Lucky me

For the last 10 days, the easiest shot to get has been of Purple Finches.  Large numbers are moving further south than usual in search of food and my feeders have a constant stream of them throughout the day.  I've posted the flashy raspberry-colored male, but not the more subdued female, as seen here.  She landed about 6 feet away from me, with the sunlit maple tree in the background.  The light and colors were just too good to pass up.  And, interestingly, this bird seems to have quite a bit of yellow coloration in her feathers which I've never seen before.  I'm going to send this image over to a friend of mine and ask him to weigh in on the color. I wonder if this is a juvenile male with an unusual color morph? 

And for fun, a close up head shot of a House Finch HERE on Flickr

Happy to report that I don't have a cold, just some pesky sinus stuff.  Feel much better today although still a bit snuffly.  

Too cold today for pollinators in the garden, and with temps expected to go into the high 20's F tonight, I suspect that will signal the end of the montauk daisies.  

Trip to CR now less than a week away and I'm starting to gather a pile of things that need to travel with me.  Just ordered some of those nifty packing cubes from Amazon which should help to keep my clothes somewhat organized.  Did a trial run on putting all my gear in the insert that will go in my carry-on bag and happy to find that it all fits perfectly: 3 lenses, two camera bodies, batteries, hard drives and external flash.  Of course, it will be a challenge hefting it into the overhead bin on the airplane, but one does what one must...

Cheers.
Debbi