Holiday Greetings... Cardinal Collage and Poinsettia Images!

This will most likely be my last post for 2011 since I'm expecting family tomorrow and will be visiting over the next few days with them. On Christmas Eve, I will be cooking dinner for them, myself, friends and cousins who live locally. For your viewing pleasure during the holiday season, here are a couple of Poinsettia images and a collage of cardinals... my favorites in winter! Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season and a healthy, happy new year.(wrote this on Dec 22nd, had difficulty posting but here it is finally... I'm sharing this on Macro Monday (Jan 2, 2012) over at Lisa's Chaos... come on over and join the fun!)

Close-up of a miniature Poinsettia taken with iPhone camera, sharpened and cropped with PerfectPhoto, run through AutoPainter with Aquarell effect. Photo and paint layers blended in Iris with 35% opacity for the paint layer.

Image taken with Nikon D7000 and Nikon 105mm macro lens at ISO 250, f/3.5, 1/60 sec. Sharpened using Topaz In Focus plug-in in Photoshop... AMAZING! Text added in Photoshop.

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal on snowy winter days. (Some of you have seen these before but I just love Cardinals in winter so here they are again, freshly put together as a collage in Picnik.)

Squirrel in snow... First snow of 2011!

Although we didn't get that much snow a week or so ago, this squirrel is covered in it! She (I think this one is female) had been searching around in the snow-covered deck to see if she could find some seed dropped by the birds... stopping to take a look at me... she posed so prettily!

If you've never seen a squirrel with this coloring before, I'm not surprised. She looks like a mix of black squirrel (common in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US) and American Red squirrel. According to Wikipedia, black squirrels are a melanistic variety of the eastern gray squirrel, individual black squirrels can exist wherever gray squirrels live. Gray mating pairs may produce black offspring, and in areas with high concentrations of black squirrels, mixed litters are common. In our area, black squirrels are VERY common as are Eastern gray squirrels and American Red squirrels. Intermingling is not surprising!

If you want to watch a slide show of squirrels trying to crack the code to my "Squirrel-proof" feeders, use the link in the News Items box at top right.

A snowy winter collage... January 2011

Another collage experiment! These images are, clockwise from top left, a small portion of Leucothoe during our recent, light snowfall; masterful Mr. Cardinal strutting on our deck, an extreme close-up of Rosemary with snow and another extreme close-up of Nandina berries with snow.

The extreme close-ups were taken with a 105mm macro lens and the 36mm extension tube (from a set of 3 Kenko extension tubes) on my Nikon D90.

The snowfall the other day didn't amount to much but still lent itself to experiments in photography. Next time it snows, I hope to make it out before the snow stops falling and starts melting... would LOVE to capture some individual snowflakes one of these days.

Sparrow at the feeder... February 10, 2010... snowing and blowing...

The sun is shining at the moment... but they are telling us more snow is on the way... 1-2 inches at most is what they are telling us. I sure do hope they are right because I cannot take another blizzard! The birds are sure happy to be fed during all this mess but I'm out of patience with the mess AND almost out of bird seed!!!

A blizzard of snow AND robins in our holly tree...

Robins, desperate for food during out back-to-back blizzards of earlier in the month, came by the hundreds to dine on berries in my huge holly tree. I'm not good at estimating heights but can tell you that our holly tree is as tall as our two-story house plus A-frame attic (which adds at least 8 feet to the height of the house). There are three main trunks to the tree which we've trimmed to allow walking underneath and kept it mostly rounded above that point. Unfortunately for the tree, the heavy wet snow of the Feb 5-6, 2010 storm broke one minor branch and one of the major trunks about 2/3 of the way toward the top of the tree.

Are you taking my picture again? Female Cardinal at my feeder... February, 2010

We have had SO MUCH snow this winter that we've reached a record since snowfall has been recorded in our area... 55.6" (141.224 cm) so far this winter of 2009/2010 in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

We had SUN today and everyone is digging out... but patience is wearing thin with the mess left behind by two blizzard category storms that dumped huge amounts of snow on us in less than one week's time.

The good news for me in all this MESS is that the gallery where my photography show is happening was able, in spite of the storm, to meet with me today to organize hanging the show which is now advertised on the gallery web site.

Red berries... sunlit in snow and ice... February 7, 2010

We saw the sun this week... in between what might be the worst February in history for snow storms in our area. This is a very common landscape plant and I can NEVER remember the name of it!

We are currently experiencing our third snowstorm of February and the second to be classified as a blizzard! Snow has been coming down for almost 24 hours now and MAY stop when predicted... in another 3 hours or so. It's been blowing quite hard along with the snowfall so it's very hard to tell how much we've had... best guess is about another 8" on top of the nearly 30 inches from the Feb 5-6 snowstorm.

Two robins in Dogwood tree... Blizzard of Feb 5-6, 2009

As mentioned in an earlier post, the robins came by the hundreds to visit my holly tree for the berries... these two were taking a break in the dogwood next to my holly when I caught them on camera. Their attitude seems to be saying... what's with all this snow anyway?

