The Long Winter

OK, so it's not really winter. You could have fooled me with all the rain we have been having. We have had some spring weather but it has been mixed with quite a bit of rain. Enough already! I awoke this morning to the steady beat of rain. when I looked outside all I could see was a wall of gray and raindrops on the window pane. All my prior thoughts of photographing bluebirds left my head. I think I'll go work out and run some errands downtown and in Ukiah.
Here are a few images from yesterday afternoon of the Little Lake Valley from my bedroom window and the raindrops on my window this morning.

God's light and blessings to all,

chris

Months in the Making

Some images require some advance planning to make them happen. These bluebird images were months in the making. In late winter I put up five bluebird nest boxes out at the Burris ranch.This spring the bluebirds chose one of the nest boxes to use. Of the other four swallows have taken up residence in two of them. One was knocked down by the horses using it as a back rub! The remaining nest box wasn't used by anything.
I have been monitioring the bluebirds progress. Just this week I put up a meal worm feeder nearby the nest box. I also added a knothole front piece of bark to the box once I found out the bluebirds were feeding thier young. Yesterday I set up a photoblind and slowly moved it closer and closer to the nest box during the day. So it took a few months and the bluebirds help to create these images.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Baker's Meadowfoam A Rare and Endangered Plant Species

Today I photographed some Baker's Meadowfoam (Limnanthes bakeri). A rare and endangered plant endemic to Mendocino County, California. Currently this plant is a hot potato for the ranchers in the Little Lake Valley and Cal Trans which is planning on building a highway through the valley and has to mitigate the wetlands it will destroy in the process with other pastureland in the valley. It will be interesting to see how this all falls out in the end.

God's blessings to all,

chris

My Favorite Guest Photographer

Call it nepotism because my favorite photographer filled in for me today. I stayed home today and worked on images for my book while Lenore, Annika and one of her friends went to the tidepools at McKerricher. The wind was howling and there were ten foot swells coming in. From the images its apparent that they had a really good time. Thanks Lenore for filling in today. I love the images you got.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Red Shouldered Hawk

Today it was raining so I went out to the Burris Ranch to check and see how my mealworm feeders were working for the Bluebirds. I discovered that they were working really well. In fact there were three bluebirds bringing food to the nest box. I screwed on a bark knothole front to the nest box and I walked back to the gate to see what the bluebirds would do. While I was waiting a Red Shouldered Hawk suddenly swooped down and landed on something close to the nest box. I grabbed my camera from the car and watched as the hawk flew up from the field with a vole in its beak. A beautiful sight to see! I hung around for awhile longer and waited for the bluebirds to resume their feeding which they did. A successful day all the way around in spite of the rain.

God's love and blessings to all,
chris

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was one of those days where you need to look around and take a short break. I slept in and then went out and restocked the bird feeders. I checked on the bluebirds and found that the babies have hatched and are being fed. So I set up a mealworm feeder aabout six feet away from the nest box on a post. I guess we'll see what happens. When I got home I whipped up a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. I was really well beahaved and only had one.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Rainy Day Outside

The heavens opened and I played inside as I'm sick today. Some sort of hopefully 24 hr. flue. Headache and body aches etc. I took out some LED light banks, colored gels and some toy cars. I then tried out some new textures on the images . This one ended up being my favorite in black and white.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris