Birds on the Brain

Life has been really busy lately and that's a good thing. Keeping my mind and ol' body busy is crucial right now.

I've moved into my new studio space (aka the loft in our house). It will take weeks to finally get things properly set up but it will be worth it. As I'm doing mindless things like sorting fabric by color (OCD, remember? But how does anyone find anything if you don't sort by color?) ~ I get fun ideas for new projects.  Stay tuned. :)

My new space is twice the size of my old studio and I have a new view. I am lucky that not only do we look out on a beautiful green space, but our neighbors have a deck that could double as a lovely little seaside cafe. Well, it could if we had a sea in my backyard.

My good luck buddies - made of marble or something equally as heavy.

Remember - I design and make things for kids.

This is a whimsical place. 

I have to start keeping my telephoto lens next to me at all times, too. A beautiful hawk glides by my window at least once a day.  I just hope he's not cruising for burgers (or finches as it were) at my birdfeeder...

In lieu of capturing a hawk just yet, I found this lovely little painted canvas of other birds of a feather. I just love it. It now hangs above my desk and makes me crazy happy. 

One of these days I'll paint that wall a brilliant color.

And speaking of birds... I returned to the park this morning - I don't go there on a holiday weekends.  So this morning things were back to normal ~ just me and the wind.

And my shiny Canon 40D freshly cleaned and spruced up by the camera professionals at Mike's Camera.  

Holy moly what a difference.  

Not only is my sensor crystal clear and clean

but my longer lenses that used to fish for focus

despite both having IS (one of them has double IS!)

are spot on focusing now!

These little birds go so crazy at dawn I just shoot into the masses and see what comes up.

Sometimes they even sit still

And these two 

finally got it together

So in case I forget, remind me not to wait 6 years before having my camera properly serviced again. I'm in love with my little ol' Canon again!

Mothers. Don't Mess with Them.

The other day seemed rather uneventful in the park.  I noticed the armada approaching.

But they were harmless.

I noticed some "photographers." 

I put that in parenthesis because I kind of have a problem with nature "photographers" driving up in their big ass pickup trucks and whipping out their 100,000 mm lenses to shoot.  I think that's cheating.  (And what are they shooting?  The inside of a pelican's eyeball?)  And sorry, but I think using tripods for nature shooting is for sissies. (Granted I'm blessed with steady hands so maybe that's a little judgmental.)

To me shooting in nature is all about getting out there - getting a little dirty - taking a risk now and then - tripping over rocks (and hopefully not landing lens first in the creek). Really being IN nature. I mean John Fielder used to haul something like 75 lbs. of camera equipment as he hiked to the top of mountains for cryin' out loud.

But I digress.

I said things were uneventful ~ until I came up over the hill and saw this crafty fellow.

And I realized what he was doing.

He was at the market shopping for his picnic breakfast.  I realize a hawk's gotta' do what a hawk's gotta' do, but come on ~ these were babies!

Then he saw me.

And he was not happy.  As my friend, Karen, said,

"No one gives the stink eye like a hawk."

He may have remembered me from the other day.  He looks a lot like the same fellow. At any rate, he wasn't pleased with my presence.

But I did what any good Mother would do 

I suggested he move on down the road.

Or lake as it would be.

No sooner had I made that suggestion than I noticed Mama Duck skirting along the edge of the water drawing his attention away from the babies.

Don't ef with Mothers.

But, of course, like a typical Mom I worried about those babies the rest of the day...

Bird Walk

Now that I've resumed my morning walks I'm seeing that it depends which camera or which lens I grab that ends up influencing what I experience on any given day. Take yesterday for example.  I carried my Canon with my 70-300mm and ~ voilà ~ I'm on a bird walk.

The pelicans are always entertaining

The blackbirds were having a drink.

The geese were all in a row.

The great blue heron was as elusive as ever.

The mallards were doing their mallard thing.

The hawk was having breakfast. (I'm thinking this was a poor little snake.)

He saw me but convinced I didn't want to steal his breakfast (yuck), 

went back to his meal.

And then there was this couple. Who thought they owned the path.

She seemed to guard the way

And pose a lot.

While he chowed down. Or it's possible that he guarded the path as she chowed down. It is rather hard to tell...

And then they kindly invited me to leave.

See?  Bird walk.  Not a flower in the bunch.