Dodgy...

Awoke this morning to about an inch of snow on the ground, which meant that the feeders were loaded with birds.  At this time of year, the most abundant bird at the Bistro is definitely the Dark-eyed junco - and especially if it snows.  There must have been at least 30 of them darting around this morning.  And although they scattered when I first stepped out, I didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes before they were back, giving me lots of easy shots.  

I chose this shot because I like the starkness of it.  Now, I will admit that I used some of my newly learned Lightroom skills to enhance the stark effect by "dodging" out a few shadowy patches of snow in this image, giving it a clean white background.  I posted two other shots on Flickr, starting HERE with a shocked blue jay.

A friend of Hubs stayed with us last night, on his way from Ohio to NY.  We had a wonderful dinner (steak au poivre with peppercorn sauce) talked well into the evening.  This morning, we went out for a classic NJ diner breakfast before Mike continued his drive into NY.  The last time he was here, he asked me if he could have 3 of my photos (two hummingbirds and a shot of courtying terns) so I had them waiting for him here.  Very flattering that he wants to hang them on the walls of his home!  

In other news, when we got around to reading the paper today, we discovered a full-page spread featuring the six winners of a recent local photo contest - which included my shot from last year of a mama bear with a tiny cub!  Very exciting.  I blipped the photo last April, here

Hope everyone is ready for the weekend - have fun, and be safe!

Debbi