The forecast for today is for MORE SNOW (our fifth winter storm) and it may drop as much as 10-20 inches overnight into Wednesday. I love snow but even I am tiring of it now... shoveling over 2 feet of snow from the previous storm has about worn me out!

BUMP... the car... the road... the snow? February, 5-6, 2010 BLIZZARD!!!

Something a bit different from my usual posts for you today. Anyone following the weather news (anywhere in the world, according to reports received from various widely scattered friends over the past weekend), knows we've had a major snowstorm in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. I live in the suburb of Bethesda, not far from the DC line and this is what our street looked like on Saturday in the late afternoon. I measured over 2 feet of snow in our yard and am STILL (Monday morning) not shoveled out of our driveway.

Robin in Holly tree... February snow storm!

Our recent storm of Feb 5-6, 2010 dropped over two feet of snow in my yard. (others in the greater DC metropolitan area reported over 2-1/2 feet although the "official" record at the airport (south and west of me) was "only" 17.8 inches) One of the major trunks of my holly (there are three trunks) broke off about 2/3 of the way up and a lower branch broke off from one of the other trunks as well. Since robins are ground feeders and do not eat seeds, any time it snows they head for my holly tree to harvest the berries. I rather like how this came out with a robin in the bokeh behind the front robin in the field of view.

Mama Cardinal in our February blizzard! ENOUGH!!!

It is hard to believe... but after nearly 30 inches of snowfall over the past 36 hours or so, we are supposed to get MORE SNOW on Tuesday. I think I'm about done taking snow photos and then this opportunity arose... so expect more until I bore you to tears with snowy images!

How many sparrows can fit on the feeder? January 30, 2010 snowstorm acion...

I've seen more birds on this feeder at one time... but they usually spread themselves out a bit more as there are several perches. It amused me to see so many crowded around in such a small space at the feeder... we've had three snowfalls already this winter giving me ample opportunity for snowy scenes... another storm (a big one) is reportedly on the way!

Masterful Mister Cardinal... red beauty in the snow... January 30, 2010

One really wonderful thing about the snow we had this past Saturday... great opportunities for 'bird in snow' photos. My deck rail really is that crooked... warped due to the weight of bird feeders pulling it out of alignment. Hope you enjoy this snowy scene... shot through our kitchen window in the midst of the heaviest part of the storm that dropped 8" on us Saturday! (forecast: 1-2"... oh well)

Three on a feeder... one on approach! Snowy day feeder visitors... January 30, 2010

Surprise... the 1-2" of snow forecast for our area turned into about 8" of accumulation... and provided more snowy opportunities for capturing the feathered visitors to my garden and feeders. You may have to look carefully to see the tail of one almost completely hidden bird (the third ON the feeder) sticking out behind the feeder... I just love that I managed to capture the House Finch on approach here. Enjoy!

Male cardinal in the rose brambles from December 19, 2009

Anyone living in the Greater Washington , DC metropolitan area will recall our huge storm of Dec 18/19, 2009. It's pouring down rain today which MAY melt the remaining piles of snow left behind when our streets and parking lots were plowed. In the meantime, thought I'd share another snowy image from that storm... taken through my kitchen window because the snow was piled so high on our deck that I couldn't get out the back door!

Ice decorates the holly... December 31, 2009...

Woke up during the night and heard 'plink plink plink' on the skylight over our bed... freezing rain turned into snow at some point and the yard had a dusting of light snow when I awoke. Managed to wake up early enough to grab a few shots of ice decorating the holly tree before it melted completely and rather like how this one came out.

Robin in Holly tree... December snowstorm...

Another image from the "great" snowstorm of December, 2009... at one time... I counted 12 (or more) robins going after the berries on my holly. Since we had the tree trimmed last year, this year the crop of berries was HUGE and there are still many left for the birds to continue their dining.

View to the southeast out my kitchen window... SNOW!

This image is from the "BIG SNOW" of December 18/19 and was taken through my kitchen window during the height of the storm. I like this image for several reasons... one of which is the TV antennae attached to the neighbor's chimney... thought everyone had cable these days but I'm in an older neighborhood and with a high enough antennae, one can still get the main channels for viewing.

Female Cardinal in Dogwood... December 2009 SNOW!

Another one from our record breaking snowstorm... birds visiting my garden included cardinals, house sparrows, house finches, starlings, Carolina wrens (saw three at the same time), blue jays, robins, juncos, mourning doves, chickadees, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers... think that is all. Some came for the holly berries and dogwood berries (although most dogwood berries were gone) and some came to the feeders and cleaned me out!

Happy Holidays Everyone... Holly in sunlight and snow!

By the time I dug my way out to the holly tree in my back yard, snow had already been flying off it... I took quite a few photos but like the effect the sunlight had on this one... the lights on the right give this a holiday feel to my thinking!