I’ve been amazed at some of the photographs I’ve managed to take lately; I am in love with my camera, although it’s not the latest and greatest.
For years I wanted to take pictures and use the pictures for my own paintings subjects, whether they be pastel, acrylic or oil, but now it appears as though the pictures can stand all by themselves. Eventually, though, I will get back to painting.
The next thing I’ll need to invest in is some sort of a camera bag…that can carry my laptop. I also noticed a cool-looking holster for a camera, which keeps it at-the-ready, rather than in a bag where you have to wing it around and waste valuable moments getting the camera out. In some instances, you only have moments - and if you’re not completely ready to pull off the shot, you’ve missed it.

I’m having trouble identifiying what type of bird this is.
This is a young male cedar waxwing. What I discovered while trying to capture pictures of these little guys is - they are swooping in very close to the surface of the water to gobble up certain bugs. In shallow water, they’ll even walk out to grab their prey; whatever it is.

Two cedar waxwings. These two lit on a dead stump very close to me. I pulled off only one clear shot of the two of them together before the one on the right flew away.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron. I think this is a female, but sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Great Blue Heron. This big fella likes to hang out near this crop of dead trees. He is preening a lot and you can see some of his castoff feathers on the surface of the water. I think the one that is wandering around is the female, but I’m not quite sure.

Plover. None of the plover pics are as clear as the others - because I have to magnify them considerably; but I have numerous pictures of sandpipers and plovers from this one particular area.
I’m completely enthralled with this area because there is so much action, and I don’t have to wait very long before great shots come into view.
I missed a good shot of a turtle dove and a woodpecker; I’ll have to go back when I have more time.

Seagull on a street lamp