NEW CAMERA

I've made the jump to a DSLR, a SONY A-200. I love my Panasonic FZ30 and old Olympus C2100UZ, but I'm ready to expand the limits. There will still be times when one of the older cameras will be just what I want to use, they are both fine tools.
I've neglected this blog lately, I'm trying to adjust to prescribed meds I have to take, and one of the side effects is that you feel sleepy. I sure can't have that, it's no kind of life at all! I need to get outside and move!
We've had some wonderful rains, the ponds are brimming, everything is greening up, flowers appearing everywhere, and the birds building nests or already raising chicks.
Pictures will be anywhere you look, just be there with a camera, springtime will provide the rest!

Too many things eating up my time!

I really know I just can't run around with my camera sll the time, but I don't have to like it!
I went to the little freshwater pond near the saltmarsh yesterday. Not a creature in sight, but I sat there and waited. A few Ring Billed gulls and Laughing gulls sailed in and started to bathe. Then came a flock, about 15 birds, of White Ibis, and some Boat tailed Grackles and 4 Fish Crows. They were all busy splashing, and then along came a Little Blue Heron, in full breeding plumage, and it landed right in the middle. I took 235 shots without moving a foot. I can't show them all here, but the ones I've processed are in my Pbase and Photobucket galleries.
I'm ready to go to the Alligator Farm to check out the rookery. The Great Egrets and wood Storks are nesting, the other birds will come along later. It is an experience you have to see to believe, a bird lovers fantasy.
On the way home from the pond, I looked up, the little male Red shouldered hawk that lives around here was posing on an old power pole. Usually he sits on a wire, he must know I don't like wires in my pictures, LOL

New Day

I'm up, not bright eyed and bushy tailed, just awake. It's down to 50f here, little cooler than along the coast. It's supposed to be partly cloudy, just have to wait and see. I'd like some decent light so I can mount the TC lens on the FZ30 and give it a good run. It gives me 775 mm of reach, but needs good light for good focus, my old eyes do too. I've been chasing a pair of Kestrels around, one of these days I'll get lucky with that long lens. Even with I/S in the camera the rig needs to sit on a tripod for best results, and Kestrels don't usually give you any set up time.
The Robins had about cleaned up all the Yaupon berries several days ago, and have moved on. Lots of Chipping Sparrows around the yard, some Cardinals, not much else.
Much of the fresh water around here is man made, old borrow pits left from when I-95 was being built. They have steep sides, not much shallow area for wading birds and puddle ducks, and not much vegetation, which makes them about useless for my purposes. I don't wade the swamp these days, old legs can't be trusted. I miss that part of my life, a lot.