... flower faffing

I was going to blip another bird today - heaven knows, they were all posing for me everywhere I looked today. But, I kind of wanted to get a couple of shots of the beautiful flowers my friend Ellen brought me this weekend when we all got together. And, you know how one thing just leads to another when you start faffing around with editing...

The next thing you know, you've got some hot-plastic flowers! If you want to see what the untouched photo looks like, click HERE. I am still learning my way around Corel PaintShop Pro - and mostly just fiddling with the "artistic" tools like this one. They don't require any special knowledge or skill - right up my alley!

The thrasher was lurking in the shrubs outside my office pretty much all day, accompanied randomly by chickadees, finches (gold and house), titmice, and Carolina wrens. On the nearby birch tree, it was a pretty steady stream of blue jays, with brief visits by the male red-bellied woodpecker ... and then a crow! That's a first - the crow managed to hang from a branch and go after the suet ... until he saw a hint of movement inside (that would be me) and left. Even the cardinals stopped by the suet. I have to think that this is related to the nesting season. I am not sure when the various species here lay eggs, but I think that probably most are laying or close. So, maybe they feel the need to increase their protein? I have no idea - one more question on my list...

Thanks for all the comments, hearts, stars on the thrasher yesterday. I am still totally fascinated every time I see it outside my window. I wasn't going to leave the suet feeders up in the summer, but I am rethinking that now... especially this one since it is tucked into a nice big shrub ... only about 18 inches from my window! I've read that thrashers tend to be secretive, so I think the location of this feeder is the key to me having such a great view of this bird - he/she is completely invisible from the outside of the shrub while eating.

Lots of cool stuff going on in the bliposphere, so I'm off to scan some journals!