Had a great day on Saturday!

Jody Melanson

I arrived early Saturday morning at one of my local haunts to find two juvenile Northern Harriers sitting in a tree out in a field. I grabbed my gear, put some warm clothes on, and some gloves for the first time this season. (it was 4 Celsius yesterday morning!) I headed out to get some environmental images of the Harriers in the big, old, gnarly tree. As I slowly approached, while holding the camera up to my face and watching through the viewfinder, I got to about the distance where I figured the Harriers would take off and sure enough, one of them lifted. It took me a second to recognize through the viewfinder that the butt I expected to see was actually a face. The Harrier was heading towards me instead of away from me! The juvenile came within about 15' of me, circled, came past me again and landed back on the tree. I quickly filled my buffer and wished it was larger. This shot was so close that I clipped both wings, so I cropped it slightly for this resulting image.

Don't you love it when your day starts off like this?

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Here is a sunrise compilation of 22 images.

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Some Hummingbirds are still coming through.

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Not a very good picture, but it is my first picture of a Northern Parula.

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Another first for me, a Hummingbird catching Midges.

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Redwing Blackbird.

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A teeny tiny Ant.

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An abstract of an Aster.

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Aphids. These guys are about 2mm in length.

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A juvenile Swamp Sparrow.

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Then I came home and did some photos for my oldest daughter and her friend. Here is one of my oldest daughter.

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bhowdy

Jody - Another super collection!
The hummer and the midge is outstanding ...
The last photo .... another form of wildlife to be sure, beautiful young lady.