Ahhhhhh...Leftovers!

 

    After the eating binge so recently concluded (and the decimation of Meleagris gallopavo  achieved nationwide) I am ready again to sit still and pick through the bones of my recent photo sessions. 

    A Brown creeper searching for insects is a fairly rare sight climbing up and around the trunk of the maple tree just outside my living room picture window. You will often catch me laying in wait with my camera cradled on the sill, the pane slid barely open. It is no coincidence a couch is parked right underneath. There is a wonderful confluence of terrains with the river, forest, and farmlands all close by, there's no telling what may perch for a moment in this particular tree. 

    I had been chasing the elusive Northern flicker popping back and forth between the trees until it showed up foraging for insects in the boulder pile at the base of the aforementioned maple. I happened to be at my post by the window and suddenly my heart was thumping.
    My super thin depth of focus at 5.6f, was part of a grand compromise with an ISO of 400 to achieve a shaky shutter speed of only 1/320. Finding focus on the energetic bird wasn't a sure thing, fortunately I had a few keepers. 

    Thank heaven for good pictures because describing the Flicker, appreciating its confusion of dots and dashes, would take a thousand telegraphs a thousand years.     

A Red-breasted nuthatch is a new neighbor, my first sighting ever just this Autumn. I'm pretty sure he's flying solo.

A male Downy woodpecker in his quest for nourishment.

    I have intentionally left this picture small in hopes you might click to enlarge it. It has a micro-focus on the Wax-wings right claw, nothing else on bird or background is clear. Somehow my eye travels right to that very spot and freezes. Up to size and spread across my 15" monitor I think the effect is kind of riveting.

   



    The pale bandits have cleaned the cherry tree of fruit and will not be back until there is a fresh harvest. That won't be for a good long time but even so, there will be others, the great diversity nature favors, and I shall be waiting for them by the window.