Morning Coffee ritual

A few pine siskins trilled the dawn up, no sun though, its decided to take a day of rest behind the snow covers.

I enjoy sitting listening to the birds chorus the day into being while I sip my coffee giving thanks for all that graces my life.

I thank those who read my blog and leave notes for me, its such a good feel to share and be shared with, may all have an enjoyable week this week.

Hungry furry one chases away the birds, though they don't go far. He sure loves the seeds they drop; between him and a little mouse the fallen seeds are readily eaten. I've not seen the mouse but his tracks in the snow lead me to believe he lives underneath the planter. Last week his entrance was blocked with snow but by yesterday he had dug a tunnel that comes up much closer to the feeder. I was hoping to get a shot of the tracks leading to the hole but too much snow filled them up this morning before I had enough light to work with, maybe tomorrow.

Squabbling finches flap and flutter continually chasing each other away from the feeder as snow mists about them. Usually its the females that scrap the most though I have noticed the males are starting to get feistier now, could it be hormones starting to kick in? I must say the males red flash of tail and head are a cheerful note on drab cold snowy days. Theses shots are not very clear as I was shooting through a dirty window, ugh.

Female finch, notice the slight tint of rusty coloring on her back, it will brighten up and become redder more towards spring.

The males seem to be tinted red all year hear but do get brighter this time of year well into spring. There was a brilliant red one at the feeder this morning, but at 8 am there was not enough light to capture him.

Last year there was one male with orange rather than red coloring, I nicknamed him "Dale" after a childhood friend who had beautiful orange hair.

Road-tripping-shutter-clicking day

Its 30+ degrees c outside and 29 degrees c in, tad warm an sweaty this weather. Yesterday was a road-tripping-shutter-clicking day that was as equally hot, so hot that heat waves blocked taking clear pictures in the afternoon. So we had jam buns in the shade of trees sheltering a graveyard. By evening we were lucky to find a small gravel roadside pond near Camrose with some tree shade in which to escape from the heat. Actually a sweet passerby stopped to tell us where to find beavers so we headed there to see them, took a few photos of the beavers, listened to the kits meowing in the den which was right beside the road, saw the butt end of a fox or coyote moving through the brush which caused a big hula-buloo with the birds who took to squawking. In all it was a nice enjoyable place to stop with little traffic. We took numerous shots as Gerald is learning his cute lil mini-cam and I attempted to learn to use manual focus on my SLR. I captured a lot of noise, but joy-o-joy I also captured nice clear detailed small birds which I cannot yet post as my computer cannot handle the load, so I downloaded them on a friends machine till I can put them on disc. so keep checking back to see when I will be posting, but as a visual person I cannot write without posting something so here is an inquisitive squirrel that was watching me photograph birds one day last month. Oh ya and to top off yesterdayday I saw a "Moose moose moose," well, thats what I said as I got so excited, but he was headed for the trees and with traffic coming both directions there was nowhere to stop to pull off a shot,  I was just happy to be out adventuring and seeing new sights and new birds. Ah life is grand when we can stop an smell the flowers, and view the birds. Hugs to all.