The Cost of Fame

 I found this little guy nestled in the branches of a fir tree.

"You're gonna be on the internet," I said to him, so he turned his little head and gave me his best angle.

When I spotted him next, he was somewhat less enthused. "No more!" he said to me, but I snapped the shot anyway.

"I said NO MORE!"

*click* *click*

And then this: quite possibly the most telling expression I've ever seen on a wild animal, and easily the most telling one I've ever had the luck to capture on camera.

Here it is, little bird. Your privacy has been invaded by the internet, and you couldn't even smile for the camera!

Pixie Dust

 November 6 brought a decent cover of snow to southern Alberta. It was that beautiful hoarfrost sparkly snow that perched on every tip of every branch of every tree and just stayed where it landed: dry enough to balance on the very edge of the coloured leaves still clinging to their hosts in peaceful protest of the onset of winter.

Every edge was covered. It was absolutely magical.

A bit of serendipitous patriotism...

...and roses snuggled under a full white blanket for a few months' sleep.

I've never seen snow like this outside of Alberta. It's so powdery and sparkly: like walking through my own private snow globe, but instead of glass overhead, I'm under cover of a massive dome of blue prairie sky.

Pixie dust.

Winter in November... as it should be.

Northern Flicker

Birds are fast and unpredictable, which makes them tricky to shoot. This little guy was hanging out in my backyard one day, and held still long enough for me to capture this:

He's a Northern Flicker, and this is what allaboutbirds.org has to say about him:

Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. When they fly you’ll see a flash of color in the wings – yellow if you’re in the East, red if you’re in the West – and a bright white flash on the rump.