THE CHANGING SEASONS – NOVEMBER 2019
This is one of the big change months of our calendar. We go from warm late fall days to bitter cold and sometimes snow. We didn’t (praise be!) get snow, but we got a lot of rain. We had one perfect week of Autumn. We used to get a month of it, but times are changing. It arrived late and departed in one night. A lot of trees just dropped their leaves without them even changing color.
But we got Cardinals and our very first Bluebirds. A triumph!
Bluebird and Chickadee
Very pretty Bluebird
Like Su Leslie, I’ve largely retreated emotionally to home and things I have some control over. I try to keep in touch with the world because maybe big things are coming and I hope I’m still here to participate. Meanwhile, I feed the birds — a small thing to help beleaguered creatures — and simultaneously am growing the fattest squirrels in North America.
From the front of the Bluebird
And one day, we had bluebirds!
It’s supposed to snow tomorrow and the news has been full of it. But when they talk about huge snowstorms, they mean nine inches to a foot. I am meanwhile thinking two to three feet or, as you folks say, a meter or more. What we are actually supposed to get is one to three inches, which isn’t snow. It’s a dusting.
It does mean winter really is here. I hope it isn’t really awful. A mild winter would be easier for everyone!
About The Changing Seasons
The Changing Seasons is a monthly challenge where bloggers around the world share what’s been happening in their month.
If you would like to join in, here are the guidelines:
The Changing Seasons Version One (photographic):
- Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery that you feel represent your month
- Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.
- Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them
The Changing Seasons Version Two (you choose the format):
- Each month, post a photo, recipe, painting, drawing, video, whatever that you feel says something about your month
- Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!
- Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so others can find them.
If you do a ping-back to Su Leslie’s original post, I can update it with links to all of yours.
Share this:
Categories: #Birds, #gallery, #Photography, Blackstone Valley, Marilyn Armstrong
PRETTY RED BIRD 
BIRDS AND AN EARLY SNOW – Marilyn Armstrong 
OUT ON THE DECK – Marilyn Armstrong 
THE ZOO ON THE DECK – Marilyn Armstrong 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Those bird photos! So adorable. I’m always amazed by folks who can capture birds on film!
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It really helps to have bird feeders on your deck 😀
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Hahaha. Yesss.
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Loved the photo of the top of the woodpecker’s head! All the rest too.
And what a lovely conversation in these comments!
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It’s a good way to see the way the colors and patterns meet. When I got into the kitchen, there was a rare sight: male and female Cardinals chowing down together on one feeder. By the time I’d made it (about 8 feet) to my camera, gone. The only way I catch a lot of these birds is to stand with the camera completely still until they decide I’m not there and THEN they come back. The Nuthatches, Blue Jays, and finches (when they are around, which they don’t seem to be this year) don’t care, but the bigger birds are camera shy. How they disappear so FAST I don’t know, but they are literally gone in a blink.
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I click away from inside my bedroom…camera at the ready, on the window sill.
But then I have a point and shoot. Feels like cheating when I luck out with a good shot!
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I have a really excellent point & shoot, but I wasn’t getting the quality I wanted. Everything was a little “gray” and soft. So I bought a really good lens and while I couldn’t afford it, I’m glad I did it. But of course, I already OWNED the cameras so it was just the lens.
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In the “old days”, i had a beautiful and complete Nikon set up…best macro and telephoto lenses ever. Antiques now of course, but oh, I loved that early macro photography. Now my phone is better at that than my camera!
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The lenses aren’t antique. You can put those old — and often fabulous lenses — on a brand new body and the bodies aren’t expensive. But of course the old lenses won’t be autofocus.
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There really isn’t a better way to do it unless you have a lot of hours to spend completely still in the woods or in some wild place, waiting. I physically couldn’t do it and I’m not sure even if I were in better shape I’d be willing to do it. Too many bugs out there. I felt like I was cheating too, but it really isn’t cheating. That’s how people who like birds keep them happy. We feed them!
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😄😉😏
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Some wonderful galleries here but the birds…wow!
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I went and bought my best (and most expensive) lens for those birds so I’m glad it’s working out. If ONLY they would let me shoot from ON the deck and not through the window, but once I go out, they all fly away.
