I had a blast getting pictures of the blue jays today!  They were dashing in and out of the trees and to the seeds so fast, it was a real challenge.  Many of the photos didn’t work out at all because of that.  More than a few times, by the time I took the shot, the bird was already gone, and I was left with a picture of a pile of seeds! :-D

These photos were taken before the snow completely covered the seeds, and I fiddled around with the settings on the camera part way through, to try and better capture flight images.  Unfortunately, one of the down sides of using the zoom lens is that it makes for darker photos.  Between the two, I had to do a fair bit of lightening of the images.  Hardly the best photography, but they were fun to take!

I just love that little head tilt!

Out of focus, but gosh, I love this one!

It wasn’t until I cropped and lightened the photo that I could finally see what was really going on here – that blue jay in front plowed right into the soft snow at landing!

It then immediately turned and hopped the other way, again, sinking into the snow on landing!

The other bird seems to have a “this guy is nuts” expression going. :-D

Another poor photo, as far as image quality goes, but I think it’s my favourite of the bunch.  Just look at those wing feathers!

The Re-Farmer