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Portuguese water dog doing 'deep woods agility', colourful frog, macro of dandelion seed, mushrooms after rains, stream in the woods, honey bee
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Getting crowded in here!<br /> <br /> Almost grown baby barn swallows. I think they will be flying off in the next day or two. The nest is getting very crowded and they don't fit in any more.
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Getting crowded in here!

Almost grown baby barn swallows. I think they will be flying off in the next day or two. The nest is getting very crowded and they don't fit in any more.

  • Snowdrops and dead leaves, Vancouver BC<br /> <br /> I was planning on posting a model photo today. But I saw these snowdrops that were hidden in the woods on my dog walk. It was so nice to finally see this harbinger of spring that I decided to post both photos! Taken from close up and down low with a 24 mm lens at f11.
  • A display at the garden centre with reflections in the windows.
  • The promise of summer yet to come! With the arrival of daylight savings time, can the warm weather be far behind?<br /> <br /> It was a beautiful sunny warm weekend and perfect for getting out into the garden. I went to the garden center and took a few photos while I shopped for plants.<br /> <br /> Re the discussion about whether to remove overhead wires, sometimes they can be used to make a statement about a location, as with this photo of a Soviet era statue taken in Albania. The wires speak volumes! See here <a href="http://goo.gl/zFk4B">http://goo.gl/zFk4B</a>
  • Another shot of the rose bushes just starting to leaf out.
  • Blossoms at the garden center.
  • Wine bottles at the yacht club.<br /> <br /> The frame is the natural window frame.
  • Portrait of a spot prawn (Pandalus platyceros).<br /> <br /> You can see the two white spots at the top and bottom of the tail section.
  • Spot prawns practicing their 'shrimp ring' routine.<br /> <br /> They weren't very good at this and their tentacles kept getting tangled up, and they kept jumping out of the ring...so I had to coach them through it.
  • Spot prawns after cooking
  • Spot prawns before cooking
  • Baby barn swallows singing 'Oh Canada' (the French version).
  • Baby barn swallows singing 'Oh Canada' (the English version). June 30, 2013.<br /> <br /> SO SORRY Angela and everyone, but something malfunctioned on SMUGMUG and resulted in my accidently posting several repeat comments on angelajones' photo and a couple of others for today. The comments never did appear on my comments page. Hence I didn't know whether a comment was posted or not. I'll try to comment once more on another photo and if it doesn't work, I'll give up :-( Reminds me of Albert Einstein's definition of insanity, which is 'doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results'!<br /> <br /> For the French version click here: <a href="http://goo.gl/gedmv">http://goo.gl/gedmv</a><br /> <br /> Happy Canada Day! (Since Canada is officially bilingual, it is customary to sing our national anthem in both official languages). Any preferences as to the French or the English version, LOL?<br /> <br /> These barn swallows used to build their nest at my neighbours house. When she moved, the spring that she left they moved over to my house, and now they build their nest under my back porch. I like to think that this is the same family of swallows that got used to living with humans at the neighbours. They have been excellent at keeping my back yard insect free and can be seen every day swooping around the yard 'cleaning up'. These babies were hatched only 2 or 3 days ago. There are actually 4 chicks, but one refused to participate.
  • Happy 4th of July!<br /> <br /> This is a Photoshop merge of several individual fireworks bursts. I tried to include everyone's favorite colours :-)
  • Me, me, its MY turn!<br /> <br /> Baby barn swallows with mom. The babies are growing fast and I think they will leave the nest in the next 2 or 3 days. The male and female are both excellent parents and take turns feeding the babies.<br /> <br /> This was a challenging photo shoot today, because of the location of the nest. There was very low light under the deck and I needed a fast shutter speed, a long telephoto range AND a good depth of field! The only solution was to crank the ISO and use a flash.<br /> <br /> It was too difficult to choose between this shot and a shot where dad is bringing an insect to the babies, all of whom have their mouths wide open, so I've posted both today - sorry, if I've broken some unwritten rule :-}<br /> <br /> Self critique: I think the shot with the mom is technically better, but the shot with the dad has a higher awww factor, but the dad is a little out of focus. <br /> <br /> For individual portraits of the mom and dad see here: <a href="http://goo.gl/Up7eB">http://goo.gl/Up7eB</a>
  • The four sopranos! <br /> <br /> Re Donna's comment: I think they are too young to be a real quartet; maybe boy sopranos :-)<br /> I too, had problems with the site today. Many photos opened up to a black box from the thumbnail.<br /> <br /> Lucky capture of all four babies in full throat with dad bringing a nice tasty bug. Their eyes are wide open now and they are developing pin feathers.<br /> <br /> This was a challenging photo shoot today, because of the location of the nest. There was very low light under the deck and I needed a fast shutter speed, a long telephoto range AND a good depth of field! The only solution was to crank the ISO and use a flash.<br /> <br /> It was too difficult to choose between this shot and a shot where mom is bringing an insect to the babies, so I've posted both today - sorry, if I've broken some unwritten rule :-}<br /> <br /> Self critique: I think the other shot with the mom is technically better, but this shot with the dad has a higher awww factor, but the dad is a little out of focus. <br /> <br /> For individual portraits of the mom and dad see here: <a href="http://goo.gl/Up7eB">http://goo.gl/Up7eB</a>
  • Female barn swallow<br /> <br /> Both the male and female take turns sitting on this board under the deck near the nest.
  • Male barn swallow. <br /> <br /> He can be distinguished from the female by the brighter orange of his breast feather.
  • Baby barn swallows outgrowing their nest.<br /> <br /> I think the babies will be leaving the nest soon now. It is a tiny nest and they are really crowded in and piled on top of each other. The mom and dad are still dillgently feeding them, but seem a little tired and sometimes just stand around resting.
  • The quartet taking an intermission.
  • Getting crowded in here!<br /> <br /> Almost grown baby barn swallows. I think they will be flying off in the next day or two. The nest is getting very crowded and they don't fit in any more.
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