Noisy little guy

Posted by Bookfool (Mississippi, United States) on 9 January 2009 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

I'm wondering what the heck happened to winter. I went outside and found this fellow and (I presume) his bride -- or vice versa -- chattering up a storm. The daffodils are up, but not blooming. Some flowers in one of my planters are in bloom, though, and the impatiens and mums are poking through the ground.

Comments (8)

Rich from Gray, United States

Nice detail in the feathers, bookfool. We too are experiencing spring during winter here... check out my last few posts to see what I mean.

9 Jan 2009 11:18am

@Rich: I looked at your photos. Wow, you're even farther along than we are! Apologies for not stopping to comment; I'm fighting a migraine and it's hard to type.

grouser from Ludlow, United Kingdom

No ostrich here. Lovely shot,
lets up the literary stakes, welcome back Simone de Bookvoir

9 Jan 2009 11:42am

@grouser: Yes, this one was certainly not retiring. I'm told he's a tufted titmouse.
Thank you Grouseraul Sartre.

Judy from Brooksville-Florida,, United States

WONDERFUL capture ..... tripod in use, I suspect at that distance - very good!
I'm with you re: winter; we have azaleas in bloom - this is crazy!

PS: Tomorrow's post is titled: "Bookshelf for Bookfool..." ... do come and take a peek!

9 Jan 2009 4:16pm

@Judy: Thanks, Judy. Nope, no tripod and I was using the 500mm, so it was rough holding it still enough but I was afraid I'd miss him completely if I stopped to grab the tripod.

Azaleas! That's just wrong!!

You're posting your bookshelf for me? How sweet! I'll definitely drop by. Today, I'm miserable and about to head back to bed, so I hope everyone will pardon the lack of visits.

Ana Lúcia from Leiria, Portugal

Lovely capture!

9 Jan 2009 9:08pm

@Ana Lúcia: Thank you, Ana!

MontereyJohn from Salinas, California, United States

500mm???!!! I am SO envious! I'm still trying to save up my pennies for a really good wide let alone a bazooka like that (which, by the way, I lust after also).

Can't believe this is hand held. I guess goosing up the ISO to 640 helped. Still, that's a lot of lens. Have you considered a career in professional arm wrestling? :) Wonderful image.

Don't give up on winter just yet. Hope your lovely Southern plants don't get blasted by a hard frost. But this is January and a hard freeze is very likely, as I am sure you know and are worried about.

9 Jan 2009 9:13pm

@MontereyJohn: LOL It's the lesser kind of 500mm, John -- the kind that uses mirrors -- if that makes you feel better. I can't afford the good kind, yet, since I still have a kid to put through college.

I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse that I have extremely steady hands. I hate tripods and really need to take the time to use one, but I'm so lazy. I can often get a few good frames even with a 500mm. When I was younger, I took a 1/10th second exposure inside the natural history museum in DC and the dinosaurs were perfectly in focus with the little blurred people walking past. I think that's kind of unusual, isn't it? Professional arm wrestling! Ha! No, but I probably would have made a decent surgeon if surgery didn't happen to be so gross.

We don't actually get what you could refer to as a hard frost, down here, although it could still freeze and kill off the little sprouts, true. I'm not worried. The colder it gets, the better off we are because a good freeze knocks down the insect population. Everything comes back, here. We have annuals that have come back 5 years in a row and they're supposed to completely die off, but it doesn't get cold enough to kill off the root systems.