We spent the day out hiking and birding. The weather was just perfect. We drove to Woodcock Dam and hiked on the little trail behind the ranger’s station. I thought my knee was pretty much all healed from the surgery but when we started down the steep slope to the creek I had a definite problem. My kneecap felt like it was being stretched like a bow and arrow ready to go flying through the air. There wasn’t real pain, just a really weird and annoying feeling. I guess I hadn’t used that particular tendon since the surgery. It definitely needs stretching out.

After the gorgeous, sweet smelling hike we headed to the Erie National Wildlife Refuge. We saw the eagles flying in the sky and I got a few pictures of some birds. Most were hiding.
PhoebeMaking a nest.
Finishing touches.First grasshopper of the year.
On the way home we were followed for a while by the neatest little orange car thingy. Some type of roadster I guess you’d call it. I kinda got a photo of it.
That looked like it would be fun to ride in!

Another great day!

We spent the afternoon at a matinee of Ironman. I’m not a comic book person so it was all new to me. I liked it OK but not nearly as good as Spiderman. Anyway, afterwards we went shopping for a bag for my new camera and then around 7 PM we headed to Pine Trail at the Peninsula. I hadn’t been on it before. We stopped to look at the eagles on the way in and I took this picture.

I think the eagle is feeding a baby but I don’t know how small a piece of food they have to have to feed a baby. That looks like a pretty big piece.

The trailhead for the first entrance to Pine Trail was beautiful. There is an old foundation of some sort of building that lived there perhaps at the turn of the century. The trail starts out with a grouping of beautiful birch trees. The trail was full of pine trees, of course, and it smelled so wonderful.

We stopped at the owls on the way back and only spotted the very top of a couple of heads. The parents weren’t anywhere around. This was about 8 PM. They seem to be gone every time we stop now. I guess those little guys are eating a lot.

Pam and Jim Finch pulled it off. There were little peepers this morning when we opened the door to get the paper. Even through the windy storms we have had, they kept those eggs dry and warm. I can’t tell how many there are but probably 5 as it looks pretty full.

We spent Mother’s Day afternoon out at my mother-in-law’s. We had planned to take my mother-in-law and her mother with us to the peninsula so they could see the owls and the eagles. It started pouring before we were able to go. When the rain let up a bit I looked out the window and was wished a Happy Mother’s Day by this squirrel.

My husband bought me a new camera. I so wanted one before our vacation and to take better pictures through my spotting scope. I’ve been wanting the Sony DSC-H50 and I’m so happy I got it. It has a good zoom for getting a close shot of birds and it takes video at 30 fps. It takes full HD 1080 still images but that doesn’t really help on computers or the internet. But they’ll look great to watch on TV. I know nothing about cameras. I thought I wanted a DLSR when I first started looking but I just don’t want it to be that complicated. I’m having trouble even figuring this one out but it has an “easy” button so I was able to take pictures right of the bat. I’m getting a book from the library to try and explain what settings I should use for different situations. The best thing about this camera over my Olympus SW is the perfect color. When I take a picture of the living room wall, woodwork or furniture, the color is an exact match. And, of course, the 15X zoom equivalent to a 31-465mm lens on a 35mm camera.