Last fall I purchased a new camera which is allowing me to make much better photos of everything, including birds, which with my old camera had been pretty much off the table unless I was right on top of them.
To get these photos I spend more time outside on walks. Which is good don't get me wrong, but it leaves less time for art. Then when I am home I have to spend time on the computer evaluating and sorting the photos I have made so again more time spent that can't be used for art. Then there are the other chores of living, cooking and eating food, shopping for food etc. Now I know that creating drawings doesn't have to take a lot of time but... OK I will admit it, I am just not motivated at the moment. So my other activities of reading and playing games on my tablet seem to come out ahead. All this means that I have been neglecting the blog, not good.
I have decided to stop letting lack of art for the blog stop me from updating it. I have photographs. Granted I share some of them on Facebook, others I post to a photo sharing site for artists. But I hope those who follow my blog will also be interested in reading about my walks and looking at photos. I am not ruling out posting art. If I make some I will post it.
Earlier this week I visited Houghton's Pond in the Blue Hills Reservation. I was looking for anything interesting to photograph per usual, dragonflies, butterflies, birds, and wild flowers top my list, but sometimes there are frogs or toads or other animals. The walk that day seemed a bit disappointing. There was a Spicebush Swallowtail, one of the 4 black swallowtails in MA. but it didn't stop fluttering its wings so the photos I made of it just didn't turn out well. Note: there is a Spicebush Swallowtail on my butterfly page that did hold still if you are curious about what they look like.
There were these blooming water plants, that so far I have not been able to identify, blooming in the pond that feeds into Houghton's Pond. As I was about to leave the site I decided to go look at another pond that is at the far end of the parking lot. There was a family of Canada Geese swimming around and feeding. Then I noticed a bird in the tree just above me. And made the next series of photos.
Just a tail is visible in the above photo and also what looks like some grass hanging down. There aren't a lot of orange birds so my interest was caught.
Here you get to see the head, identifying the bird as a female Baltimore Oriole, note the mass of what looks like grass below her.
In this photo she is holding something in her beak, looks like a dried grass to me.
My final photo, when I first started photographing her I thought she was hunting for food in the branches of the tree, and I was trying for a body shot, turns out she was building a nest, I will l have to keep on eye on this tree in my future visits to the Pond.
Last photo is a view of the beach at Houghton's Pond where locals can come to swim (well get wet, the lifeguards don't really want people swimming) and sit in the sun for free. It is a small pond, the walk around it is about a mile, but they have picnic tables and grills so it is a popular spot.
One last comment, my Esty shop is closed. Esty has made changes to their payment policy that I am not going along with, I will be taking down the links at some point but just wanted to post a FYI.
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