Nuts!

The chipmunks that live in the woods around our house are busy collecting nuts right now. The hickory trees have produced and incredible amount of nuts (a banner nut year, according to local experts) so neither the squirrels nor the chippies are visiting our feeders at all. Instead, they can be seen running along the edge of the lawn and back in the woods or even up in the trees, collecting and storing as many nuts as possible.

In the case of chipmunks, they carry the nuts back to their underground dens when they'll spend the winter snoozing and eating. The squirrels bury their nuts, and hide them in trees - not quite as efficient as the chippies. However, since the chippies seal themselves into their dens for most of the winter months, they can't rely on finding buried treasures later like the squirrels do. But enough about the rodents.

What I hope I remember most about this day is the amazing sounds outside. Many of you know that I lost all of my hearing in my right ear following brain surgery nearly six years ago. As a consequence, I treasure things like bird song, or the rustle of wind in the leaves - sounds I never gave much thought to before. This morning when I went out on the deck, I was surrounded by the most amazing chorus of bird calls. I had to run back in the house and get Hubs so he could tell me where the sounds were coming from. There must have been 100's of robins back in the woods behind the house - all calling with that lovely musical note that they have. And mixed in were numerous other calls - of woodpeckers, sparrows, finches, titmice, chickadees and waxwings. It was indescribable. And it went on for much of the day. I spent most of the day outside, soaking in the sights and sounds.

Also got a new polarizing filter for my 28-300 lens so tried it out on a few berries - wasn't really a great day for it since it was overcast and pretty gloomy. Hopefully I can give it a proper test this week. You can see two pics of berries plus a very irritated looking waxwing starting HERE on Flicker.

I launched my Photography FaceBook Fan Page today - it will be a work in progress for a while, but I am hoping that it will help promote my photos in a non-intrusive way. If nothing else, I will have some fun with it.

Hoping everyone had a great weekend!

ciao,
Debbi