Beautiful Birds

Ever since I got my Nikon Coolpix camera for Christmas this year, I have wanted to take amazing pictures with it.  Thankfully I have been able to take some good ones, but there wasn't that  ring of the camera snap in my ears, (the sound of perfection) and the glorious feeling you get when you snap the perfect shot.  There wasn't the satisfaction of looking at a crystal trenchant picture.  Of course like I said, my camera had amazing ability when it came to clearness, but I still didn't have that one desired picture.  That is, until these past few weeks.  The first "desired picture" I got, was of these two beautiful cardinals.  These two specific cardinals had been coming to our house for as long as I can remember.  There is a male, which is a bright, radiant red, and a female, which at least tries her best. ;)  (Everyone knows that she couldn't possibly "out-shine" her husband, no matter how hard she tries, but we all try not to disappoint her by saving the paparazzi for her charmer.)  If you're still following me, (sorry for the rabbit trail), then I hope you will enjoy the cardinals as much as I do!

  The next picture I was able to capture wasn't actually too long ago.  There was a little house wren that came over to what use to be our bird bath.  Seeing as how it was quite cold, the bird bath had frozen, cracked and broken, and now had a layer of the purest white snow on the top.  I was in the kitchen once again, and my camera was coincidentally sitting on the counter out of its bag.  I slowly removed myself from my chair and quickly grabbed my camera.  Easing my way towards the window, I hid behind the frame, so as not to scare the poor little thing.  I began to edge my way around the corner and simultaneously turned on my camera.  Zooming in as far as I could, without making it fuzzy, I took about three pictures and this was my favorite!

  

I recently posted a blog titled "Our Trip to Cades Cove".  If you haven't looked at it, you definitely should, but I saved one of the pictures to add here.  While we were at the Old Mill, I saw a little Chickadee and Carolina Wren.  My goal was to get a picture of the Chickadee, but not only would it not face me, but it kept flying from the tree to the ground and I never could get a good picture of it, so I got a picture of the wren instead.  It was a much better model!

Another time, me, my sister Jessica, my sister-in-law Virginia, and my brother Jonathan were all taking a trip to Look Rock.  Look Rock is a beautiful mountain with an easy trail you climb to get to a place that overlooks the city of Alcoa, Maryville and sometimes even a little bit of Knoxville on a really clear day.  I took my new camera (of course) to snap some shots of this gorgeous view!  Right as we were about to leave, Jonathan suddenly got excited and beckoned me to look off to the left.  There, gliding in the air, was a beautiful red-tailed hawk.  I was able to zoom up on it at just the right time.  Because of the wind gusts, he was able to hover in the air for a few seconds without flapping.  In this time span, he was very still and I was able to get a pretty neat picture.

The last, "desired picture" I was able to take, (and I must say, this is by far my favorite,) I have decided to make a surprise!  I was outside taking pictures around my pond because there was an icy wonderland everywhere I looked, when I heard the strangest sound.  I knew immediately that it was a bird, and I was trying to figure out what tree the sound was illuminating from.  Then when I finally found the tree, I scoured it up and down to find the bird.  When at first I tried to take a picture of it, it saw me and fled in horror.  (I can only presume that it flew in horror because of my fashion choice.  I just so happened to be wearing hot pink footed pajamas (that I also got for Christmas) and a pair of yellow Crocs!  I'm sure if you were a bird and saw me, you would have had a moment of bewilderment at why on earth I would wear such a thing...and in 20 degree weather?!)  I practically laughed out loud at what happened next.  When I looked at the tree he had flown to and found him again, he was behind a branch.  The funny part was: every few seconds he would poke his head out from behind the branch and look at me, and then put it back!  After doing this and screeching very angrily at me for a few moments, he cautiously flew back to his tree, but still kept an eye on me.  You may have already guessed what kind of bird it is, but if not, maybe this will help.

It was a wood pecker!  A female wood pecker, (which I like to suppose was his mate) had sadly died a while ago from severe head trauma after flying straight into our window.  He must have been afraid I would do something awful to him. :)  I suppose that there isn't much more to say, other than thank you for reading and supporting.  I can't wait to tell you more about my photographic fun!  

Until next time,
Jennifer C.