The Osprey are Arriving!

Yesterday, an osprey showed up on our nest around dusk.  Today, I saw a bird again.  It isn't there now, but they typically wander around a bit before fixing up their chosen nest.  The neighbor's nest was just occupied a few days ago.  Usually, the bigger female arrives first.  Here is a picture of our visiting bird in today's gray weather.

Portraits with Sarita

I had a little portrait session with Sarita last week and quickly learned that a flash makes her close her eyes.  She's my natural  light girl!  She still looks like a puppy, until her ears get long like a proper toy poodle.  Isn't she cute with her little tongue out.

     Sarita

     Gettin ready for Easter!

Snow storm photos

This tiny little Tufted Titmouse was pecking at something during the recent storm.

And a bedraggled seagull hung out at the osprey nest.

Camera Club Winners

Here are my latest winning photos in the Advanced Digital St. Mary's County Camera Club Competition for February.  

     Bald Eagle Pair 2 1st place taken12/15

    Skyline Trail 3rd place taken 10/21/15

Pretty in Pink

Our new 10 year old rescue toy poodle, Sarita, looks really cute in pink.  She's apricot colored and we are training her.  We had to house train her first and she is doing fairly well.  She can be fairly good at a loose leash and doesn't care for snow.  It is a little tricky to get her to behave in the snow.  After all, the snow is pretty high if you are only 10 inches tall!  I taught her to sit.  Easy!  Then I tried to teach down. Not easy.  We are still working on it.  I know this is more of a photo blog, but please share any ideas for teaching her to lie down. I use a treat, say down, and let her lick the treat as I drag it toward the floor.

Update:  I think she finally understands Down!  😀😄😃  That's cause I just posted this.  Next we learn Come.  

The Food Fight, Bird Style

When we expected snow, Jim filled up our bird feeder, but didn't set the weight limit to a squirrel's weight.  It's a beat up old bird feeder, but it still works.  By January 30th, the snow had melted, but the birds were still enjoying the seeds.  I think the big bird with a brown head and dark body is a cowbird and the small bird with the yellow beak and black stripe across the eye is a male house sparrow.  Best guess.  Any experts out there?  Watch what happened!  

Winning photos from January competition

I won two honors in this month's competition:

Third prize for my eagle pair photo in the advanced competition.

And honorable mention for the Theme competition called Sleep, for a photo of Santa sleeping.  Photographing animals and people sleeping is not a favorite subject for me because I usually like to see the eyes open, like the old saying, "the eyes are the windows to the soul."  I usually toss the photos with closed eyes.  

Sorry Santa, but I preferred this owl photo I entered.  It didn't win anything.  Owls have 3 eyelids, so it is not surprising to catch them with their eyes closed.