Angele, yes the 1500 x 150 is hard. Margaret has made a lot of stunning banners but I keep missing the mark. When I did that cardinal; it was hard to even get his head to fit in the small space for height & then when the photo gets lengthened --- it lost clarity --- just wasn't sharp enough. I'm still trying to figure out just what distance will work. And bottom line --- my camera just may not have what it takes. It's just a little Sony cybershot with a 5x zoom. Takes great pictures but it may not be good enough for banner work.

Ann: I love that shot of the vivid Cardinal in the birdbath!! I look forward to seeing that banner ... I haven't figured out how to do them yet.

It won't be a banner Lin. When I did the sizing & whatnot on it -- it just wasn't good enough so I trashed it as a banner piece.

Red Shouldered hawk literally in the back yard today. The light is bad. Very grey & overcast today, add to that his being under the canopy of the oaks....

Wow, at least you could see him and looks to be a magnificent bird.

Ann: That's a gorgeous photo of that majestic hawk! I love the lower light with the shape of the hawk standing out against the background of the sky.

All I have here today are the usual sparrows and Morning Doves.

That hawk photo is impressive Ann, he's so big! The wind is a blowin' pretty good here and I don't enjoy being out in it so I've been cleaning closets instead of gardening & bird watching. I think it's supposed to be calmer after tomorrow.

My birds are honkered down waiting for the storm. A few little sparrows and finches are close to the house eating seeds but even the chickens are in hiding. This is not unusual when a nor'easter is coming. My little beakers are smart.

Birds eating the seeds here like normally today.

angele said:That hawk photo is impressive Ann, he's so big! The wind is a blowin' pretty good here and I don't enjoy being out in it so I've been cleaning closets instead of gardening & bird watching. I think it's supposed to be calmer after tomorrow.

Thanks Angele! He isn't so big when you see a Red Tailed hawk. Now those guys are BIG! Here's 1 I shot back in late August. He had taken down a squirrel & you can barely see what's left of it in the grass at his feet.

lol his thighs are big like a turkey's or mine! Shame on me! He is way regal looking!

His thighs *are* large. And he is regal as you so aptly put it. We have lots of hawks here & we love them as much as all the songbirds & other birds we have. It may sound bad to be saying it but we certainly need the hawks to keep the tree rats under control. We have a pecan grove & if the hawks weren't here... well, there would be no pecans left!

That hawk is so beautiful! We have plenty enough tree rats to keep the hawks fed around here but unfortunately the hawks seem to prefer the smaller birds.

I've spotted a few Wood Storks lately. This one was feeding along the waterway yesterday afternoon; I love to watch them shuffle their feet to stir up the bottom for whatever it is they eat from the mud/muck:

Cool pictures Lin! I see things in the second one that aren't there like imagining shapes in clouds if you know what I mean. My brain wouldn't register the Wood Stork's head in the second one, I kept seeing hind legs and a curly tail - where his eye is and to his left as we look at it I see a small puppy in the plants! All of a sudden my brain put it together and I could see the head as plain as day!

LOL, the reflections in the water make it a bit difficult to know what you're seeing in that second shot.

Here are a few photo's from this afternoon.

Northern Mockingbirds have been very active lately:


And, I spotted this (I think) Palm Warbler on the rooftop this afternoon:

Lin, 1 very tell tale sign of the Palm Warbler is that it bobs it's tail up & down --- very distinctive.

I've seen a tufted titmouse several times now but can't get a photo. The little devil is there, I turn around & grab the camera off the counter, turn back around & it is flying off. Won't stay still for 2 seconds! But I'll get it yet!

Love the photos Lin! It is strange to me that Mockingbirds visit my yard in spurts - a few weeks or months then gone then they come back again. I haven't changed anything like food or water.
Here is a Western Grebe at a lake near my home.

Really remarkable eyes on the Grebe. The head & neck looks like cropped fuzz rather than feathers. Overall a cool looking bird with black, white & red.