This and That

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Feeder is busy again with House Finches. The females look like they’re molting, but the males are dazzling with their vibrant red heads.

House Finch

The Black-capped Chick-a-dee makes daily appearances too, but I’ve not got a decent image of it so far this season.

The Mockingbird has a mate and they’ve been busy bullying anything they can.  I caught one with a nice, fat bee last week. Since it didn’t eat it straight-away I’m guessing it went back to the nest with this meal.

Snack time!

A new visitor to my yard this year is a Black Phoebe. Isn’t he handsome?

Black Phoebe  Adult

The female Anna’s Hummingbird prefers the Lantana to the feeder this year so I try to catch her there when I’m out back. She’s lovely when the sun hits her back.

Anna's Hummingbird Female

Here’s a macro image I created sometime ago that never made it to my Project 52. I used to set up this engine and a several cars around the Christmas Tree when my kids were little. It’s been buried in the garage for years, but I rediscovered it while cleaning out the garage. It’s a Bachmann Union Pacific Diesel Engine. Now that we have a little one (#1 Grandson) I’ll have to start setting it up again.

P52 18 of 52 Bachmann Union Pacific Diesel Locomotive Engine

Speaking of the garage, that reminds me it’s been sometime since I talked about our remodel.  It’s coming along very well. They’re right on schedule.

April 29th: Ground-breaking day. It was fun. We had a little digger in the front yard digging out the place for the foundation. #1 Grandson loved that! This is how the front of the house looked before the digger arrived-the foundation’s been planned out-

Ground Breaking Day_4620

The digger

It's official. We have Ground-breaking!
It’s official. We have Ground-breaking!

A lot has happened between then and early June- The foundation was poured, the framing went up, and June 2nd this is how the house looked at the end of the day.

Adding a bedroom, and a small sitting/office area in the Master Bedroom.
Adding a bedroom, and a small sitting/office area in the Master Bedroom.

Next week our new front door, and front windows will be installed, the plywood for the roof will be put on, and the following week they plan on breaking through the walls to the house so we need to move to other rooms while the work is being done.

There’s a lot of changes in the Master Bedroom, and bathroom that I’ll share in an upcoming post.

I’m feeling better. I hiked up the steep hill yesterday. It was tough! Probably more than I should have done since I’m still coughing and having sinus issues. What was I thinking? 🙂 Other than that it’s been a quite week-end.

I hope you all are having a great week-end!

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| Lensbaby Composer Pro| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Hand-held

More to come…

P52 23/52: Lizard

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I’ve been down for the count all week with a cold/sinus infection. Today is the first day I’ve felt like I’m going to get over it, even with the case of Laryngitis I woke up with this morning.

I spent a little while getting some sun out back today, and found I wasn’t alone. This little guy was on the deck soaking up the rays too.

P52 23 of 52 Lizard

I hope you’re all well, and have a great week-end!

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm| Hand held| Hoodman STEEL High Speed Digital Film

More to come…

Monochrom Madness 2-13: Water

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Clear Lake in Lakeport, CA
Monochrome Madness 2 13/52 Water

To see all the entries into this week’s Monochrome Madness 2 head on over to Leanne Cole’s webpage here

Nikon Df| Nikkor 17-35mm| Tripod| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro 2

More to come…

Dawn over Clear Lake, CA

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The view of Clear Lake from the second floor of the Inn I spent the night in.  It was just about 5:15am when I made this image. It was so quiet, peaceful, and not cold.

Dawn Clear Lake CA

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Tripod| CS6 & On1 Perfect Effects 9.5

More to come…

Clark’s Grebes Golden Hour Courtship Dance

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Daylight starts pretty early this time of year so we met our Boat Captain at 5:45am to get in as much morning light as possible. Soon we were sailing far out into the lake to find the Grebes. It wasn’t long before Faith our Captain spotted a large group and headed for them.

Twilight turned to Dawn then Golden Hour.  We were very lucky to have been able to see this set of Clark’s Grebes dancing across the water with their breast mostly exposed to us during Golden hour. The warmth and color wasn’t like this for long.
Gosh, they were beautiful! This pair had a rather long run too.

Most the morning the Grebes danced away from us. Though Faith gave the Grebes plenty of space and room to dance our way they didn’t.
This was the very first dance we saw that morning. It turned out to be my favorite image. It happened so fast that I nearly missed it. Thankfully, Faith’s skill at spotting pairs that might dance, and her fast reflexes to get the boat in the right position she was able to alert us in time to catch this run.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm + Tamron 1.4x TC| Hand-held| Hoodman STEEL High Speed Digital Film| CS6

More to come…