Flinging Bird Seed at Once

I felt delighted to see a flock of Redwing Blackbirds visit my bird feeders yesterday, plus finches, juncos, sparrows, bluejays, and robins. I watched the gang of Whitewinged Doves with some trepidation, for it was an ever-growing population of doves -- Whitewinged, Inca, Eurasian Collared, and Mourning -- that made me cease replenishing my bird feeders. For two years now I have not fed the birds, and yet, the Whitewinged roost in the nearby trees. I hope that their numbers will remain a handful, as they seem now, and that they do not lord it over the little birds.

A White Christmas Indeed!

Kodiak Bear did not want to pose during the snowfall.

Winds gusted to 45mph.

We don't get snow, normally, hardly any at all. A white Christmas indeed!

Christmas Lights After the Blizzard

When the streets became passable after the blizzard,

My Mr. Mallory and I drove around to take pictures of the lights.

Good-bye, Bob, and Thank You

http://rlhtribute.com/
Robert Howard, Congressional Medals of Honor (three times), Purple Heart (eight times).

Christmas Eve Snow

Hodge was game for a romp in the slushy snow, willing to pose for the camera.

Ducks in flight during the heavy snowfall. Our morning began with pleasant rain

in the early morning, then turned to large snowflakes around eight o'clock.

The wind blew about forty miles per hour.

Saint Francis.

Hodge's sponteneity exemplifies the reason why I need to be ready with my camera and its settings.

Later, in the park, a German Shepherd loped across eleven inches of snow.

Children ride along Hamilton Boulevard.

An SUV's wheels turned ineffectively on the snowy driveway.

Shoveling snow off the driveway.

A Red-tailed Hawk disappears beyond a tree along Martin Street.

Scissortail

I'm not allowed to fly it alone without my license or an FAA instructor, so I taxied up and down the airport all afternoon. Passengers in the terminal of Municipal Airport undoubtedly wondered what that little plane was doing taxiing all over the place and around parked jets. Tomorrow, finally, my flight instructor, Jim, will have recovered sufficiently from ankle surgery for us to resume our lessons.

Miss D's Hawk

Miss D from Animal Control brought a fatally injured hawk to the Wild Bird Rescue Center.

The odd framing has to do with the Nikon lens 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 ED DX on my full frame D700. I think, though, that the effect makes for intriguing framing of a remarkable bird.

In the Tower

First David Farrabee, then Nap

BirdManBob phoned me at the last minute to ask me to present myself at the Wild Bird Rescue Center. I photographed State Representative David Farrabee, who will serve as WBR's guest of honor in March at the WBR's Celebrity Roast.

David posed with Missi, a kite we adopted for educational purposes, for she is blind in one eye and therefore cannot live in the wild.

Here is David with the Red-tailed Hawk. He doesn't know that he will release her after I have finished taking pictures of him holding her. BirdManBob said later that David's eyes grew wide when he learned he would release the hawk.

The Red-tailed Hawk dipped in altitude upon release, then took off free and healthy.
Thank you, David!

Photoshopped image of David releasing the RT hawk.

Posing with Predatory Birds

Lila holds a Red-tailed Hawk. The hawk is recuperating

from a severe injury that caused blindness in one eye.

Terry holds the injured hawk.

Here Lila poses with Missi, a Mississippi Kite that lost an eye.

We cannot release Missi, for with loss of depth perception, she will not be able to hunt.

Wild Bird Rescue has adopted Missi as their first educational bird.

Wild Bird Rescue board member Terry poses with Missi.