Cameras

Lisa said that there have been several bloggers asking about what cameras we are using to get our pictures so here goes.

Lisa uses a Canon PowerShot point and shoot type camera. It does the job for most of what she wants to take pictures of around the garden and around town. For some situations, she relies on me or my camera for pictures.

Mine is a Canon 350D Rebel xt DSLR (digital single-lens reflex). This is the type of camera that allows you to

interchange lenses, for those of you who don't know. I mainly use a 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens and rarely use a 400mm telephoto. Very, very rarely I also use a 2x extender lens with those, which more than doubles the power of the lens. You see the 400mm lens in the above picture. For flowers and butterflies, I use the 70-300mm lens. That does a decent job but with my old Canon Rebel film camera, I often used a 28-80mm lens with a macro feature. The macro setting allows for close focusing. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get that lens to be recognized by the digital camera even though it works fine with the film camera.
As you can see from her pictures, we sometimes set the camera on a tripod for feeder pictures to keep the camera steady. When we are "out of the garden" , however, this is usually not possible or convenient. Then the shots are hand-held. Lots of blurred pictures due to the unsteady photographer.
Let Lisa know if you would like more information. Don't want to bore you all.

DB

P.S. Don't blame DB for these awful pictures. I took them...Lisa

Where did those birds go??

OMG...DB yelled at me to come look out the window. There was an adult Cooper's Hawk sitting on a limb in our back yard. No wonder the birds all departed. I took one photo through the patio doors. Yes, the neighbors are having new siding put on their house...
I asked DB to get his camera and take a picture. It turned around on the limb. It was looking all around. It just knew dinner was here some place.
Looking around some more. Just look at the beautiful slate colored back and its dark cap. OO oo was there movement down there? Come here little birdie. I won't hurt you...

I said come here. Don't hide in that hydrangea. I can see you sneaking out the other side.
The Cooper's walked several feet around the bushes. Poking its head in every once in awhile. The poor thing departed with empty talons. Too bad. We have plenty of House Sparrows to spare.

New Bird Feeder

As the days get colder and shorter I decided that I needed to put a feeder outside my nookery window again this winter. I needed a new feeder becasue the one I used last year let the seed get wet and it was a mess every time we had rain or snow. This one seems like a good one. It keeps the seed dry except in the tray and I don't have to fill it too often as it holds quite a bit of seed.
My first customer was not a surprise. The Tufted Titmouse is always one of the first birds to check out a new feeder. They are such curious little things. They often pave the way for other birds so it seems since after the Titmouse has been to the feeder other birds soon follow. Too bad they are so quick or I am so slow because this is a bit out of focus. I will keep trying for a good shot. Other takers of the new feeder was a House Finch (female) you know they wouldn't take long to stop by. Also a Carolina Chickadee, with its back to us.

Here is a better shot of the Carolina Chickadee. It has safflower seed in its mouth. They look so much like the Coal Tits that are in England. There is a young man (14 yr old) named Joe that is starting a nature blog. He would like it if you popped in to see what is in his garden. I posted this chickadee for him to compare the Coal Tits in his garden with the Carolina Chickadees in our garden . If you go here you too can compare them.

Mosey Around the Garden

This week was a busy week for me. When I did have a spare moment or two I walked around and just admired the little bit of color that was left.

We are experiencing a cold wind that is bringing in winter temps today. It warms me looking back at a few pictures I managed to take.

This Spirea is so pretty in the fall. I didn't remember that until I came around the corner of the house and it was ablaze in the morning sun. I am not sure which Spirea it is. It is the one that has little white balls on it during spring.

Now this is a new treat for us. This Dogwood shrub, Golden Glow, is nomrmally a Chartreuse-gold and it has turned to fall with a brilliant coat of reddish leaves.

These yellow mums have decided to change outfits this fall. As the weather has cooled it has put on an orangy bronze for the end of the season.

This tree isn't in our garden but I couldn't resist putting a picture of iton my blog. I have so enjoyed

this beauty all fall. I love the contrast of the dark

bark peeking out from under the golden/orange leaves.

It just screams FALL to me.

Another screamer I found is this pink bush that literally stopped me as we were driving toward home this afteernoon. It isn't exactly a color that one expects to see during fall.

I am not sure what kind of bush/tree it is but the leaves are really pink and stand out with all around it being red, orange or yellow.

I hope you all enjoyed this last lovely weekend of fall. Winter is definitely knocking on our door today.

Left Overs

Today was what I think will be our last summer like day this fall. The rain is supposed to move in tomorrow afternoon bringing some more seasonal weather with it. We need the rain so I am not unhappy about this. After all it is supposed to be cool this time of year.

My one regret is that I don't have room to bring in a couple left over pots of flowers that are still going strong. Below you can see this orange creation that has been such a good bloomer all summer, up until now. I just hate to let it go. This pot has also been a great performer. I just love begonias. They do so well in my shady back garden. The Streptocarpus 'Black Panther' in this planter has been great too. They make a hard working pair. I love to watch the hummingbirds work the begonia blossoms.

The Black and Blue Salvia that my Sister talked me into buying this year is a winner in my garden. I will be purchasing more next spring. I might even try seeds as this one seeded around itself this summer. I bet they would be easy to grow from seed. It only got afternoon sun and it bloomed like it was happy. The hummingbirds and bees really liked it too. Gee, I miss the hummers and bees already.

A steppable I planted late this summer is settling in quite well. It is a Red leaf Thrift. They are tiny clumps and they even have tiny blooms that stick up high above the little clumps of reddish leaves. I am so pleased with how they have taken I wish I had bought a whole flat of them. I just bought a few to see if they would take in this pathway.

As you can see by the tiny bloom they are quite happy so far in this area. I just wonder if any of you have grown this plant? I sort of thought they were more for a sunny rock garden setting but these are doing well in afternoon sun in clay like soil. I hope they survive the winter. We will see.

Election Day

Around here no one can complain about the weather holding them back from voting. It was a very warm sunny day. There was less than a 30 minute wait where I voted. The line didn't ever dimish while we were there. A steady flow. It will be interesting to see who wins.

Out of the Garden

Oh what a beautiful day! We had such a lovely day to be out and about today. We went to our usual birding area. Iknow you probably wonder why we go to the same place every weekend. It is sort of like our back yard since we have birded here so often. There is a diversity of habitat and therefore we have a diverse range of birds to find. Sort of like a treasure hunt.

As you can see we also had some color to view. I think we are a little past peak viewing here. It has been so dry that I think a lot of the trees went directly to brown or just dropped their leaves in protest of the dry weather.

'What in the world is he looking at?' you might ask. Well...

is it a mouse?

Nah, we wouldn't work that hard to take a picture of a mouse. It is the first of the season Snow Bunting of course.
This is one of my absolute favorite northern birds. They come down here dressed in their winter plummage.
This one was right cheeky with us.It posed on a rock near the water for a couple of minutes. These little birds don't stand still very long.
You have to get your pictures as fast as you possibly can.This one called and before you know it...
another came whizzing by and off they went. There were 9 of them in this group. You can see all the white in the wings of the bird coming from behind. During the breeding season they are mostly black and white. If you lived in Nome, Alaska they would be a yard bird for you.
I want to thank my DB for taking time to get close enough for a few pictures. The pictures here that are closer and out of focus are the ones I took. He took the rest of them. It was a fun day. I hope you had a good weekend too.