New Year's present.....

I've had to shoot photos with this old GTI lurking in the background for a year or more.....Finally....

...going....


.....going....

.........GONE!

The wrens may be disappointed.....I see them fly under it sometimes and worry they were trying to nest in it. However, I'm not the least bit disappointed to see it gone for good! The other birds have already decided it is a nice new spot for me to throw food for them.....and I can see the birds and squirrels on the maple tree better!

However....bad news on the Jeep. Too expensive to fix...cost more then we paid for it. So, car shopping is in our future for another old Jeep.

SkyWatch Friday....old and new

It's Skywatch Friday time!

2008 ended with a lot of sky drama around here.These first 5 shots were all on the same day.
One minute it was intense.....

....the next nice and blue.

Pink in the sunset....

....changing to puple.

January 1, 2009 started off with gloomy skies and deep clouds.

....but late in the afternoon, the blue was coming through and the clouds were nice and fluffy.

I love looking at the sky through trees....the Silver Maple makes a nice one to peer through.

First moon of the new year!

Welcome 2009!

For more Skywatch from all over the world click on the icon on my sidebar.

Thanks to all of those who work so hard to keep Skywatch going! Louise, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Ivar and Klaus.....you do a wonderful job and we thank you!

Some just don't get into the spirit of the "new year" concept....

Out with the old, in with the new....

Went to the wetlands yesterday for a last walk of the year.

2 killdeer

Great Blue Heron huddling near the trees....it was bitter cold.

Didn't realize until I got home that this was a duck I didn't know. Ring-Necked Duck, maybe?

The Mallards were curled into balls to get warm.

Mr. Mallard stirred at my presence.

Everyone cruised away.

Sparrow high in the tree

One of the "manky" ducks as we were leaving.....the other 3 were there, too, as always. Somethings never change.

Walking out of the old year.......

......the new year is waiting here for me to find it.

Happy New Year's everyone!

Watery Wednesday at Blue Grass....

Mike had half the day off, so we went to Blue Grass looking for water fowl, giving me some "Watery Wednesday" shots! (I find it hard to keep track of what day of the week it is right now over the holidays!) I'll post some water first and the lovely grasses that grow all around these stripper pit lakes.
However, this came first.....we saw this hawk on the way there and even though we turned the car around and came back past him twice, he didn't even move! Not sure what he is looking at here, but it isn't me!

Here he turned his head.

Back to the water :-) I spooked this Great Blue Heron first thing when we stopped to take photos of some ducks we saw on one of the lakes......

.....actually they turned out to be Coots.
Didn't really see any other water fowl at all.

So I practiced taking photos of grasses and tried to capture hawks.

I like the big tall grasses that grow around these lakes.

Mike was playing with the manual focus here.....much more successfully than when I tried.

I like the light glinting off the cattails.

We wondered if this was a beaver lodge, or just a pile of debris.

As we left we saw a cat at a nearby farm sunning itself while watching the starlings in the trees.

I saw a lot of soaring birds in the distance, but these are the best shots of them over the meadows around the lakes.

Just couldn't get close enough to get anything better.

On the way home we took a back route to look for more hawks on poles and found this guy.

As he took off I snapped this quick shot that caught him straight on from the side. I'm just not quick enough on these birds that take off so fast. Mike is usually getting the car stopped and I'm bouncing around and can't get the shot in focus before it is too late. Will keep practicing!
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