I need a new subject...

I know this blog is pretty new, so these photos won't have been seen by many people yet, but these photos, or ones similar to, are all I've been shooting lately and I need a change of subject/scenery/whatever.


As cute as chickadees are, let's face it, they really are just the mice of the bird world and this time of year, they're a dime a dozen or, well, insert your own cliche' here.

This might be the last of the bird pics for a while, unless we manage to get hawks or owls...

The mild weather Sunday meant there were lots of puddles around, and the birds were taking every advantage. Here, a chickadee enjoys a brisk bath in some chilly snow melt.

I love listening to these little guys - you often hear their soft little "peep" "peep" long before you can see them. They are quite small and move so quickly circling tree trunks as they travel up and down them.

To listen to a white breasted nuthatch, click here. The latter half of the clip starting about .19 through to .38 is what we usually hear when we're out with this little guys, especially around .29-.38.

This was a first time for both Darryl and I when we spotted about 8 Red Crossbills (this is a female) eating pine cones in a pine tree. Darryl got an excellent shot of a male.

And of course, cute as ever, the obligatory chickadee-dee-dee-dee-dee.

A cardinal in dogwood on a sunny day! I actually had to tone this photo down - the natural colour looked fake, it was so bright!

Scored a couple of good blue jay shots at Dianna & Ron's in their back yard, where we started the day out listening to a chorus of howling and yipping coyotes!

There's a good possibility the next bird photo you see here could be something more exotic as we are traveling to the Toronto Zoo with our Port Perry club in a couple of weeks on an outing.

- Paula