Berry Carnage

Not a very good image, I'm afraid, but I only had my camera phone handy.  My older daughter and I were just heading out the door to walk to the library when the sky opened and hail began to fall!

We have a Mountain Ash tree in front of our unit, and the hail stripped quite a few of the ripening berries.  We did end up walking to the library after the hail stopped (though it was still pouring) and, while the hail was quickly swept away by the downpoar, the sidewalks were littered with leaves and twigs.  Sadly, we also passed a dead pigeon on the the street, killed by the hail.

Here's a video I took with my phone as well. 



Another photo of the hail here, plus some of the flooding we saw while we were out and about.

The Birds are Back

After a long hiatus, the waxwings came back with a vengeance!  The Mountain Ash outside my daughter's 3rd floor window has been decimated of berries.

The first few shots I took were with the 18-55mm lens.  Unfortunately, I forgot to check the ISO, which was still at 1600 from the last time I used the camera, so they turned our rather grainy.




This photo shows just a few of the birds as they constantly fluttered around, in and out of the tree.



In a nearby willow, more were waiting their turn.  Every now and then, the entire flock would suddenly leave, then zoom back in again.  At one point, while my daughter was watching through her window, one of the birds slammed right into the glass!  It seemed to be okay, though.




After switching to the 75-300mm lens and fixing the ISO (I used different settings as I took the photos) I got a lot more photos.  A few of them have been uploaded to their own set in my flickr page.  There you can see photos from the last time this happened, a couple of years ago.

In just a few hours, the tree has been pretty much stripped of all its berries.  The first two photos above show the tree at about the half-way mark, so you can imagine just how full it had been!

Frosty spikes

DSC_8428crop
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: Last night, a deep fog rolled into our city. This morning, we woke to a sparkling wonderland of frost. What struck me, however, was the wild spikes the frost formed into.

This photo is taken directly in front of our townhouse steps. It's getting to be that time of year when the birds are discoving the frozen berries. The chickadees have been the first to show up. It shouldn't be much longer before the waxwings return to finish off the rest of last year's berries.

Waxwings

Anna: For the past few days, we've been hearing an almost constant squeaking/peeping noise outside our front windows. It turns out that a whole flock of waxwings have made themselves at home in the Mountain Ash and maple trees in front of our unit. I got a bunch of photos in their own set here. Or you can click on the photos below.



The first few photos were taken with a 90mm macro lens. This couple were being quite affectionate. They just sit next to each other for a while, then quickly rub their beaks together a few times, like some kind of birdie kiss, then sit quietly a bit longer before rubbing beaks again. Very cute.



Here, I've switched to the 70-300mm lens. Most of these turned out with a "soft focus" appearance. That's pretty much all my fault. While they were constantly moving, I had the lens at max zoom, and my hands were shaking more than usual today. I was afraid none of them would turn out, but I got a few good ones.



I moved from bedroom to bedroom to get the different shots. The birds would move from the Mountain Ash, grabbing last year's berries, to the maple, where they'd sit and preen for a while, back and forth.

Our cats can reach the window by the maple, and Harley was VERY interested in all those birds!



This shot has 8 1/2 waxwings in it. Can you see them all? I lightened the photo to make them easier to see. There were more outside the shot, too. Here's the full size photo, too.

132:365 And then I ate it...

Anna: I went for a walk this evening and ended up talking well over 100 photos. I've uploaded the ones I liked the most to my flickr account.

This is a Saskatoon berry. When I was a kid, I used to walk along the roads and in the bush in our farm, indulging in these delicious berries. So I was really happy so see lots of Saskatoon bushes along the top of the river valley. I got a picture of this one ripe berry.

Then I ate it.

Because that's what you do with Saskatoons.

Yum.






I got so many photos of these butterflies. They loved the vetch growing along the pathways. I don't know what kind of butterfly they are, but I was just amazed at how long their proboscis were!