Spring at Trempealau Wildlife Refuge

A couple weeks back we took a much needed road-trip to explore. It was the perfect opportunity to snap some shots. We've been to the Wildlife Refuge before, a couple times, but there's always something neat to see. This time we saw tons of  egrets, turtles and pelicans. We even saw flocks of pelicans coming in with their lunch! I wasn't prepared to snap one of those pictures. If I were a super awesome, serious wildlife photographer it'd be a great place to hang out around sunset.
Like I said in one of my previous posts, I'm a tad rusty....
I do want to enter another photo contest this year, so if you see a photo you think would be good to enter, let me know. I'm open to ideas. :D 

Cardinals in the Spring

Every year so far that I've been back in the Midwest is a reminder of just how LONG it takes for Spring and continuous nice weather to arrive. It is so aggravating. 
A couple weeks back, a beautiful cardinal pair was flying around my yard and landing on objects, making me think, "I should really get back into taking pictures."So I took out the camera for the 1st time in months (other than for Easter pics) to snap some photos. They aren't great, but I did it.

This one I was playing a little more than usual with editing.

Butterfly House 2015

I am so behind on my photos to put on my blog. Not only am I behind, I haven't been taking many lately either.
Anyway, these photos were taken at Beaver Creek Reserve, back in July. We went on a family outing to the butterfly house, which is always interesting.

Bald Eagle viewing the River

The bald eagle is one of my favorite birds, so whenever I see any I feel I must take a picture. They also make me think of loved ones that are no longer with us, that maybe they're watching from the bird or are the bird. Hard to put what I mean into words.
Anyway, I hope you don't get sick of all the bald eagle photos!

Bald Eagles along the way

Bald eagles love the area of Wisconsin by the Mississippi River. Until living here I've never seen so many bald eagles! I guess the U.P. is a tad too cold for more to live. I just love seeing them. They are so  majestic and mysterious. They also make me think of loved ones that have passed on. 

Birds on a Winter Day

Another Birds in winter post! I posted one last year, (click here to see) of the birds at my neighbors house. This years were taken at my parents, from the window, inside. Blue-jays are one of my favorite birds, and this one was not easy to capture! I didn't take pictures for that long, I think if I had I may have had some really cool shots. 

Bald Eagles

A couple weeks ago we took a drive  to Alma, WI on the Mississippi River. Ever since first going there I've wanted to take my dad to see the area. The area is known for Bald Eagles and this time we finally saw a few! I got right under the eagle but I wasn't quite at the right angle, and then he flew away. We also saw 2 other bald eagles, one was smaller.  A family perhaps?  The last photo is of the other two.

Birds in Winter

I am back! I am sure I committed social media suicide for being MIA for so long. I apologize! Winter is long and cold. I hate it. I just need to get over my hatred and go out and shoot all the beautiful things there is during the Winter that I can't in the summer.
I bundled up on Sunday to take a few pictures. I haven't gone out in awhile so I felt a little rusty.
Our neighbor has tons of bird feeders at her house so I sat on our steps to take these photos. I hope I didn't look like some stalker ;-) . The day was so cold,  I think if it was warmer a few more types of birds would've been out.

Bald Eagle in Flight

It has been far too long since I have put up a new post! The time and weather change has zapped my enthusiasm to head outside to take some pictures. I planned on taking my cousin's  son/family pictures over Thanksgiving weekend but I came down with the flu so I was not able to do them. Of course on the ride from Ontonagon to Houghton I saw tons of things that were beautiful to shoot but I was too sick to even do it. I am hoping to get back into it but in the meantime I thought I'd post these pictures of a Bald Eagle flying. I hope someday to get close enough to one to take an awesome photo!

Butterfly

It was quite the task to capture this butterfly. Every time I walked close to it it took off.
If you look close at the first photograph you can also see a fly on the flower.

Black & White photos aren't for everyone, but I thought this effect looked neat.

Baby Eagle & Nest

My first time EVER seeing an eagle's nest and a baby eagle. I thought it was so cool!  Of course, I had to get some pictures of it. Although they aren't superb, here's the story and photos.
On our drive to the place we camped a  couple weekends back we were crossing a bridge in Jim Falls, WI and I noticed this HUGE nest on top of an electric pole.

 I told my husband that  he had to stop for me to try to get pictures of it. We stopped on the other side of the river so I didn't get any great pics. As you can see I couldn't get a  close up of it very well even with the longer lens I have. 

We stopped on the way back from camping so I could try to capture better pictures of it.  Funny story, I got out of the car and ended up walking  closer to the nest. I didn't tell Gary I was even going to try to get closer to it. There was  a  trail all the way down to the nest. The eagle took off and went to the other side of the river once he saw me coming so I didn't get a good picture of it after all. After shooting some photos I figured I should probably head back since I didn't even tell Gary I was going down the trial.  As I was emerging out of the brush I saw Gary looking for me! He said in a few more minutes he was going to call the cops if I didn't come back. At least I know he loves me ;).

I got one "good" picture of him before he took off to the other side of the river. I'm actually still pretty far away from him at that point. 

This is where he ended up. 

I could have stayed for hours to get more pictures and to wait for him to come back, but I had someone searching for me.