Five Feathered Friends!

Below are five Feathered Friends that I encountered on the Little Gunpowder Trail To Bottom Road in Baltimore County, Maryland. These were all taken on my first visit out to this area of the Gunpowder Falls State Park and two of the captures were nice surprises for me.

First up, I have a Robin that had what looked like a huge worm in it's beak. In taking a closer look, I can't be entirely certain that it is a worm but whatever it is I think it's safe to say that this Robin is not going hungry!

My first surprise capture was a Pileated Woodpecker! Yeah, I know it isn't the best photo of a Pileated Woodpecker or any Woodpecker for that matter but it is the only photo that I've gotten of a live one, so I'm pretty happy about that. I will continue to try to get better photos of them. I can hear them plenty but spotting one and getting a photo of one is a bit more difficult ... for me anyway!

I spotted a Mourning Dove way up in this Lichens laden tree. The Mourning Dove is easier to spot but it was quite far away. I did hear a lot of cooing out on the trail but this one was the only one that I saw and that may be because the tree was pretty bare of foliage.

"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane"....Nope! It's a bird! Two to be exact! It's a wonder I caught them at all because even though it was cloudy with some sun, the glare was still there. My eyes are light blue and extremely sensitive to sunlight and glare so even on a cloudy day I can still be seen wearing sunglasses. Anyway, they were high in the sky and I'm almost certain that they were Vultures.

My last photo and my second surprise sighting and capture was this beautiful Cedar Waxwing! I was happy to get the Pileated Woodpecker but was even happier to see and get a photo of this Cedar Waxwing. I never even realized that Cedar Waxwings resided in the state of Maryland as I've never in my life seen one till now. I think this is the one capture out of the five birds that I'm most fond of!

Those are my five Feathered Friends that I caught on this particular visit but I want to tell you a couple of other things. About a week and a half ago a big package came in the mail. My husband told me explicitly not to open it. Hmmm...odd...since I've never opened any package that was addressed to him unless he asked me to. Can you guess what was in the box? Let me show you!

He bought a new camera which is a Canon Rebel T7 along with a bunch of accessories. Now, he didn't know it but I had looked at one of these when I was looking for a new /used camera. I bought the Nikon P610 (used) because it was an awesome price and I could afford it. My first thought was how much did all of this cost! He told me what he paid and that he used up a bunch of points for the balance of the cost. He also informed me that he got it for both of us which is cool. I don't believe I've shown any photos from that camera yet and, quite frankly, I can't say for sure which ones he took and which ones I took but whichever. What's mine is his and what's his is mine in our book or photos...lol. I can say that we both took photos of something recently with both cameras and maybe I will show a comparison of them. I like it but I think it will take some getting used to. So I, or should say we, now have the Canon Rebel T7, the Nikon P610, the Sony Still camera that I dunked in the water but is "still" working (I prefer it for close-ups) and our phone cameras. I'm happy also that he is getting interested in photography again. He had a really nice set-up for film before the digitals and phone cameras came out. Let me emphasize though that we are both amateurs in photography so it is a fun activity that we both like!

Btw...I was temporarily unsuccessful in my mission yesterday! I tried and while my endeavor may have failed this time, the mission is still on and I will try once more before calling my mission a total fail! That is all! 😏

Thank you @melinda010100 for #featheredfriends!!