Watch the Birdie
Lindsay and I headed out to the back yard to play ball for a while tonight (it's cold but the sunshine was gorgeous!) and the elusive heron was sitting on top of the fountain thingy in the pond. I figured the silly bird would NEVER stay there long enough for me to run back in the house and grab the camera and some shoes (socks are fine on the patio - right?), but I decided to try it anyway. I went inside, ran upstairs, and grabbed camera and shoes and flew back downstairs. I could still see the heron sitting on its perch when I got to the back door. Lindsay was pretty quiet, but I figured as soon as I opened the door again the heron would spook - but not so. Apparently, my bird was in a mood to pose tonight. I took a few shots from inside my fence and then decided to risk going through the gate near the pond to get closer.
I got out of the gate without incident (Lindsay did protest a bit as she would have liked to have made her way INTO the pond - silly pup) and walked into the far side of the first neighbor's yard (the bird was about four houses down) before the heron took off. None of the shots of my feathered friend flying away were any good, but this one below was taken just fully zoomed - I didn't crop it to get in closer like I did the one above. I'm surprised at how close I actually got tonight.
I got my first postcard in the mail tonight from the 2011 iHanna postcard swap. Once I get all 10 I'll post photos of them. If they are all this beautiful (and from the photos posted thus far on Flickr I have no doubt they will be) I'm going to end up with some really awesome art pieces!