Happy Thanksgiving & Birds of Prey

First of all, I wish a very Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with joy and wonderful conversation as you celebrate with family and friends!

Now, last week on 11/19 I was at home for lunch and just finished up when a larger bird flew and landed on a bird feeder in the backyard. I figured it was a Blue Jay or a crow, but looked anyway and nope....it was a smaller Hawk, and after slowly moving across two windows then going to hands and knees I was able to grab a camera I keep on a table by the back picture window. Got it turned on, lens ready and leaned on some furniture without making big motions and got off about 20 shots. I have included one and sorry had to crop and manipulate a little so it doesn't take up so much room when I upload. I also had to shoot through the window which sometimes give me some extra distortion.

Anyway - First shot is a 'Sharp Shinned Hawk' part of the Accipiter family which is some of the smaller Hawks. It was in the hood as I have plenty of Junco's, Chickadee's and some lesser gold finches for it to prey upon. I have included a shot of a Cooper's Hawk so you can kind of see the differences. I used to get a Cooper's Hawk by our previous house looking for small bird or two for a meal. Enjoy!


Tim

The Rain is here making lazy dogs

Hello folks,

over the half way point for November and the rain has pretty much been a daily constant here in the Willamette valley. Somewhere there is rain falling in the valley on an almost daily basis. I haven't looked for the Salem totals to date but I think we are well ahead of last year and maybe close to normal since October first.

Kind of make days feel like lazy days and being like the dog and catching some snooze time on the couch. Yep our dog occasionally will decide that the couch is the place to be to take a nap for the day or what have you. Some how he can just lie there with no cares in the world while everyone else seems to be busy around him.

Thanksgiving is about a week away so will need to start to think about holiday decorating coming up. One thing I noticed the other day while walking in downtown Salem, is that Nordstroms has some posters saying they will get ready for Christmas holiday starting on November 27th. They said they like to celebrate one holiday at a time. It was a great change to see an anchor store in our downtown mall not having all the Christmas hype up and trying to get folks to hurry up and buy. My hat is off to them for taking their time and let the days and holidays come like they used to....what's the hurry? Nice job Nordstroms!

Not much else, thanks for reading.

Tim

Fall is holding a little warmth for us

November is here and will probably blow right past as the other ten previous months this year! I will try to embrace it and as months go this is probably my favorite month, with leaves changing, crisp air to breath and the fight of slight Indian summer trying to hang on a few more days. I really enjoy the cool temps in the morning and day and the ever changing colors. Only another week or so and most of the trees will have shed their coats of leaves.

We have had a break from the usual rain after a couple of weeks where we got rain off/on all day for about two weeks. Halloween was dry so that was great for the kids to be out and not get wet and it was relatively nice with the night temps in the low 50's during trick or treat time.

Over the last couple years, Salem bought this old railroad bridge for a $1 and have been working on its conversion to a pedestrian/bicycle bridge. This past spring they opened it and it has been a great hit, connecting the west side with east side from two separate parks. I use the bridge on my bike commutes home so always enjoy the crossing. It is even more cool in the evening with more darkness and the lights, etc. It sits a little lower then the two vehicle bridges and about a hundred yards to the North of the Marion Street bridge. All in all it is one of the better investments I have seen Salem make since we moved here in 2003.

I put in a couple of shots that kind of give you an idea of the bridge. One has my trusty steed leaning against the rail and the other is me taking a shot while riding across so it is a bit blurry but still pretty cool. Enjoy. BTW the bridge is going to close on 11/9/09 until March/April of 2010 for some more work so I will have to change my commute again.

Tim