Viewing Birds, Late December.

I really need to start choosing my Photo of the Year, but it's hard to judge so I procrastinate. Today I'm posting for my favorite Saturday linkups: Saturday's Critters and I'd Rather Be Birdin'.

Let's start with a blue jay and a Carolina wren. The jay is a large bird and can be as much as a foot long. Did you know they sometimes squirrel away nuts to eat later?

The round little Carolina wren is much smaller. Isn't it a cute bird?

I believe this duck is descended from domestic ducks that escaped and now live wild on our community lake. They live peacefully alongside our mallard ducks, a muscovy ducks, various geese, and great blue herons.

The pair of birds in the tree are mourning doves. I often see them in pairs.

The bird on the feeder is a female cardinal.

I'm getting better at spotting great blue herons.  This one looked like a blue-tinted spot across the lake until I zoomed in using my old Nikon with its 42X optical zoom lens.  I also cropped the picture in Photoshop.

I keep the old Nikon (a P510) on a table by a window so I can take pictures of birds. I rarely take it on expeditions because its capacity is now limited to the built-in memory. The SD card slot got messed up months ago and a couple of repair places said they cannot fix it because it is "old" and they no longer have parts for it! It dates to around 2012.

Typically I download pictures from it twice a week (connecting with a cord) and then reformat the memory. For most of my photography, I use a newer camera or my cell phone. The cell is handy for public places because people don't even notice it so it doesn't make them nervous or self-conscious.