BW American Crow in the Street (Dry Brush Filter)

It was actually tricky to get the crow in a picture. Every time I would come by with my camera, it would fly away. Fortunately for me, it kept returning to the same spot, and one of those times, I happened to catch it. Thanks for stopping by!

Eastern Phoebe (Round 2) (Dry Brush Filter)

Here's another view of the Eastern Phoebe that was featured in yesterday's post. Thanks for stopping by!

Eastern Phoebe (Dry Brush Filter)

To the best of my determination, this was an Eastern Phoebe that I saw the other day. It was a little tricky figuring out what this bird was. One big help (sometimes) is, in Google Chrome, to right-click on an image and "search by similar". (I saw a lot of great bird images this way!) I happened to find something on this list that got me to looking at the phoebe, and from there, I went to a bird identification site and narrowed it down to Minnesota and found... ta, da! The Eastern Phoebe. Thanks for stopping by!

Pair of White Crowned Sparrows (Dry Brush Filter)

This picture made it onto my list of recent favorites: A pair of White Crowned Sparrows sitting in the grass. While I've seen lots of different kinds of sparrows, I don't think that I've seen this particular kind before. (Or, if I have seen them, I haven't paid quite as much attention to them as when I've taken their picture.) Thanks for stopping by!

Crab Apple Buds and Blossoms (Dry Brush Filter)

The wind had my tree in motion on the day that I took this picture. This time in May is my favorite time of the year, when the crab apple tree in my yard starts to come to life with color. I'm afraid that we're not going to get any crab apples though this year, because (as of 5/13,) I have not heard the humming of the bees in my tree, pollinating the flowers. Perhaps next year. Thanks for stopping by!

Robin Preening (Dry Brush Filter)

Occasionally, I will happen to see a bird do something interesting, something a little bit out of the ordinary. As I happened to see this robin preening on a branch (while I had my camera ready to take pictures,) I realized that this was one of those moments. Thanks for stopping by!

Robin on a Branch

To me, this image of a robin on a branch is begging for a meme. I'm not sure what, but... there's certainly room for one.

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Robin Hiding in a Tree (Dry Brush Filter)

I processed the same robin photo twice, once with the Photoshop's Dry Brush filter and once without. Thanks for stopping by!

European Starling

I was reading up on the history of the European Starling in the United States here. (To find this page, I googled "grackle yellow beak", no quotation marks.) Apparently, the bird was brought over to the United States in the late 1800's by someone who wanted to show off the birds in William Shakespeare's plays. (The same information appears on Wikipedia, so it must be true....) To me, these birds looked like grackles, with the exception of the yellow beak. Upon googling these terms, I learned about a new bird (new to me) in my area. Thanks for stopping by!

Hermit Thrush on a Birch Branch (Dry Brush Filter)

This Hermit Thrush was hanging out on a birch branch, with some leaves hanging down nearby. Thanks for stopping by!

Robin in the Grass (Dry Brush Filter) poses like a penguin

After so many different pictures of 'robins in the grass', I'm sort of running out of things to say about the robins in the grass. I did have another picture of this same robin, one in which its pose reminded me something of a penguin. (That's different.) Thanks for stopping by!

Cardinal (Dry Brush Filter)

While out for a walk, I happened to catch a (relatively) close opportunity to take a picture of a cardinal in the bushes near my house. I like the way that the cardinal's red stands out against the greens and the browns in this image. Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Jay with a Colorful Background (Dry Brush Filter)

Before I sent this image through Photomatix for HDR processing, this was a rather dull image of a blue jay in the tree branches. Photomatix, however, really brought out the colors in the background and made this a colorful image. I really like the purples, reds, and blues that come together here, so well, that I set this image as my desktop background. Thanks for stopping by!

Crab Apple Buds (Dry Brush Filter)

Here is another picture of the crab apple buds in my tree before they opened up into flowers. Thanks for stopping by!

It's Time for the Crab Apple Blossoms (Dry Brush Filter)

This picture dates back to May 3, but I've been trying to get myself ahead in my picture publication process so that I don't always need to stay up the night before trying to figure out what photo I want to publish tomorrow. I always love this time of year, when the tree in my yard flowers. At the most, I usually don't get longer than a week, but I really enjoy the color that it brings to my yard (and actually, there seem to be a lot of these colorful crab apple trees all over town.) The picture here has caught the buds before they opened into flowers. Thanks for stopping by!

Robin Standing at Attention (Dry Brush Filter)

I liked something about the pose of this robin. It was a somewhat unusual pose, although, it is not uncommon to see robins standing like this. As suggested in the title, I thought that it looked like the robin was standing at attention. (It was probably paying attention to its surroundings and getting ready to run...). Thanks for stopping by!

