I was happy to actually get out and do a bit of birding this weekend. Yesterday we had some intermittent rain, but managed to get a bit of birding in (and I got a state bird, but more on that in a later post.) This morning broke bright and warm after last night's pouring rain. I joined our friends Paul and Diana on one of their trips to Horn Pond - a local patch that they've been birding for several years. And in addition to knowing the area well, they are great birders as well, so their trips are always fun and well attended. - this morning was no different. Some nice looks today at some of the regulars, as well as some fall migrants (including brief looks at Fox Sparrow - a bird I've been trying to get a photo of for some time, and still haven't succeeded yet.) We did get some good looks at the (or one of the) resident Great Horned Owl. The light wasn't great, but tried to get a few photos nevertheless.
Well, when I got in, I was a little less than thrilled with the photos I got, but managed to salvage them a bit using Photoshop. (With the exception of sizing the images to take up less space on line, the "Before photoshop" pics are on the left, and the "after photoshop" pics are on the right)
Some differences in color and contrast between the first and second sets resulted from changing the angle from which I was photographing the bird, trying to get the sun behind me. I did get one more shot in before the bird flew deeper into the woods, with the sun a little more behind me.
Notice the color subtleties are a little more evident still. (Still not great photos, but the best I got this weekend)PS - as always click on the photos to see larger versions!
To see some great bird photos from around the world, check out:
