Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
As soon as I saw this week’s topic, I knew exactly what I would share – the fairy circles of the Sossusvlei desert in Namibia. I was lucky enough to see them from the air, and also from the top of a small dune while out quadding my first evening in the desert. No one had an explanation of how they were formed; nothing grows in them, the are simply barren sand surrounded by scrubby plants.
There’s a Wiki pages with more info about them, in case you are interested: Fairy Circles – Wikipedia
Last week it was all about the birds, this week, it was pretty much all about the deer. They stopped by singly, in pairs and in a group of four, and were around every other day, if not more. The one day I didn’t take my camera out on my afternoon walk, I spotted the great grey owl again. I got a snapshot with my phone, but as it was getting dark, I didn’t head back out with the camera and try to capture some better photos. I spoke with one of my friends in the neighbourhood, and she said that the owl has been spotted in her yard a couple times, and I am quite certain I caught a brief glimpse of him or her as she flew into the bush last week. Fingers crossed I’ll get to spend more time with the owl in the future.
I picked up some additional editing software during black Friday sales, and have finally had the opportunity to play around with some of it. Hence all the photos look completely different this week, as I wanted to see what different filters and treatments did.
I think that’s about all, so onto the picture.
Wishing everyone a wonderful week.
I had a little time on my hands and decided to check the WordPress photography topic of the week, and just after, I looked out my office window, and saw a deer at the feeder. So here is the lovely lady that is currently hanging around in my back yard. I’m so very grateful for the opportunity to watch wildlife while I work!
Since I likely won’t post again today, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for checking out my blog over the past year. It’s wonderful to know that something I’ve created has touched someone in some way, and equally wonderful to have had the opportunity over the year to view other’s photography and chat about technique and composition.
Wishing everyone a wonderful new year – may 2016 bring you many blessings.
I felt like doing bit of editing this evening, and decided to work on some bird photos that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to take flight.
Enjoy!
One of my dream wildlife sightings / photo opportunity was to see a leopard in a tree. I’m sure I mentioned it before, but it happened in what I felt was an unlikely place, the Okavango Delta.
I was looking through photos with my Mom yesterday and came across these after not having seen them for awhile, and I thought they would be great to edit in black and white. I still have a lot more shots to get through 🙂
If these are the type of photos you’d like to own, you can find them here:
This week, all the photos were taken in my backyard, watching the birds. The pine grosbeaks have discovered the bird feeder, and a flock of them now frequent the area; today I got distracted by the group fluttering around and lost count after 12. I think here were around 16 or more individuals at one point. It’s wonderful to have them close and listen to them calling to one another.
We’ve had some significant snow yesterday and today, and I’m late getting on with editing and posting as I was busy using the snow blower on the driveway and shovelling out a new pathway to the feeders.
Some of the photos were taken out the window from the basement, giving a unique angle to the feeder… I’ve had to shovel out in front of the windows to be able to see the birds on the ground!
That’s enough chatter for this evening, I hope you enjoy seeing some of the lovely birds that have visited this week (the deer have been around too, but always after dark so no photos of them this week).
The pine grosbeaks have been around in force since they discovered the feeders:
The hairy woodpecker stopped by for some seed as investigating the trees.
The flickers have been visiting regularly, though are usually quite skittish and fly away if anyone is outside.
The grey jays have been around frequently as well. They are usually quite skittish but I was outside taking photos of the grosbeaks Saturday and one of the jays stopped in for a snack; previously they would fly away if they saw someone move too quickly at the window.
I’m not a fan of the squirrels on the bird feeders (and with the set up I have, that hasn’t been a problem) but I’m happy for them to stop by and act as the clean up crew.
