My View from the Car

When I last left you...

I was disappointed that my "deer hunt"

was a bust in my friend Rol's backyard.

After the sun set, it was too dark

to shoot the frisky animals.

That's why my excitement perked yesterday when Rol

called at ten in the morning to say

he had fifteen deer in his front yard at that moment!!

By the time I got over there (He's just three minutes away!),

the deer had darted back into the woods.

Rol suggested I stick around and they might come back.

Afraid I'd scare them or they'd sniff out that I hadn't showered yet...

I sat in my car for an hour...

WAITING....

I get bored easily, so I started honing in on some

nature with my telephoto lens.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Yep...MORE squirrel pics!

I shot all these pictures from my car window.

My friend Tammy said I should title

the photo below:

"Got Nuts?"

hahahahahahaha!!

Amazing what you can see from a car.

This bird was WAAAYYY  up in a tree.

Love my telephoto lens!!!

And, since it was a dull, drab sky...

thought I'd color it up.

Then it happened!

I heard rustling behind the car.

I turned and saw a DEER leaping past.

I was so excited, I could barely focus.

DARN!

My one big chance and

I only got his butt!

And that dang tree!

Why did nature have to get in the way of nature?

I removed the tree in Photoshop,

but it's still a deer's derriere.

Makes me want to go out in my car again...

I really AM going to capture a great photo of a

DEER....I swear!

But you may have to suffer through a few more squirrel pictures...

Oh, Deer Me!

As I said in my

Squirrel Blog

I enjoy photographing animals...if I could only

see something other than a squirrel.

You may recall I took that deer picture above

while in the Rocky Mountains last August.

Well, last night, I went deer hunting...sorta.

Our friend Rol's house is in the woods...sorta,

so you can imagine my excitement when

he told me up to FIFTEEN deer

hang out in his yard at dusk.

I noticed a pretty sky at sunset last night,

so I called Rol.

Me:  Can I come over and shoot your deer?

Rol:  Huh???????  What?????

Me:  Oops...I mean with a camera.

He said yep, so I grabbed my "hunting gear"

and went over to his woods as the sun was setting.

It was 18 degrees, but I stoically stood outside for

90-minutes hunting for deer.

My feet were frozenated...is that a word?

The cold might have messed with my brain.

As the sun dipped below the horizon,

I realized I would never be able to shoot a deer at twilight

which is when they usually emerge.

It's too dark and the shutter has to stay open a LOOONG time.

No chance a deer would stand still long enough.

So I took sunset pictures.

Actually, this is a good time to throw in

some other sunset pics from this winter.

This is our local ski hill...or bump as you may call it.

Apple Mountain is just five minutes from our house

And is beautiful at sunset.

I often pass this whopper house set WAY back in a field.

I have always wanted to photograph it...

and this night of a pretty sky...

I finally DID!

I shot these pics the other night when we had a full moon.

I kept getting a reflection...but I thought it looked neat.

My kids were driving back from the

grocery store 100 miles away and called me to say,

"Mom! There's a full moon...go get your camera!"

I LOVE that they thought of me in that moment.

Okay, back to Rol's woods and the deer hunt.

I wasn't seeing any, and my feet needed defrozenating,

so in defeat, I loaded up the hunting gear

and started driving back down his long driveway.

With  the sun set and the sky a rich midnight blue,

I glanced into the neighbor's yard and saw

FOUR GORGEOUS DEER

by some pine trees in the snow.

It was the PERFECT PHOTOGRAPH.

No way could I set up the tripod and

capture it in the low light.

I stopped and stared in wonder and awe,

and sighed when they scampered back into the woods.

That is one perfect photo that will

have to live on in my memory.

Winter Squirrels

I love to photograph animals, but the only animals

I seem to be around are squirrels.

When we visited the Grand Canyon five years ago,

I took a great shot of a squirrel gazing

out over the cavernous canyon.

Darn, I shot it on film and can't locate the photo right now, but

I am always excited to shoot the fluffy-tailed furballs.

