The birding begins

I’m officially middle-aged. Since I put the bird feeder back up in the redbud tree (after a 6-month absence due to an infectious bird disease), I’ve been obsessed with all the little visitors to our front yard. So much so that I ordered a field guide to Indiana birds, and at the suggestion of some fellow Mastodoners, downloaded the Merlin app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

When my field guide arrived in the mail yesterday, I immediately headed out to the Eagle Creek Ornithology Center to put it to good use. Swans, gulls, and cardinals abounded in the sunlight; unfortunately, I got to the songbirds later in the afternoon’s low light. Next time: tripod!

A bright red male cardinal stands on an earthen mound surrounded by scragly brush, looking for seeds.
A pale blue tufted titmouse in winter plumage perches at a bird feeder
In the foreground a post with 4 metal signs announces the area as an Indiana birding site. In the background, a deck that overlooks the Eagle Creek Waterfowl Sanctuary
A white swan with bright orange bill floats in the water, looking for food below the surface.
A downy woodpecker perched on a bird feeder in the late afternoon.

Moon Shot

I keep seeing and reading about these amazing night sky photos taken with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra*. I finally got my shot tonight.

My girlie Dakota and I were walking in the park close to sunset, and I spotted the exquisite waxing crescent to the south. I started off at 10x zoom, and quickly expanded to see what max zoom (100x) could do.

100x zoom more than filled the screen, so I gradually backed off, ending up at 73x. Then I started snapping. On the 4th snap, I finally captured a usable picture. This was the 5th snap.

*By no means a plug or endorsement