Birds at Sunrise

I went to the Villano Boat Ramp in St. Augustine before sunrise to get some morning pictures of the birds. The colors were not as spectacular as I had hoped, but all sunrises are amazing in their own way. The fishermen were departing while many of the birds were arriving near the ramp. It was peaceful and beautiful.

While downloading the pictures and going through them this afternoon, Regis was on the lanai trying to get a Carolina Wren out of there. We have had to chase the wren out of the bedroom, garage, and now twice out of the lanai.

Our little rescue red-bellied woodpecker continues to pull his feathers out. His tail and body feathers were beginning to come in, but he pulled all his tail feathers out and is working on what left of his body feathers. Fortunately, he has not pulled his wing feathers out. They are growing in more slowly than we would like. Once he can fly, we will release him regardless of the tail and body feathers. He clearly has some issues in captivity and it does not suit him. We let him out on the lanai today to see how well he could fly. He can get airborne for about a foot, but not enough to be released. I now think we may have him for as much as a month more.

I do not feel comfortable taking good pictures of people. So, I took an outdoor class yesterday with Rick Ferro who does wedding photography at Disney to learn how to take portraits of people. I learned a lot and feel more comfortable with the idea of using flash and other options for lighting and photographing people. Perhaps I can get some victims to volunteer for me. I told Regis he needed a proper haircut so I could use him as a test subject. Neither of us has had a good haircut since last spring. I do not wish to put his life at risk for a picture, so we will see when it seems safe to do so. Once that happens, I will give my new skills a try and post a picture if I can get a good one.