Just a bit jealous!

[MN Shutterbug]

There sure have been some nice photos posted here recently. And yeah, I'm more than a little envious. Kudos to the rest of you for your good work. I know, all I have to do is hop in the car and head north. Unfortunately, even with gas prices decent again, 650 miles and a night or 2 in a motel, is still pretty spendy for a pauper such as I. Not only that, it seems like every few days you guys get a foot or more of snow. The 4 inches we get every week is driving me nuts. If I did get all the way to the bog, I probably wouldn't get home for a week.

Anyway, enough of my whining. You guys are doing great.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Not to worry X,we'll get the Warblers 1st.

[Steve Foss]

I know, all I have to do is hop in the car and head north.

Aren't there any birds in your part of the country?

[MN Shutterbug]

Birdsong lets me know occasionally when she has birds in her yard, but by the time I get there, they've flown the coop. I think the Sharpshin is hanging around quite a bit. Not only that, but her yard is really tough to shoot in, even when there are birds there. She has a few large trees with many branches. By 4:00 in the afternoon, the light is already fading back there.

I've spent some time in our area state park recently, and heard a kingfisher and a redbelly, but saw nothing. It's really depressing around here. Thank goodness winter is almost half over.

If we ever get a streak of decent weather, I'm going to head north. With all that snow up there, there has to be some great landscape photos just waiting to be created. That would be a new challenge for me.

[Steve Foss]

Don't you have birds in your yard?

[MARINERMAGNUM]

I had a bead drawn on a Red Headed woopecker today,but the obligatory gawker slowed down to see what I was up to and scared him off.

I'm ashamed to say it,but,............I,I,..I gave them the finger.

Nosey Nate.

[MN Shutterbug]

Steve, the only birds I've seen in my yard in the last month, is a pair of downys. Birdsong's backyard borders a small river, so she has birds year round, due to her feeding regimen. Bird feeders don't work, where I live. This is why I keep the squirrels fat, instead.

MM, I'm really ashamed of you.

[Steve Foss]

I hear you, MM, no better way to net yourself a rubbernecker than to stick a lens out the window or get out to photograph something along a road.

Mike, I'd be over at Birdsong's yard EVERY day!

[jonny_redhorse]

What's worse then a "Rubbernecking Gawker"?....A Drunken Rubber Necking Gawker!...lol!....I had that buzzed up,80 year old couple(with a pint on the seat between em) a month ago stop as I was about to snap an image of a great grey in a field north of Hibbing......"Whatcha doin there Mr.?"....women was slurring her words.... ....and then extends a shaking hand for me to shake it......all the time the great grey is sitting 40' away watching this all unfold!.....no respect!...lol!

[Birdsong]

There are lots of birds here right now. Woodies, chickums, nutties, cardinals, finches and siskens. Come on over. It took a while to recover from filling the feeders in the snow this morning. I have a big yellow dog I had to rescue because his family couldn't make it home in the storm. Big Herbie looooves filling bird feeders. The birds are used to the fifteen pound dustbunny that calls herself a dog around here.

I would love to hear what the gawkers have to say when they see you lying on gravel roads getting snow buntings to work your way back to you.

[MN Shutterbug]

Sure, they show up when we have a -23 wind chill. Forget it. Thanks anyway.

I'll probably get a little [PoorWordUsage] for this.

[Steve Foss]

Sure, they show up when we have a -23 wind chill. Forget it. Thanks anyway.

I'll probably get a little [PoorWordUsage] for this.

Yep, might as well pack up the avian photography until spring, buddy! BTW, there's no wind chill in a blind. I know, you just like to be grumpy. My wife's like that sometimes, mostly when I ignore the honey-do list. What's your excuse?

There, was that enough [PoorWordUsage]?

BTW, when I want to work from a blind nowadays, I just pull my Otter sled where I want it and open both windows, shooting out of one off a monopod and letting the heat from the heater flow out of the other. Works mighty slick as long as you give it a day or so to let the birds get used to it. I no longer have a portable shooting blind because the snow killed it last winter. Now I'm set up so I shoot out of a hole cut in our big wooden garden shed.

[MN Shutterbug]

OK, my blind is now sitting in Birdsong's backyard with snow banked up around it, to keep the wind from blowing it over. I also talked her into running an extension cord over to it, so when I return, I can bring a small electric heater and be relatively comfy.

I'll probably leave the blind there the rest of the winter, so we can both take advantage of it for the next couple months.

[Steve Foss]

Well, then I won't expect any more whining from you the rest of the winter, Mister!

Make sure that zoom sticks well out of the shooting portal in the blind. If it's totally inside the blind, the heat waves escaping through the hole will distort the images.