Friday Fiction: First Friday

Posted on January 2, 2015 by treshabarger

Instead of a new photo prompt this week, the Friday Fictioneer group extended the time frame for last week’s photo to two weeks due to the holidays. But I still wanted to write a new story for my Fiction Friday series, so I chose two of my own photos for my story. Enjoy!

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A group of seven birds sitting in a tree without leaves; it's winter

First Friday Night

— Where are we? I mean, what is this place?

— Don’t start with me, Sam. You know the rules: The first Friday of each month we choose a new place to check out.

— Yeah, but, I didn’t know we would be eating outdoors in the middle of winter. It’s cold.

— We’re birds, Sam, we eat outdoors every day, every season.

— Yeah, but, sometimes we find feeders with suet. This is, like, out in the middle of nowhere. And no suet in sight. Are there hawks? I bet there are hawks here.

— Sam, do you see any hawks? No hawks; now shut up. Look, there’s the server. Get ready to swoop down as soon as she leaves the food on the table.

— Okay, everyone, NOW!

Room for everyone

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New Year’s Resolution 2015

Posted on January 1, 2015 by treshabarger

My New Year’s Resolution: Learn to photograph birds.

It’s somewhat easy to get a good photo when they are sitting (fairly) still on a branch, like this House Finch.

House Finch sitting on a bare branch with a gray sky in the background

House Finch in winter

But when they are in flight, it’s not so easy. I managed to get a few photos of a White Heron in flight; just no photos that were worthwhile.

White Heron in flight

McKinney Roughs

Posted on December 29, 2014 by treshabarger

Hubby and I hiked a couple of trails at the McKinney Roughs Nature Park, managed by the Lower Colorado River Authority (or LCRA, as we call it). Our idea was to get photos of birds, but I’m finding out that getting bird photos is more than just having a camera and showing up in the forest.

I could hear the birds, and sometimes I could see the birds, but taking a good photo was not easy. My best bird photos were just okay and most were blurred.