Sometimes I look around at the late autumn/pre-winter landscape and think how boring it looks. Drab. Monochrome. Blah. Especially on a cloudy day. Ugh.
It's days like these when I take my camera outside and search to see things in a new light. Somehow, when I have my camera with me, I see things in a way I wouldn't see them otherwise. I play around with my camera more, looking for new perspective.
This...
Turns into this...
Sometimes there is humor to be found in the landscape.
Like where this snow remains: in a crack where the sun don't shine. ;)
Color presents itself, reminding me that not all is drab.
And I focus more on lines, and texture.
And, I get on, around, and in things.
Next post I'll show you where I was, what I was "in", to take these last 3 photos. But in the meantime, I welcome any guesses from you all!
We've had several dustings of snow already this season, which seems a bit odd for November in Southeast Ohio. Weather's been pretty darn chilly, too. The snow we had the other day looked like little tiny styrofoam-dot pellets. Sure didn't look like any snow I've ever seen. The sky cleared up a little on Friday, making for a dramatic sunrise. I wish I could have taken pictures along my drive to work, but that would have been a little dangerous. Instead, I'll share these pictures I took in our woods before I left for work.
Several days ago on the Cornell Blog of Ornithology (also accessible via the Round Robin icon over in my blog roll) I learned about a video that the Lab put together about the benefits of being a member. I also received an email from the Lab telling me about the video. Take a look!
If that video wasn't moving and compelling enough for you, let me take a minute to tell you why I think you should consider becoming a member of the Lab. No, they are not paying me or asking me to do this. But I believe in their mission and want to encourage as many other folks as possible to join in, too. (And hey, I've answered my fair share of phones at public radio/TV pledge drives, so this is my internet version of that kind of activity.)
Dark-eyed Junco, female
I'll tell you about my background with the Lab. It started with Project Feederwatch, just under 4 years ago. Dave was actually the one who told me about it. He saw a story on one of the local TV stations about a woman who watched and counted birds in her yard, and submitted her bird counts to some program at Cornell University. A few quick keystrokes in Google led me to Lab's website, and I signed up to participate in Project Feederwatch right away. We already had feeders up at our house, and I was really starting to take an interest in all of the birds that were coming to visit and feed, so things just kind of fell into place.
Somewhere into my second season of Feederwatching I decided to become a full-fledged member of the Lab. I kind of compare it to becoming a member of your local public radio or television station, but instead of supporting great programming, you're supporting great science and conservation efforts!
plumage of White-Throated Sparrow
I have been associated with another bird conservation organization, but I allowed my membership with them to lapse - not because I didn't believe in what they were doing, but because I didn't feel any connection with them. I received quarterly "reports" from them in the mail, but those fell kind of flat for me - kind of like reading stockholder reports from your 401k firm... lots of boring text with only a few photos.
With the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I feel a real connection with where my money is going. Part of that connection is due to the vast array of citizen science projects that they offer. Not only is my money encouraged, but so is my participation, and the data I supply is being cataloged and used. I am also grateful to them for featuring so many of their project participants' photos on their website and in their publications, including some of my photos, like this one.
To sum up, I support the Lab because
I love birds
I want to put my money where my mouth is for conservation
Project Feederwatch is awesome and fun
I have learned tons about birds from their website and print publications
I feel a connection with the Lab
Through citizen science projects I am forging a closer connection with and greater appreciation for the natural world
Did I mention I love birds?
If you feed/watch/take photos of birds and you're concerned about conservation and earth's biological diversity, consider becoming a Lab member today (or consider a gift membership for someone for the holidays!).
Also, remember it's not too late to get in on this season's Project Feederwatch. You do NOT have to a member of the Lab to participate in this program, but if you become a member you get a discount off of the Project fee (and off of any other Citizen Science project fees).
This past weekend, while watching/counting birds for Project Feederwatch, I added a new bird to my Life List: the Brown Creeper.
[photo removed after reading Cornell's photo copyright statement, which says: "Every photograph found on All About Birds is copyrighted material and may not be downloaded, copied, archived, modified, or used for any reason, including posting on personal or other web sites, without permission of the photographer." As a photographer myself, I know I would not want anyone using my photo without permission, so I must respect their request.] photo borrowed from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds pages
I really wanted to get my own picture of it, but every time I grabbed the camera it would fly away.
The first thing that alerted me to this little cutie was a bird sound that I had not heard before. Over the years I've gotten pretty familiar with the vocalizations of our "standard" feeder birds (chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, cardinals, goldfinches, etc.), so I knew the sound I was hearing (a kind of high-pitched "seeeee") was not coming from one of our usual visitors. I turned toward where the sound was coming from, and it took me a few seconds to catch the movement of this very well-camouflaged bird hitching its way up a tree. At first I thought it was a wren of some sort, but as soon as I saw it move a little bit more, in a manner that reminded me of a nuthatch, I thought "Oooh, that's a creeper of some sort. Maybe a Brown Creeper?" A quick glance at my Peterson's guide confirmed my suspicions. It's really cool (and rewarding) to be able to put the pieces together like this and make the ID.
Listening is key in birding, and I continue to work on my bird "ears". They have cued me in on multiple occasions when I otherwise wouldn't have known a bird was even around. They cued me in to seeing my first Great-crested Flycatcher this summer, and they also cued me in to a huge flock of Cedar Waxwings when I was taking a walk in town at lunch today.
Now, will those Waxwings be in the same place tomorrow, to allow me to get a picture or 2? We shall see.
Today was a pretty dreary day - very windy all day, drizzling off and on. What better way to spend part of the day than by doing some bird watching and some baking?
We bought some new feeders this week, and luckily the birds seem to have adapted to them pretty quickly.
The birding view from the dining room
The view with my camera pressed against the patio door
The birding view from the kitchen window - the goldfinch spot
'Tis the season for baking with pumpkin. I had a crazy idea the other day that I want to make pumpkin meringues, which is going to be a challenge. While I scanned the interwebs for inspiration with the meringues, I ran into so many other yummy-sounding pumpkin recipes. One of them was a recipe for pumpkin biscotti on Simply Recipe which sounded too good to pass up. I added a scant cup of Craisins and a scant cup of some of the hickory nuts that we coaxed out of their shells.
While the biscotti bake for the first round, time to take a bird break
alternate view from the kitchen window
Emmet says "Hey, what smells good in there?"
After the loafs cooled enough for me to handle, it was time to cut them.
Ah, the finished product! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go enjoy one of these with a nice cup of sweet coconut Thai Chai.
Be careful, don't look directly into the light of... the moon?
Yes, that is the moon. As Dave and I were coming home this evening, I saw the moon coming up over the hill and decided I best take some pictures.
I have been thinking for several nights that I should get outside and play with my camera in the dark, and tonight I finally got off my duff and did it. Mind you, by "night" I don't mean midnight night, I mean 6:45 in the evening (all the pictures shown here were taken between 6:45 and 7:45). Being the lover of daylight that I am, I mourn the end of Daylight Saving Time. But being outside on this lovely evening made the early sunset worthwhile.
After taking several photos like this, I realized that the coloring looked a little too much like daylight, so I changed the white balance to make sure the blue color of the sky came through.
Ahhh, that's better.
By keeping the shutter open (between 1.5 and 2.5 minutes), I was able to catch some star trails.
Then I put on my wide-angle lens to get the rest of these shots...
While I was taking these photos, Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" kept popping into my head.
This is my favorite photo of the evening. Sweet dreams!
