Steller's Jays

I arose bright and early to a cloudless sky and bright sunlight.I rushed out to my photoblind as I'm working on trying to create a really nice Mountain Quail image. I waited for a long time this morning before I heard the quail coming down our patio. I watched them as they fed around my feeders.Eventually one was about a foot away from a perch I had set up and a Steller's Jay came in and forced it away.Shortly after all the quail left. Steller's Jays are a beautiful bird but they do take over my bird feeders at times. They are very aggressive. When they arrive the rest of the birds move away from the main feeders pretty fast.So when you are given lemons make lemonade. Here are a few Steller's. Gd's light and love to all, chris

Fast and Furious

I'm not really sure if today's photoblog title fits for the viewer. From my point of view it really does. Yesterday I spent about two hours in the backyard photoblind. The birds and squirrels were pretty much non stop except for a few breaks provided by the Steller's Jays giving off alarm calls for some predator, probably a hawk that was nearby. I created a lot of work for myself and spent a good part of the day processing images. It was well worth the effort and here are some images from yesterday morning. Chipmunk Golden Crowned Sparrow Dark Eyed Junco Mountain Quail Douglas Tree Squirrel Spotted Towhee God's love and blessings to all, chris

Getting A Head

This morning I spent a couple of hours in the photoblind in the backyard. There were lots of birds and squirrels and the action was pretty much non stop. A result of all this action is that I created a lot of images. I spent a good part of this afternoon and some of this evening in processing them. Every once in a great while I feel the compulsion to do two photoblog entries in one day.Sometimes it's because I'm a little behind on my blog entries or it's because I have an image that I really want to share and I can't wait until the next day to do it.Today it's the latter case. I really liked how this quail image came out and I wanted to share it with everyone. The Mountain Quail was standing right in front of the photoblind. It was between two mossy rocks when the Steller's Jays let out an alarm call. Everything went silent and all the birds and squirrels in the area froze. This gave me plenty of opportunities to take numerous images of the Mountain Quail. This one however was my favorite. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Grasshopper

With the advent of the colder weather one of the things I least expected to find in the backyard was a grasshopper. I guess it found a way to hide out from the cold and chilly weather we had.So here is one grasshopper image and a couple of images from this mornings sunrise. God's light and love to everyone, chris

Backyard Birds

Here are selection of bird images from this weeks backyard bird expeditions. There were quite a few Juncos as they are the most common bird in my backyard. God's love and blessings to all, chris Dark Eyed Juncos 1,3,4,5,9 Steller's Jay 2 Chestnut Backed Chickadee 7 Golden Crowned Sparrow 6,8,10

Splish Splash I was Takin' a Bath

Yesterday the weather outside was downright winter like. It drizzled off and on most of the day. This didn't stop the Juncos from diving right in to take baths. They would hop right onto their favorite rock in our garden pond. Look around a little bit and then get to splashing.They were a lot of fun to both watch and photograph. God's blessings to all, chris

I Can’t Do a Thing With This Hair

Yesterday afternoon I went out to my photoblind.. I wanted to see if I could get a Mountain Quail image. I have been noticing that they have been coming around to the feeders around three o’clock each day. I was a little late in getting out to the photoblind and I ended up spooking about eight quail away. After it happened I figured if I waited them out they would come around again. I was in for a long cold wait. I was just about to call it quits when I could hear quail feeding calls coming from down our patio behind me. They slowly walked past me. I watched and waited until one of them went up onto the mossy perch I had placed next to one of my feeders. Its’ plumage was a little wild looking(bad hair day) but I didn’t care because I had my Mountain Quail image. Mountain Quail are on my list of one the most difficult birds to photograph around my house. The only one that is more difficult is Ravens because they are sooo smart. God’s love and blessings to all, chris