Ok - so much for posting on a regular basis... work has been absolutely insane recently, and by the time I get home I am completely exhausted; add to that the need to mow the grass every five days and that we had one night with strong storms and that we went away this past weekend, and you've got a recipe for me not getting to post all the cool stuff I'd wanted to.

Anyway, that just means you get one big post today. So after getting the cool encounter with the owl on Friday evening, we then went to Jennings Environmental Center Saturday morning. Jennings is one of those places that really wasn't convenient to get to on a regular basis when we lived in the city, but now it is only fifteen minutes away, so we can pop on over there whenever we like.

This particular morning, we were looking for birds and flowers, and we found some of both.

First, we noticed this pair of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/640th sec at f/11. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Both the male and the female were making repeated trips to and from the nest box with bits of sticks and grass to line their nest to get ready to lay some eggs...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/1250th sec at f/11. ISO 1600. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/1250th sec at f/11. ISO 1600. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

We looked for pink lady-slipper flowers, but couldn't find any... but we did find a couple patches of trillium - one of my favorite flowers.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/640th sec at f/11. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

We also saw a pair of Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) feeding on the nectar in some tree blossoms (unfortunately I never got a good shot of the male).

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/2000th sec at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Finally, we had seen a couple of these Common Yellow-throats (Geothlypis trichas) at the beginning of the day, but this one we managed to get in pretty close to and get some nicer shots of. He liked to sing to mark the boundaries of his territory, so I tried to wait until just the right moment to catch him mid-song.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/400th sec at f/8. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

At this point, I have a nice back-log of stuff to process and share, so stay tuned... hopefully I can post more frequently than once a week!

- Bill