Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Dear Diary

This blog and my web site are useful from year to year for recalling the dates when various critters show up the spring. Today I saw the first goldfinches of the season, and two days ago I saw my first hummingbird. No images of those two so far as the weather has been cool and cloudy, and there may be snow tonight, maybe a lot up in the mountains. Last year I didn't get any images of those two until mid-June. Both the bluebirds and swallows have been absent the past few days with the high wind, so we'll see if either or both return soon.

After I moved the closeup camera from the nest boxes to the bird bath, I got a few magpie images right away but not much since. A small herd of four deer has returned to the neighborhood after being absent most of the winter. I think one of the deer is the buck with the lopsided antlers that has been a visitor the past two years. I had some trailcam images last year that suggest this deer is also blind or impaired in his right eye, the same side as the stunted antler. In this image, it appears the antler bud is smaller on the right, and the right eye is less glossy if you look closely. If this is the same deer, being a non-trophy buck with weird antlers probably contributes to his survival during hunting season.

Just around the corner from Browning #5 is the bird bath with Gardepro T5CF #14. Obviously the best focus is on the big rock, but the deer wandered past in the background. As I have mentioned before, the color is usually different between two cameras of different brands, or even the same camera at different types of the day, and I'm not going to obsess with fixing it. I did adjust the white balance on the Browning to make the twilight less blue but didn't attempt to match the Gardepro. All three of these images were taken after 8 pm.

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