2010 Best of....: SONG BIRDS

I've already featured my favorite Woodpecker photos of 2010 and my favorite Bluebird photos of 2010..  SO today I will feature my 'other' favorite backyard bird pictures that I took in 2010..  Above is a picture of a TUFTED TITMOUSE,  taken on 1/8/10.  Below are more.

Another of my favorite birds is the CAROLINA WREN.  I love this picture of a very cold little guy,  perched on top of a rhododendron blossom, taken on 2/16/10.

You can see one of my favorite male AMERICAN CARDINAL in my header.  That picture was taken on 2/16/10.   Here is another favorite Cardinal picture taken on 11/14/10.  This picture obviously is a beautiful female Cardinal... Isn't she gorgeous?

This beauty is one who only visits us twice a year --while migrating.  They visit in Spring and again in Fall.   He is a gorgeous ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.  What a beautiful bird!  This picture was taken on 4/29/10.

One of my favorite little birds who is with us all year is the CAROLINA CHICKADEE.  They are very friendly little birds ---and ones that will come close,  even when I am nearby.   This picture was taken on 4/7/10.

This little CHIPPING SPARROW is a beautiful little bird.  I took this picture on 4/8/10.

And finally, I chose this recent picture of a DARK-EYED JUNCO taken on 12/13/10.  The little Juncos always come around after it snows.   I loved this picture since he almost seemed to be burying himself  in the snow.

Well--I could have chosen many, many more pictures of my little songbirds --but I'll stop with these.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my 2010 favorite songbird pictures.

Hugs,

Shine On...

I have talked and talked about how much we enjoyed seeing the sunrises and sunsets while at Ocean Isle Beach,  NC, in December.  What I haven't shared is the beautiful moon pictures that George took while there.  We enjoyed seeing that gorgeous full moon each night we were there,  and we even set the clock to see the Eclipse on Dec. 21.  Here are some of our beautiful MOON pictures.

These first two pictures obviously are of the gorgeous full moon.  It was wonderful to be at the beach during this time --since we had such great views of the moon that week.

There is something so interesting about seeing the moon surrounded by clouds.  George took this one from our balcony one night... Neat, huh?

Here is another picture of the moon with the clouds around it.  If you look at the clouds,  you can almost make out some different shapes.  I see a dog's or cat's face,  above and slightly to the left of the moon.  What do you see?

We didn't get outside soon enough to see the total lunar eclipse,  but we did get to see the partial eclipse--after the moon was moving out of the earth's shadow.   During a lunar eclipse,  the Earth lines up directly between the sun and the moon,  so there is no direct sunlight to hit and reflect off the moon's surface. During the total eclipse,  you cannot see the moon at all because it is hidden by the earth's shadow.

The only light that reaches it is 'filtered and bending through our atmosphere'.  That gives it the color of "all of the world's sunrises and sunsets"  together.  It was awesome to see.

Here is one more picture of the moon as it moves out of the earth's shadow.  The total eclipse lasted for 72 minutes and the entire eclipse lasted for about 3.5 hours.  We only saw about 10 minutes of it --since it was 4:07 a.m. Eastern time when we got up.  YAWN!!!! ha...   Well---even if it was in the middle of the night,  we are both glad that we got up and saw this rare happening.

Hope you enjoyed our moon pictures as much as we did.   We think we picked a perfect week to go to the beach!!!!

Hugs,