Winter Is Here

Yes, winter is finally here. Eight inches of white stuff fell at our place this past Friday and Saturday. Don't believe me? Here is some evidence for you:

Morning Fog and Sunrise

A couple days ago, I went to Lake Elmo (a local nature park) to try and take some bird photos. It didn't go that well. The mosquitoes were horrendous and the birds weren't emerging from their hiding places as I had hoped they would. Despite those unpropitious conditions, there was one pro about the trip: the effulgent fog.

Isn't that almost Lothlorien like?

And then this past Saturday morning there was an illustrious sunrise (don't even ask me why I was up early enough to see a sunrise on a Saturday morning. :P).

The view from my bedroom window.

And then the view from, yes, the roof. :P

I don't think I had ever seen a sunrise like that before in my life... A sunset, sure. But a sunRISE?

Hike!

So, it's been forever since my last post, hasn't it? I just haven't been in the blogging mood, I guess. So, I don't have a lot of time for anything lengthy, but I thought I'd just share, for now, some photos that I took on a short hike the other day. =)

I like the contrast this Gold Finch has against the purple thistles.

Just a thistle.Nothing much here. Just a field of wild grass. =)A Monarch Butterfly sunning itself.Another shot.And then this guy appeared at the end of the hike. I only managed to get one quick picture of him (below) and then he darted away. It's a gorgeous Broad-winged Hawk.

Anyways, that's all for now! =)

Minnesota Zoo: Career Days

About a month ago I went to the Minnesota Zoo for their Career Days program. It was a good program as it gave me a lot of information and tidbits on how to get into a career of animal care, which is something that I'm definitely interested in. Afterwards, I only had enough time, unfortunately, to walk on their Tropics Trail and take these pictures because of a Princess Bride party at the Bormans later that evening. So these are the only good pics that I got. :)

I'm not exactly sure what kind of bird this is, but I like the picture.

And then there was this (wild) House Sparrow that kept following me around. I managed to snap a few revealing photos of his mischief. :P

The end. :)

Lilac Bushes

School is officially over as of Tuesday June 10th, and I couldn't be any happier. I don't think it has really sunk in yet that I am FREE from the confines of the school-world for the summer. This is only my second whole day without any school. Yesterday was a complete slum day. Even so, I'm going to try and make the most out of this summer, starting with an update to this blog that has been in complete neglect for over a month because of the afore mentioned.

First off, I'll just share some photos that I've taken of our lilac bushes in our backyard.

And finally, a shot farther away.

And, of course, Bethany with the lilacs. :P

Birding

I love birds. They're just so amazing to me. I think they're the most unique animal on this earth... but that might just be my opinion. :) I mean, if you think about all the different animal groups. There's mammals, reptiles, amphibians, aquatic life... and then there's birds! They have their own separate group! I don't know about you, but that group seems to stand out from all the other groups to me. :) but anywho... end rant!
I went out with my new camera yesterday morning to test it out and see if I could get any decent shots of my feathered friends. This was my first time ever going out with the mindset of taking pictures of specifically birds. I was quickly surprised at how elusive these guys were. I could hear them all around me making a considerable raucous, but I couldn't seem to catch a glimpse of who was making the noise. I mean, I knew bird photography wasn't a walk-in-the-park by any means. It takes a lot of patience and perseverance, but I still wasn't expecting it to be that "bad".

That's when about 30 minutes into my adventure, a cardinal flew into view and perched on a branch about 30 yards away and started to sing its heart out. It definitely gave me some renewed hope! Coincidentally, about 60 seconds later, a blue jay popped into view only about 10 yards away. It seemed as if it was almost posing for me! It was awesome. :) Although I did see some other birds briefly, the rest of my time was mainly uneventful.
Overall, I was satisfied with the outing and I definitely plan to do it again sometime! The following pics are the two best shots that I managed to get.
(FYI - If you click on the pictures, they'll get a lot bigger!)

The Cardinal.

The Blue Jay.

New Camera!

Yesterday was a good day. A very good day. I went out with my dad to Sam's Club to look at some cameras, with a potential to buy one if I saw just the right one. Obviously, the $800 top-notch cameras would've been really sweet to get, and I really enjoyed messing around with the displays they had, but those were definitely out of my price range. Truthfully, I don't think I would be able to utilize all the bells and whistles on those high-tech machines in order to maximize its hefty price tag, negating its usefulness really. So those were out of the question. As I tore myself away from them, I found a 10MP Nikon with 15x optical zoom for a good price. It seemed like the perfect one, and I wanted to buy it, but they were all out. The person at the info desk said that there were 7 left at the Sam's Club in White Bear Lake, though, so me and my dad drove up to White Bear to get it. When we got there, I decided to look and see if they had any different cameras, just in case... even though I was almost positive I wanted the Nikon. That's when I clapped eyes on the Olympus! I picked it up and saw that it was 12MP and had 26x optical zoom for the exact same price! (well, technically it was 4 cents more expensive, but... =P) What a DEAL!! I totally bought it instead. I'm soo glad that we decided to drive all the way up to White Bear, because it ended up turning out to be waaaaaay better than I had thought! God is so good. :)

This is what it looks like!