White-Breasted Nuthatch Lying Down with Spread Wings (II) (Dry Brush Filter)

This is now the second time that I have had my camera ready to record this phenomenon (http://goo.gl/sX6a8k), in which the white-breasted nuthatch spreads out its wings on my deck. I'm not sure what exactly it's doing, whether it is lying down, sunning itself, or whether there is something else behind this behavior. This doesn't happen often, but it sure is interesting when it does. Thanks for stopping by!

The "I Know I'm Not Supposed to be on Your Deck But I Wonder if You'll Notice" Pose

This is pretty much the pose of the squirrel as it has wandered up onto my deck, wondering whether or not it is actually going to be able to get away with eating the seeds on my deck. You'll notice, it's still on the edge of the deck, and its tail is nowhere in sight. (That's because he's poised to make a quick get away, if necessary.) Anyone who has followed my blog knows that I'm not particularly a big fan of the squirrels...

Little Tree Growing in the Crack of My Deck (Dry Brush Filter)

I have no idea what kind of little tree this is that is growing in the crack in my deck, but I like the shape of it. It reminds me of one of those little bonsai trees. I'm mulling over whether I'd like to pitch one of my already dead plants and re-use the plastic pot to try to replant it. We'll see. Thanks for stopping by!

Orange-Tinted Female House Finch (Dry Brush Filter)

I discovered that a great way to give your birds an orange tint! Sit with your camera on a sunny day, waiting to take bird pictures. Attract the bird to your very orange, reflective bird feeder. Voila! Birds have an orange tint! Thanks for stopping by!

Chickadee in Profile with Seed (Dry Brush Filter)

The chickadees have been out lately, helping themselves to the seeds on my deck. One of the things that I like about the chickadee is the line pattern that you can see in its wings.

Thanks for stopping by!

BW House Finches on a Feeder

So, what do you do when the orange plastic bird feeder is so bright that the color reflects onto the bodies of the birds in your picture? Why, you change the image over into black and white. That fixes the problem.

House Finch in the Branches

These two house finch photos were shot in near succession. One was processed for HDR in Photomatix, and the other was run through the sliders in Photoshop. It's a pretty little bird; I wish that I could have done a little bit more with these photos.

The Chickadee Doesn't See Its Shadow (Dry Brush Filter)

The chickadee doesn't see its shadow, because... it's looking the other way. Actually, I think it was more interested in looking for seeds on my deck, but it looks like the squirrels had been through first. Thanks for stopping by!

Another Visit from a Wandering Neighborhood Cat

I think that the neighborhood cats are hoping to find some of the birds that take to the seeds on my deck. I have watched them stalk a few of the squirrels in my backyard, but, thankfully, I haven't found any piles of feathers yet.

Robin Perched on Metal (Dry Brush Filter)

While out on a walk, I saw this robin perched on a metal bar. It posed long enough for me to take a few pictures before it flew away. Thanks for stopping by!

Surreal Chickadee in the Rain (Dry Bry Filter)

The chickadees decided to come out in the rain the other day (while it was raining) to pick up the seeds off my deck. While it was raining, they had a lot less competition from the squirrels, which seemed to prefer dryer weather for venturing out to my deck for food. I took this picture through a rain-spattered window, because I thought that it would give the image a watery-surreal effect. I like how it turned out. Thanks for stopping by!

Here's Lookin' at You, Robin (Dry Brush Filter)

No, really, that's what today's picture is: Looking at a robin... that's looking back at you. Thanks for stopping by!

Mystery Bird: Eastern Phoebe

This little bird is a mystery to me. I saw it flying strange patterns in my backyard. (I say 'strange', because it wasn't flying like the birds that we usually see in our backyard.) I'm not quite sure what it is.

5/16/15 Update: Mystery solved - This bird is an Eastern Phoebe.

Chipping Sparrow in an Evergreen (Dry Brush Filter)

The little puffball of this chipping sparrow did not stay long on the branches of this evergreen tree. I was glad to catch it in the pose in the image that you see here. Thanks for stopping by!

Cat Asleep in front of Menacingly Dark Woods (Dry Brush Filter)

I was trying to take pictures of the cat, which was too far away for my lens to get a really good picture of it. This was obvious to me as I was looking at the images on my computer. What caught my interest, however, was the dark tree behind the sleeping cat, which I thought was kind of cool. It brings an ominous feeling to this picture with the cat sleeping in the foreground. Thanks for stopping by!

Here is another view when the cat lifted its head: