A change in the wind....in black and white

 

I posted this morning about a change in the wind but the shot was a normal color shot. I like it well enough. This afternoon, after taking a black and white class online with Moose Peterson, a famous landscape photographer, I feel this shot as more of a back and white shot. So, I am posting twice today in Shot of the Day. I realized, there are no rules on the blog and in photography, that can't be broken!!!

A Change in the Wind

 

The calendar still says summer but the beginning of fall is here in the midwest. You see a few yellow and slightly red leaves here and there and it is starting to be sweater weather in the evening and early morning. Finally starting to get some rain too as it has been a hot and dry summer. So, a change is in the wind. I hope it brings something better as 2020 has been one hell of a year. 

Old Time Washing Machines

 

Who remembers these old time washing machines with the rollers to get the water out? Now that was some labor saving device. I think I vaguely remember one in our basement when I was very young. I will have to ask my mom if we had one or were we already in the machine age in the late 50's. I definitely remember her hanging clothes on a rope. It is one of my earliest memories as I tried to swing on a clothes rope and dropped to the cement ground. I still have the lump on the back of my head!!! My mom did say that I was kept home from school for a month on a concussion watch. It was probably from that event. Anyway, these are for sale if you are interested. I saw them in Brookston, Indiana. I wonder if there is a Labor Day Sale? 

Another New Find

 

The second new bird that I found on my prairie walk yesterday was the Northern Flicker. This is quite the bird. From a distance I thought, it's just a robin but I took a few pictures of it anyway. When I looked at the back of the camera on zoom,  I saw that this was no Robin. Yellow tail, yellowish breast with brown spots all over it, a black bib and a huge red spot on the back of its head. This was a bird designed by a committee!!! Never knew a bird with such exotic coloring existed and so close to our house. Definitely never seen one of those before, not even in passing. So, looking forward to future discoveries. 

Savannah Sparrow

 

The new fall birds have not come to visit my feeder as of yet so I went out to discover new birds for myself. Took a short hike to the local prairie and found this Savannah Sparrow, a quite distinguished little fellow and one that I have never noticed before. It turns out that there are a lot of different sparrows around, even in just Illinois and the midwest. My sparrow book has 62 of them listed, along with closely related species like buntings, juncos, longspurs and towhees. So, with COVID, I have gone from world traveler (well, US traveler mostly) to backyard birder in 6 months. Now, I have ventured out to a prairie. Since I have all this photography equipment, I have to  shoot someone or something. So, it is birds for now. 

Holding the new grandkid

 

Personal shot here as I have had a couple of excellent opportunities to hold the Peregrine, our newest grandchild, a few times in the past week or so. Stephanie is being appropriately cautious and I have tried to stay as clean as possible to get some chances to hold the baby. The little guy is just over 5 weeks and doing very well in his sleeping, crying, eating and pooping. It is about as good as you can do at this point. Strong little guy. Also getting playing time with Clio, Echo and Leigh with all the working at home. I get an extra hour sleep in the morning and another hour to an hour and a half to visit with the family after work without the commute. Really enjoying working at home. Super busy with all the worry and concern about credit risk in the market. Wish we didn't have an environment that had so much worry but that worry  keeps me busy. Rather that than sitting around all day thinking of things to do. However, always willing to jump up and hold the baby while Stephanie gets a quick bite to eat!!!

A second new visitor

 

A second new visitor appeared at the feeder this week when I just about jumped out of my skin (this is what my life has come to) when I see this dramatically dark streaked bird with a bit of a yellowish/orange head. Never seen this bird before. Turns out it is a female red winged blackbird. The male is very common and I have seen the male before. Maybe once at the feeder but not in enough frequency to get a picture (and none lately). The female showed up a couple times last week. Nothing this week so don't know if it still around. Anyway, fun times in the backyard with the cute Black Capped Chickadee and this dramatic blackbird. I am looking forward to seeing more fall and winter visitors.