January 08th, 2021

On My Goodness!  Wednesday Photo Safari was so good!  It was a complete 180 from the previous week.  We headed up to Oscar Scherer State Park because we needed a change of pace.  Our thought was that even if there was nothing photos worthy (again), at least our hike would be on different trails than usual.

The clear and obvious theme of this last hike was Birds. Lots and Lots of LOTS of birds. They were everywhere.  They were up high, down low and hanging around the middle.  The were flying, hopping and sometimes even holding still (for a change).  You couldn't go but a handful of steps without seeing more birds.  They squawked and chirruped and screeched and they sang.  They flew around us, over us, in front of us across the path and seemed oddly happy that we were there.  I say oddly because on other hikes, on other trails, the birds seemed intent on hiding from us.  The little feathered stinkers.

But these birds seemed to love having they photos taken and even took to posing. Seriously, that is exactly what it looked like.  And It Was Awesome!  I'm not even going to make you wait. I'm going to start out with the most exciting part right off the bat.  We saw eagles.  Plural.  As in more than one eagle.    Here you go, the eagle and the eagle's nest all in one shot!  Excitement!

Also saw hawks.  Not as unusual to see but still a dang impressive creature with a little bit of  attitude.  He's gorgeous, he knows it.

And woodpeckers.  This is four different woodpeckers by the way, not four photos of the same one.

I only got a photo of one jay. I'm not certain if it was a blue jay or a scrub jay and I suppose it doesn't really matter.  The bird knows what it is

And a ton of other little birds that I have no idea what are but they are just so adorable.  Here is a just a small sampling of the variety:

The little birds seem to have the prettiest songs.  The bigger ones have louder and less pretty calls.  I am beginning to recognize some of the bird songs.  Very few but it's a start.  The longer I do this, I suppose, the better I will get at it.  Though remembering their names doesn't seem to be something that will happen.  Joy tells me, patiently, over and over and I promptly forget it, over and over.  

There was only one spot where the trail was overtaken by a large puddle and we were able to carefully slog around the outside.

There were a few photos of birds in flight (if you want a giggle). I keep trying to develop the skill of tracking a bird in flight and capturing it with my camera with varying amounts of success.  I keep trying but you tell me if you think it's working so far:

I'll keep working on that.......

​And of course there were a few other random photos which are, always among my favourites of the day:

So there you have it.  The Birdie Hike.  Totally worth the $5 price of admission.