Happy New Year!

How did I ring in the New Year?  Doing one thing I love best....chasing down some cardinal photos!  My sister and her happy crew came over to play in the foot deep snow and stayed for lunch.  After several exclaims of a cardinal sighting out the window, I ended up eating perched on the counter with my camera in hand waiting for the bright red flash to reappear in the tree outside our kitchen.

After eating a hasty lunch I bundled up and traipsed outside to try and stalk not one, or two, but THREE males cardinals who were in the bird feeders by the woods.  It was tough to get close enough for a frame filling shot, but I got some cool far away shots that really show how brilliant their plumage is in the winter white snow, or the drab brown/gray forest.


I also got some lovely shots of lady cardinal....love, love, LOVE, this girl's super reddish highlights....a lot of females are a little more olive and less blush.  Nice to kick off 2013 with a little photo fun. 

A few extra fun shots at the bottom too, of my friendly furry assistants!

 
Look closely at the above photo.  I liked the shot of lady cardinal, but I couldn't figure why the shot had a weird blur almost blocking her...then I realized that it was a male goldfinch in flight!  He must have flown right into the frame without my realizing it!  So, I thought that it was cool and decided to share it.

Blowing this pop stand!

The shot that made me gear up and go out....and you know that layering with snow gear is a pain for 20 minutes of shooting so you know I really wanted those shots...BAD!

Are you looking at me?

Why did you leave us inside?

By J.R. Miller, 1913

We ought to make something of every year. They should be like new steps on the stairs, lifting our feet a little higher. We ought not to live any two years on the same plane. To be content with any attainment even for two days, is not living at our best. 

What a faithful photo companion to brave the snowy cold!  Poor kitty still doesn't realize that on bird shoots she scares my subjects!  Luckily she only followed as far as the dog's nerd path went and then turned back.

BuffleHeads!

As any regular reader on this blog knows by now...I love photographing birds!!  The Lord made these beautiful delicate looking creatures so hardy and so lovely it is hard not to think that all Christians must be birdwatchers!

This past spring we had some passing visitors on our pond.  I spent over half an hour crouched on our dock trying to get good shots of these small seabirds that stopped by on their way back to Alaska and Canada.  They are Buffleheads!  For some reason I never got around to posting these shots, so I decided to share them now as a nod to all our migrating feathered friends....and maybe those of us who wish we could fly south for a warmer winter too!

Buffleheads have a high metabolism so they are very active and great for birdwatching!

This guy was floating to the surface after a dive.  It is the most interesting thing to watch!  They dive down deep and then you have to wait a while for them to resurface...and when they do they raise so slow and steady it is almost like they are on an little elevator.  It is really cool and the one thing I can't convey in still photography!  But I did my best in the shots  below to catch them while diving to eat. 

Dive! Dive!

Usually one in the group stays on the surface to stand guard

Armistice

Today is the anniversary of Armistice Day.  At the 11^th hour on the 11^th day on the 11 month in 1918 a cease fire on the western front was declared during World War I.  And all over the world people rejoiced because armistice, a truce, an agreement to peace, was reached.   

Veteran’s Day was established to  remember the cost that this peace came at….so in honor of all those who served, fought, and even died I decided to visit a few of the local memorials today.

Viewpoint of the brave

Dough Boy Memorial

“Dirge of Two Veterans”

By Walt Whitman

The last sunbeam

Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,

On the pavement here—and there beyond, it is looking,

   Down a new-made double grave.

   Lo! the moon ascending!

Up from the east, the silvery round moon;

Beautiful over the house tops, ghastly phantom moon;

   Immense and silent moon.

  

 

   I see a sad procession,

And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles;

All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,

   As with voices and with tears.

   I hear the great drums pounding,

And the small drums steady whirring;

And every blow of the great convulsive drums,

   Strikes me through and through.

   For the son is brought with the father;

In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell;

Two veterans, son and father, dropt together,

   And the double grave awaits them.

 Now nearer blow the bugles,

And the drums strike more convulsive;

And the day-light o’er the pavement quite has faded,

   And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

 

   In the eastern sky up-buoying,

The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d;

(’Tis some mother’s large, transparent face,

   In heaven brighter growing.)

  O strong dead-march, you please me!

O moon immense, with your silvery face you soothe me!

O my soldiers twain! O my veterans, passing to burial!

   What I have I also give you.

   The moon gives you light,

And the bugles and the drums give you music;

And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,

   My heart gives you love.

A soldier's grave