American Robin 2

photograph of an American Robin

This American Robin was searching for breakfast in my backyard when I took this photograph.  My mother always used to tell me robins were the first sign of spring.  This photo was taken in early February.  Granted I live 100 miles south of my childhood home but I am still always surprised when I see robins in the winter months.

Dark-Eyed Junco 1

photograph of a dark-eyed junco

The dark-eyed junco is a common bird in Richmond during the colder months.  When the weather warms they will migrate to the Appalachians and Canada, not to return again until autumn.  They make for tricky photography subjects as they are small, quick, and almost never still.  I waited until this junco hopped into a patch of direct sunlight to get a shutter speed fast enough to catch it.

I would like to give some credit for this photo to Cornel Apostol.  If you’re not familiar with Cornel’s blog, check it out at http://apostolcornel.wordpress.com.  On several of his posts he’s mentioned throwing a sheet over his head to get closer to birds.  That inspired me to rig up a simple blind which I used to capture this image.

Carolina Wren

photograph of a Caroline WrenThis Carolina Wren was singing in a tree near the south bank of the James River.  It remained perched on the same branch long enough for me to get several shots of it.  This was my favorite.

Hawks on Church Steeple

photograph of two hawks on a church steepleI had been planning on photographing this steeple for a while.  When I arrived I found a hawk perched atop.  As I watched and photographed another hawk arrived.  From my angle I couldn’t see the interaction between the hawks and I haven’t been able to identify them.  I believe one is a juvenile and the other an adult.  The landing hawk may be the adult because it came and went while the other stayed put.  It may have come to feed the younger hawk but I can’t be certain.

Great Blue Heron in a Tree

photograph of a great blue heron perched on a branchWhile photographing a tree on an island in the James River, I realized there was a Great Blue Heron perched on one of the branches.  Pleased the heron was close enough for some zoomed in shots, I took several pictures before it flew away.  This was my favorite picture of the bunch.

Like all the other pictures on my blog, you can click on this one to see a larger version of the image.

Great Blue Heron

Photograph of great blue heron standing on a rock in a stream

Here’s another picture of the great blue heron I spotted in a river near Damascus, VA.  In case you missed the first photo, you can see it here: https://blog.dougcouvillion.com/2012/07/25/great-blue-heron-taking-flight. The earlier photo was under exposed to account for the brightness of the river.  In this photo I increased the exposure to capture more detail of the heron and manually compensated for the glare on the river by editing the image later.