I'll take it

After dropping Jax off at day care this morning, I headed back up the Refuge with a plan to settle myself near the Purple Martin house and see if I could catch some flight shots.  Unfortunately, the skies are still full of smoke so shooting conditions weren't ideal for distance shots.  Of the handful of shots I kept, I chose this one for today's blip because I like the action it shows.  Martins are in the same family as swallows and have the same rapid, erratic flight which makes them quite challenging to photograph.  The strategy for today was to stay focused on the house (which contains about 2 dozen nest cavities by my best guess) and wait for. birds to take off, tracking them as they left.  That worked fairly well except for the fact that I kept getting distracted with incoming birds such as this one.  Anyhooo...this is a female easily identified by her less vivid colors and her whitish belly.  

While I was waiting for flight action, I realized that a large bush directly in front of me had a contingent of Cedar Waxwings gobbling berries so that distracted me for a while too.  And then there was a lovely Yellow Warbler who perched right in front of me for a nanosecond.  On any other day, he would have been my blip.  I will put him in Extra - you can immediately see where he gets the name.

The smoke situation is still pretty bad but nothing like the last two days.  The smoke is mostly just a dense haze now with none of the freakish yellow/amber tones we got to see yesterday.  Still sits in the back of the throat so I chose to wear a well- fitted mask while I was outside today.  

Hubs and I polished off the basket of strawberries I got yesterday so I headed over to the farm to buy another basket this afternoon.  I also got an extra basket to take to the doggy day care workers - they are always so great with Jax and I thought they might enjoy some delicious local berries.

I spent a little time on the deck this afternoon - enough time to confirm that there are baby Downy Woodpeckers up in the trees.  I saw a couple venture out for an erratic flight while the parent made the distinctive chatter that they only make when the babies are near.  I predict tender-moment woodpecker images soon!

I think plain dark today.

xo
Debbi