Kauai 2012: Cardinal shots

Sorry—I know it's been a while. After I returned home from Kauai, I was hit with the double whammy of jet lag and illness. Once I finally felt like myself again, I found myself a bit daunted by the number of photos I took, so naturally I dealt with it by procrastinating like my life depended on it.

At any rate, the posting of the rest of the Kauai pics might be a little haphazard; I'll still go through all of the photos for each day and figure out which I like, but I won't knock myself out trying to get all of my faves from a given day into one post.

Today's picks are some closeups I took of a male Northern Cardinal fairly early on in our stay. In general, the birds on Kauai are a lot less skittish around people than the birds around here (possibly because they have no natural predators, save the occasional house cat), and the Cardinals were no exception. I happened to take these particular shots from inside the house, but during our stay they would often come fairly close to us when we were sitting outside on the porch as well.

This first shot is from early in the day, when the light still had a slight golden tone to it:

Such a lucky catch with this shot—because the light was coming from behind the bird, you can see the spray of dust that occurred when he crunched the seed in his beak:

And couple of shots from later in the day; I really liked how the greenery in the background contrasts with the Cardinal's coloring:

This last shot is obviously not of a Cardinal, but as I don't plan on posting any other pics from this particular set I figured I'd include it in this post. As you can see, this dog had absolutely no problem getting comfortable as he waited for his human in the back of this pickup:

Summer photos

Just a few photos I took in May and June, starting with a brown trout rising in the museum's casting pond. Through some stroke of luck, I caught the surface tension as it bowed but hadn't yet broken:

Kaylee with her buddy Robby:

And a few solo shots of the girl herself:

Holiday fun

As is our tradition, Greg and I slept over at our parents' house Christmas Eve; this year my grandmother stayed the night as well, and it was very nice to be able to spend some extra time with her. Once we were all upright and ambulatory this morning, we headed into the living room to exchange gifts between the five of us. Ultimately, though, it was the sixth member of our group who ended up being the center of my photographic attention. Because if there's one thing that Kaylee loves, it's unwrapping her presents:





I'd like to say this shot happened naturally, but in truth Greg collected Kaylee's loot and placed it at her feet so I could take a picture of her with her new toys:



Since we had Thanksgiving over at my aunt's this year, our Christmas gathering happened at my parents' house today (next year Thanksgiving will be at Mom and Dad's and Christmas at my aunt's). So in the afternoon the five of us were joined by my aunt Bonnie and Uncle Bill; Bill's brother Phillip; my cousins Emily, Katie, and Anne; Anne's husband Dimitri; my aunt and uncle's Corgi, Molly; and Anne and Dmitri's yellow Lab, Butter. And as was the case earlier in the day, the dogs pretty much stole the show.

Butter got a bit of wrapping paper stuck to her lip:



While Molly snuck around checking out everyone's presents:



Since Butter's not quite yet mobile after leg surgery a few months ago, Kaylee worried that my cousin Annie might be lacking in doggie kisses:



However, as my aunt later demonstrated, as long as you get down to her level Butter does just fine:



Butter's thinking "What on earth is she making that face for?"



Molly found it all very amusing:



My cousins Katie (sitting upright) and Emily:



My grandmother as she listened to the ongoing conversation:



And my grandmother upon realizing the dog toy she'd just had tossed to her was a bit slimy:



Finally, one last shot of Kaylee to bring today's post to an end:

Inside and out

Even though I had quite a few visitors at my bird feeder again this morning, with all of the usual suspects putting in an appearance at one point or another, this is, believe it or not, the only bird photo I'm posting today:



You see, when I got to work I remembered that my coworker Sarah was bringing in Junior, her young Golden Retriever, to have a play date with Kim's dog Esa. I thought it would make for a fun change of pace, so I switched over to my wide-angle lens and started clicking away as soon as Junior arrived at the office.

Loved Esa's expression in this one:



Looking a bit uncertain as to exactly how they ended up in this position:



A reversal of fortune:



And a couple of "Aww... aren't they adorable?" pics for good measure:





So at this point I figured I was good to go as far as today's post was concerned. And then, just as the dogs were settling down, Yoshi spotted something moving across the parking lot, making its way from our property to Orvis next door: an otter. Naturally, we all rushed over to look out the back door window, and sure enough, there it was. And there I was, using the lens with a focal length that ends where my telephoto lens begins. So I didn't even bother to try getting a photo of it at that point.

What I did do, though, is go back to my desk, switch lenses, and walk over to Orvis. I honestly wasn't holding out much hope that I'd see the otter again, but I figured if it was lingering anywhere nearby I'd most likely spot it around one of the two adjoining ponds next to the store. So that's where I headed. Once I got there, I stood by a small bridge and started scanning the water's edge. Nothing. I was just about to give up and head back to work when I heard the unmistakable sound of dry leaves being moved around. I looked directly to my left, and there it was, rolling around in the dirt underneath a bush on the other side of the bridge:



Love how pink its footpads are:



Once it had enough of that activity, the otter went down towards the large rocks at the water's edge and quickly dove in, swimming under the end of the bridge and out of my sight. I waited, and before too long it climbed up out to take a look around:



Then it started to do a little exploring: it climbed up the hill, made its way along the opposite side of the bridge, clambered over and around the various rocks and such, came back over towards the bridge, saw me standing about a yard away, backed off, and returned to the other end of the bridge. I stood there clicking away like mad, but my grand total of in-focus pictures was... zero. The otter was just moving too quickly, and because it was fairly overcast I couldn't crank the shutter speed up to compensate.

Happily, the otter's curiosity finally got the better of it, as it started making its way along the edge of the bridge and straight toward where I was standing":



It was only a foot or two away from me when it finally decided to head back across the bridge:



Next up for the otter: breakfast. And since the fish in the Orvis ponds are about the same size as the otter itself, it decided to head over to the reeds at the far end of the pond to see what it could scrounge up:









Nothing like a fresh crayfish to start your day out right:



A closer look at the otter with its meal:



Most of my blurry shots were of the "there's one for the recycling bin" variety, looking like they were taken either during an earthquake or while I was standing on a paint mixer. But I thought this one was worth sharing, as to my eye it really evokes a sense of the fluidity of the otter's movements:



And for the final shot we've actually come full circle, as the otter chose the same bush it was rolling around beneath earlier as the perfect spot for a bit of fine dining. If you look closely, you can even see the tip of its tongue peeking out:

Food fights

As has happened so many times this year, me at Mom and Dad's + birds at the bird feeder = a bunch of photos. So, as usual, I'll just get right to it.

The Goldfinches were definitely feeling feisty today, to the point where seeing them sitting there eating peacefully became the exception rather than the norm:









Maybe they were trying to work out the proverbial pecking order?













A White-breasted Nuthatch and a Chickadee taking advantage of a rare finch-free moment on the feeder:



A Hairy Woodpecker:



I liked how this Mourning Dove looked against the dark background of trees:



We saw a young male Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the feeder again today:





There also seemed to be a lot of warbler activity; Mom and Greg believe they saw a Black-throated Blue Warbler earlier in the day, and Mom, Dad, and I saw at least two other types as we sat outside this afternoon. I'm not 100% certain what kind this particular warbler is, but after going through my bird book my best guess is that it's a Cape May Warbler:



A male Black-throated Green Warbler:



And a female of that same species:



It is with a heavy heart that I report these geese were indeed headed due south when I took this photo:



Kaylee's buddy Robby, a bit worn out from the walk he'd just been on with Kaylee, Mom, and his two people Colin and Pauline:



And, of course, the girl herself; I love it when she sits there and practically poses for me: