Central Minnesota has been stuck in two different weather patterns. The last ten days of December saw warm weather between 30 and 40 degrees that melted the first snowpack, brought some rain and keep the sky cloudy and foggy over the entire holiday week.
Now the first ten days of January have been a bit cooler than average but very dry with no snowfall. The feeder birds have been somewhat scarce but that may pick up with an upcoming snowfall. I have had a good showing of cardinals at dusk getting fuel for the night-time roosts. About every night I have been hearing the duet of a pair of great horned owls at sunset. Pileated woodpeckers have been active with a pair visiting my suet feeder and I have heard the male drumming.
BirdingZen has also been stuck in a pattern due to switching over to a new computer system. Trying to organize a large library of digital photos certainly can be mentally challenging. Finding the right software for photo organization and committing to it is another adventure in time and patience. In transferring these large files around there always looms the overconcern about accidentally deleting special images. With very easy and inexpensive opportunities now to back up media, this appears less of an issue but then can lead to viewing libraries of duplicate images populating everywhere that make it frustrating for those of us that like an orderly file system on our computers. I guess we can hope that AI will be the savior to simplifying our digital lives.
For me, having grown up organizing physical media such as negatives and prints, working in the digital format can feel more impersonal at times although the instant feedback from searching and editing the images is incredible - there is no going back. Being able to broadcast images from one’s desktop or phone throughout the internet and therefore the world is truly empowering despite the dilution and fatigue from viewing so many images.
My bird photos are less about art and more about documentation. It is my hope to get a few good images to illustrate stories to you about enjoying birds and ways to help them navigate a world that has become more about us and less about them. The natural world is great at producing episodes of magic that momentarily recenters our attitudes away from self. Birds can do that as they are almost everywhere and can be seen daily if one is looking!
That woodpecker is beautiful! I have all the signs of a lesser spotted woodpecker visiting the bottom of my garden, but I haven't been lucky enough to spot it yet. I live in hope..