My daughter feels I should go into

Squirrel Photography.

Last week when I visited the local nature center

to shoot bird photos...

Yep, squirrels whirled around me.

They're cute and perky...

As long as they're not ruining my dad's bird feeder.

Oh, my father-in-law has a running feud with

squirrels, too.

But they ARE fun to photograph!

That's why I was delighted to find a

squirrel photo contest!

If you have time, check out the fun photos

from last year's contest.

I was ready to post my entry when I noticed

the grand prize...

200-bucks worth of squirrel food!

Not sure I want that in my yard and I

don't think my father-in-law wants it either.

While at the nature center, I saw the

ONLY snowman I have seen this season!

Despite all our recent snow,

it was not good for packing,

so no snowmen!

Our warm temps last week melted most of our snow.

It's weird to see green grass underneath.

But.....

In just a few hours ANOTHER big, whopper

snow storm is headed right for us..

another foot or so of snow! 

UPDATE:

Nine hours and nine inches of snow later...

It's back to WINTER!

YAHOOOOOOO!!!!

Winter Birds

In the winter, I don't think much about birds

because I don't really see any.

But after the recent blizzard, my cousin Kathy

told me she braved the weather to fill her bird feeders.

It reminded me of my dad who always had

a bird feeder outside the window by his

favorite chair.

He sat and stared and leafed through a bird manual

learning the names of all the colorful birds that landed there.

He also battled a perpetual war with the squirrels

who outwitted Dad's many

contraptions he built to keep them out of the bird feeder.

My brother-in-law Joe was surly about a squirrel

feeding his face on his own bird feeder that perched atop a

pole outside his kitchen window.

He opened the window, grabbed the squirrel's tail and

flipped the animal to the ground.

The squirrel scurried off, but

Joe was stunned that the varmint's tail was still in his hand!!!

It had snapped off and

to add to the horror, Stumpy stuck around the yard

for a year after.

Whenever Joe saw the tail-less squirrel

he felt  bad.

Anyway, I started thinking about the birds that

brave Michigan winters and wanted to see some.

I remembered doing a news story years ago about

The Bay City State Nature Center.

They stock an array of bird feeders,

so I headed there today hoping to take some

pictures of beautiful birds.

Sure enough...the feeders were popular!

No other food available unless feathered flocks have a snow shovel.

 

The first colorful bird I saw was this blue jay.

I was shaking with excitement.

When a gorgeous red cardinal landed, my heart leaped.

Even the little black and white guys were adorable.

But photographing the birds was a real

fowl feat. They fluttered about from

feeder to feeder, barely staying long enough

for me to focus.

I was afraid to move and scare them away.

Then I saw THIS through my camera lens!!!!

Holy Moly!!!  Is that an OWL???

Well, it was kind of hard to see it through the tiny

view finder.

I was so afraid to move and scare him,

so slowly, I peered over the camera

and realized it was some kind of hawk.

You can see how big it was on this bird feeder.

The kind folks working at the Nature Center

were excited, too!

They had not seen such a big bird at the feeders

this year. They looked through books and

brought out stuffed hawks trying to

identify it against my photos. 

No luck.

Anybody know what kind of hawk this is???

I had to shoot these cardinal pictures through tears

because I was so awed at seeing these

colorful creatures and remembering them

at my dad's feeder.

If I come back to the earth as a bird,

I want to be a red cardinal!

(Well, maybe a pink flamingo because

I like PINK and I want long, slender legs.)

I was so delighted to capture this

cardinal as it took flight.

OMG!!!  Birds are nature's miracles!!!

I'm so happy some birds

DON'T fly south for the winter!

They sure gave me a smile today.

I was at the Nature Center

for TWO hours.

I think the Nature people were

wondering if I would ever stop

oohing and ahhing

and snapping pictures...

and leave.

I couldn't stop!!!!

Another in flight shot and fun with color editing.

Even though my dad has been gone for seven years,

I felt he was with me today.

Especially when I saw these guys...

Hangin' around.

They made me smile, too...