Kauai 2014: day 5, part 3

At long last, the last installment of pics from this particular day. More whale action, starting with one that appeared content popping its head out of the water for a blow:

Showing off for the ladies:

A couple of shots of a blow from fairly close range:

As far as I can tell, this is a mother whale with her calf just behind her, poking its little head out for a look at the world:

Sending up a mini-blow of its own:

And our mother and child duo are going...

Going...

Gone:

Kauai 2014: day 5, part 2

Soooooo many pictures from this day. I was hoping to put all the whale photos into one post, but it was too difficult to choose between the many solid ones I took that day. So you get a bunch today, and a bunch more next time. Let's get right to it, and don't forget you can enlarge any image by clicking on it.

Love the huge splashes...

Another breach:

And another, involving a bit of a twist:

A look at a group of whales that swam in a bit closer to the lighthouse point:

Three whales in the next couple of shots:

And a nice close-up look at the tail of one as it dove into the water:

One last sequence of a whale showing us its tail:

Snack time

Just a few shots I took in April of last year of a deer that visited my parents' back yard.

Browsing under the feeder:

Realizing there's more good stuff to be had above: 

She seems to be taking a quick look around before...

...going right to the source for her afternoon snack:

A parting look back at the house as she made her way into the woods:

A bird in hand

Just a couple of images taken today, starting with what may be a first for my blog: a photo taken by someone else. In this case, my mom did the photography honors while I held a goldfinch that had stunned itself flying into a sliding glass door. It barely broke 20 here today, and we were all worried that it would freeze before it recovered enough to move again. So I brought it inside to keep it warm until it felt better:

And a few photos I took of the goldfinch from my perspective:

The good news is, shortly after I took these, the bird started acting much more alert. So we went outside, where I opened my hand and placed it against the porch railing. It sat there for another moment, so I wiggled my fingers a bit. That seemed to do the trick, as it took off and flew to a nearby bush, leaving me with my photos, my memories, and a dash of bird poop on my hand. Quite the way to begin the new year.