Critters

I've managed very few bird shots this spring, but I am hearing a lot of the returning migrants around.  I learned a lot of bird calls a decade or two ago, and it really makes a big difference.  We've even had a Cardinal around, calling its piercing whistle, and once I thought I heard a Bluebird.  But the bird I hear most often is the Song Sparrow.

Every morning the Song Sparrow sits on top of one of the spruce trees out front, and calls its song over and over again.  Today it co-operatively sat there so I could get some pictures.

Both the song and the dark spot on the breast make it easy to recognize.  We have two in the yard, the other more distant at the back of the meadow, but I can count on hearing that call in the morning.

I'm quite pleased with my focus for these.  I've got the camera set for spot focussing now, and it works much better for birds.

I even managed a not-too-terrible shot of a Robin, through the front window no less, shining in the  bright morning sunlight.

But I venture to say that the most common bird I see is the Turkey Vulture.  There is almost always one or more in the sky someplace, often directly overhead.  This one was sitting on a rooftop where we went hiking about 3 weeks ago, holding its wings out to dry them.

I cropped this as much as I felt I could, and got this result.

A friend I was with got this result.  He was carrying a good but small pocket 'point-and-shoot' with a good zoom on it, and I think his result was definitely better than mine.   I'm considering getting one for those times I don't want to carry the big camera.  And I can't bring myself to carry multiple lenses for it anyway.

I saw this cute Shetland Pony colt today, and couldn't resist a shot, even though it was straight into the sun, and with a wire fence in the way.

Although that horse may look big, it's actually tiny itself, only about 4 feet high.  There's quite a herd of them on the farm I drove by, but I only saw the one colt, which was truly tiny - not much over two feet high..

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