Forecast for today was for cloudy skies per the Channel 4 broadcast last night–
just like yesterday.

In the words of Bob Dylan (Subterranean Blues), you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
In this case, you don’t have to be a weatherman to see blue skies and good daylight….at least until 1pm. I had scheduled some computer maintenance stuff that needed me to ‘baby sit’ for today based on the forecast instead of going out early and watching-photographing swans.

Lemonade out of lemons means setting up at our bird feeder and I think the results speak for themselves. These are just about straight out of the camera– no flash needed today.

Only exception is the swan silhouette which was taken Saturday late afternoon–

Butter cookies being made as I make this entry– there goes the diet 🙂

May you all have a healthy, happy Thanksgiving– tomorrow, headed to Farmington to pick up our niece and her ‘beau’ so they can be here for the big Forir Clan dinner on Thursday.
Friday– Molly and I hope to do some swan photography. Those of you that are out and about, be sure and stop and say “Hi”.

Winter is here with overcast skies and flat light. Had to have a new battery put in my truck so stuck at home today rather than out chasing swans or looking for eagles.
Molly bought a flash as part of my birthday loot and I have been trying to learn how to use it. Flat light and small backyard birds should be a good learning situation, so I set up our portable blind and have began my education.

Winter also means we have to replenish our feeders more frequently. Molly is off to El Mel tomorrow to get more peanuts for the titmice, flickers, red bellied woodpeckers, along with the downy woodpeckers that show up. Doves, juncos, cardinals, house finches, chickadees and various sparrows have been showing up in ever increasing numbers. This means amending the monthly budget to include suet, safflower, raw peanuts and black oil sunflower seeds…..there goes the Social Security check. 🙂

Here are 3 “learning” images

Molly and I went out to The Heron Pond the other afternoon. Molly was going to use a 1.4 extender with the 500mm but she left it( the extender) at home, so she was a bit ‘focal length challenged’ for the location. South winds so we tried our hand at the end of Orton Road. Truly a different perspective. For those in the know, yeah, it is where the new structure is and no, the structure is not photographer friendly– might work for spotting scopes but it just doesn’t work for long lenses and trying to get flight shots.

Also, many of you know what the answer is if you try to get a special use permit to gain access inside the refuge area…..
unless of course you have an in with the right people….
and of course we don’t 🙂

In the words of that great American philosopher, Jeff Kezele, when he reported being turned down for said permit, “At least they were polite about saying no” 🙂 🙂 🙂

Had to dump files into the back up drives since we have pretty much filled up the laptop’s 1 terabyte hard drive. I guess with both of us banging away, we should have anticipated running out of room before the year’s end. Transferring the files as I type, so this will be a short post and a small gallery.

All images by Molly

As many of you know, there were 16 Trumpeter Swans at Riverlands yesterday evening. Molly and I have been watching and waiting for them to return.
Big THANK YOU to John Watson for telling us that a friend of his had seen several in the past couple of days.
In addition, there are a pretty large number of ducks as well ( which is why I went duck hunting this am with a friend– for all you non hunters, no ducks were harmed by us this morning — wrong spot– right time LOL)
One of my favorite subjects to photograph has also showed up— The Northern Harrier. Made the ducks nervous every time she cruised the perimeter of the pond.
Here is a small gallery– see those of you that are trumpeter freaks out there