sac.
We haven’t played together since early March. Many of us haven’t played at all since then, though most of us frantically practiced these past few days trying to get our lips back in shape. The professionals sightread the music and sounded wonderful. I was grateful to get to play with them.
Thankful for these guys coming to help us out.
It was a lovely night and we are reminded again why we play long after school ends. As our Director, Ms. Roland said, tonight we’re not talking about politics or bingewatching silly shows on TV, we’re not thinking about virusus or worried about the future.
ALl about the music.
Tonight it’s about the music. And what a relief that was.
Keeping us in time.
I hope the neighbors who came out of their homes, sat in lawn chairs and waited while we did a little rehearsing before we began, I hope they had as much fun as we did.
Making a big sound.
But I don’t see how they could have had more.
He’s played with us since he was a kid, now grown up and still making music.
Then this morning I did a virtual 5K with my friend Tami who lives in California. So that we could run/walk together she went out at 6 a.m. while it was still dark, and I waited until 9 am. here, an hour or more later than I would normally go out.
At the turn around point.
It was a compromise on both our parts because we wanted to motivate each other. Compromise works, I wish it was something that happened more in our world, but I’m not going there in this post.
Nope, this post is all about smiles. I hope you had something fun to do, or pretty to see, or beautiful to listen to this week.
As we march toward November we all need to remember to smile. And that’s as political as I’m going to get today.
Trombones all in providing the bass sounds.
Change Is Hard 