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I love seeing your bird photos Marilyn. They are so different to our native birds and you are very good at capturing shots of them. I hope your winter is mild; I can’t get my head around that much snow!
Belated Happy Thanksgiving.
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Neither can I! The first year we were here, snow was fun. By the third year we started to get depressed by early November because we KNEW what was coming and as we got older, it got downright scary. Also, we have such erratic winters. One year almost no snow and the next year, 10 feet. You never know what you’re going to get.
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I get the unpredictability fear. My mother used to live in the Scottish Highlands, near Balmoral. She was the housekeeper for an old posh family and lived in a tied cottage. As each winter came I was more and more worried about her, and was really relieved when she left that job for the, relatively warmer climes of Northampton, England.
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We can’t afford to move anyplace we’d really be happy — like Mexico or New Zealand. Most of the U.S. is either equally weather-challenged or so politically backward I don’t think we’d be a welcome couple. There are a lot of places a mixed couple should NOT live. Massachusetts has awful weather, but at least it isn’t in tornado alley and almost everyone is a democrat!
Hard to think of Northampton as warmer than anyplace, but I think England is warmer than it used to be. The weather is so freaky.
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I’m so glad we moved back to NZ when we did. Though after the first year or so when the “honeymoon” ended, we were missing England and ready to go back. T got a call offering him a job with a former employer and it seemed like a brilliant opportunity. That was on Sept 10 2001. By the end of the next day, we had decided to stay put. We’re not immune here, but we’d lived through IRA bombings in England and the consequent disruption of everyday life. Those seem like child’s play now.
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I think you made the right choice. Very much the right choice. You live in a sane country and there aren’t many remaining.
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I guess we look sane compared to so many places, but there is far too much crazy here now too.
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That’s Su’s post Marilyn…..
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Typo corrected!
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😉
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Winter moving in for a stay. You’re caught the contrasts of the season well.
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November is really the biggest change month along with (sometimes) April — or on a bad year, May. It’s often quite warm in the beginning, a continuation of autumn … and snowy by the end, usually with a major climate change right in the middle. This year was bumpy. Warm, cold, warm, cold … and now, definitely cold. I find it a more interesting month than I used to because of the changes. Before I started taking pictures, I didn’t really notice as much. Or at all.
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I give Thanks to all your feathered friends who’ve come to chow down and enrichen our lives.
I give Thanks for our lovely, low key and stress free Thanksgiving/ dinner. Thanks Owen for the delicious lamb and other goodies. Thanks Kaiti. Always good to spend time with our lovely Granddaughter.
I give thanks to that which awaits us on the near horizon. but hasn’t moved in yet. I don’t wish to be mean-spirited but yiu are NOT wanted to here.
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Oh and i love YOUR PICTURES!
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Thanks! It was the bluebirds 😀 They got me.
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hahaha. Awesome that you captured them and shared. I’m beyond delighted!
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Thanks, Covert.
I give thanks for your friendship.
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I am truly honoured by you and Marilyn. I so enjoy you both and I love your writing and photography. I love the knowledge wisdom humour and photography you share. You always manage to bring sunshine and or interest to the table and I look forward to coffee with you daily!
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OMG Bluebirds. How awesome is that!!!!!!!! I hope you enjoy a “milder” winter because anything short of the colossal amounts of snow you get (usually) would be milder. We got our first skiff two days ago, but it melted as soon as it hit. It is much colder at night now, need the neat on but this is amazing considering we had a fireplace going non-stop from the first of November. It’s cold enough to wear winter coats but nice enough in that we have beautiful blue sky and crisp days with plenty of sun which is so delightful.
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Our usually erratic weather is even MORE erratic now than it was before. We are definitely getting a LOT more rain, too. The bluebirds were also a big deal for me. I knew they lived here, but I’d never seen one before.
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Isn’t that exciting??? Bluebirds, how awesome!
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“Bluebirds Over The Mountain”
I forget who covered this one in the 50’s or 60’s.
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I can’t remember either. I’d look it up but I’m a tad weary today. I’ll do it though!
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