woodpeckers – Jennifer Sawicky Photography

It’s been a great week for birds around the neighbourhood, especially yesterday, when I managed to capture photos of 5 different species in one morning walk (plus 3 different bunnies).

Wishing everyone a wonderful week 🙂

20160417_What I've seen this week-5 — I actually saw a pair of flickers yesterday, and while they conveniently perched together in a tree, I didn’t manage to get any shots of the two together worth sharing, as they were so high up, and I didn’t have to big lens. This one was working hard tapping at this dead tree; I heard it long before I saw it.

20160417_What I've seen this week — A hairy woodpecker pauses from pecking between the tree branches early yesterday morning.

20160417_What I've seen this week-4 — A sure sign of spring are the robins singing from the treetops every morning. I caught this one searching for worms on the roadside.

20160417_What I've seen this week-2 — Earlier this week, I saw frantic activity below a large pine tree; I snapped loads of photos just so I could try to identify the birds. This was the best that I managed, but I include it here as it was a new species for me, a white winged crossbill.

20160417_What I've seen this week-10 — The juncos are back in town, but generally don’t visit the feeder; they are part of the clean up crew that keeps that area beneath the feeder tidy (thanks guys!).

20160417_What I've seen this week-3 — The pileated woodpecker was tapping away at the top of this pole, making quite the racket.

20160417_What I've seen this week-6 — One of the 3 bunnies I saw yesterday; this one was right next to my driveway at the end of our walk. Luckily, Spencer only barks at them about 1 in 10 times that he sees them. Mostly he just patiently waits for me to finish taking a photograph.

20160417_What I've seen this week-9 — I’ve been hearing the ruffed grouse drumming for some time now, but this was the first time I’ve seen one this year. This beauty hung around under the bird feeder, cleaning up fallen sunflower seeds.

20160417_What I've seen this week-7 — I was happy I was able to quietly sneak outside and get a few photos (I was hiding behind the garden hose reel so I didn’t disturb the grouse browsing).

20160417_What I've seen this week-8 — Sunflower seed success.

For some time, I have been wanting to have more structure to my blog posts, a schedule to keep me from posting three things in one day, then nothing for a week. This weekend, I think I have come up with a workable plan. So before I get on with the photos for today, I’ll fill you in on what to expect in the coming days and weeks.

Since I have moved, I have been a bit lazy getting out with my camera, concentrating instead on editing the mass of photos I brought back from my last trip. I’ve really been missing being out with my camera, so I am going to start a weekly Sunday post titled What I’ve seen this week. Hopefully with this I can get back to wandering around with the dog and my camera, getting pictures of the local birds (and hopefully some deer or a moose too!).

Some of the fabulous bloggers I follow regularly post Monochrome Monday and Wordless Wednesday posts, and I am going to add those two as regular items, as I always enjoy seeing what others come up with.

Tuesday and Thursday I will dedicate to creating posts for the photo challenge that interest me from that week.

Friday and Saturday I am going to leave free to post whatever I have felt like shooting or editing that week.

Please feel free to leave a comment as this progresses and let me know if the new, more structured format works.

Since I am doing some housekeeping, this is a perfect time to mention that I have signed on with Fine Art America. I still have my Smugmug account, and over the coming months, will determine if I will focus on one, or keep both. Links to the two sites are below. Any of the photos the I post here, that I have added to the sales site, will have a direct link included below the photo. As always, if there is something you are interested that I have not yet added, please let me know and I will make that happen.

Smugmug Sales Site

Fine Art America Sales Site

And with that, no one to the first instalment of What I’ve seen this week.

Wednesday was supposed to be a very strong evening for the aurora, but the near full moon made it very difficult to see much of anything. I did manage to catch a couple photos though.

The aurora and the light from the moon. 10 sec, f3.5, ISO 320 — The aurora and the light from the moon.
10 sec, f3.5, ISO 320

This morning I took my camera out while walking with Spencer, and as we were heading home, heard some vigorous chirping and turned back to see if I could see who was making all the noise. It turned out to be two juvenile and one adult hairy woodpecker. The sky was very dull and the light was really not in my favour, but it’s another new bird species for me.

That’s all for this evening. I hope everyone has had a great weekend.

Tag: woodpeckers

2016-04-17: What I’ve seen this week

2015-08-30: What I’ve seen this week