Buck Creek Birds

Some migrating birds from Buck Creek State Park yesterday. 
The warblers were moving through at a good pace...sitting at a picnic table between two flowering crabs was productive....and relaxing. 

Rough-Winged Swallows

I spent an enjoyable morning watching some Rough-Winged Swallows monitoring their nests. 
The highlight was when a Carolina Wren tried to invade their territory. They quickly chased it away!

Planets and Moon Align....

On April 14 and 15, the alignment of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter were visible in the pre-dawn southeastern sky.
Both mornings, I took a chance on having clear skies and headed out back to try to get some images.
For these images, I used the "Starry Sky" autofocus mode on the Olympus EM1M3 with the Zuiko 14-150mm lens. The Starry Sky mode allows sharp focus of stars for hand-held exposures; almost impossible to achieve with standard focusing. Both images were 3 second exposures; with a double exposure of the moon for corrected brightness.

Using the website Time and Date (Night Sky Map), I was able to see when the best alignment woould occur. I planned my shots based on this.

Image editing included levels and curves in Photoshop, as well as double exposure of the moon. Without stacking a spot metered moon, the moon was very overexposed in the base image. 

The previous morning, I had been able to shoot the linear alignment. 

More Huffman Prairie

More practice pics with the Pro Capture mode on the Olympus EM1M3.

Easter Sunday at Huffman Prairie

Easter Sunday under "Social Distancing" orders. 
Despite the gray skies, we elected to take a drive to Huffman Prairie to see some Great Horned Owlets. 
Saw the Owlets, and had a great time playing with the Pro Capture mode on the Olympus EM1M3. 

Cedar Bog Snakes

Cedar Bog Walk

I spent a beautiful spring afternoon at Cedar Bog. During this pandemic, we are all expected to use "social distancing" to help limit the spread of the virus. During my walk, I only saw about 7 folks, and they were all adherent to the guidelines. At one point, a young couple were closing in behind me on the boardwalk, and they stopped...allowing distancing between us. I laughed, and told them to go ahead and pass, as I would be moving very slowly and didn't want to hold them up. So they passed as I kept stayed as far to the edge as possible, with my back toward them. Such are the ways of the pandemic. 
Some of my finds on this visit..... 

Snyder Park Birds

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

This fellow was looking in our kitchen window this morning.