A Bitter Sweet View

I couldn't pass this up. In my leisurely walk through the bedroom I happened to look out the sliding glass doors, as I generally do, and I noticed a mass in the artistically woven thicket Brent had created over the bank. He's actually woven the young wild hazelnut (Corylus) so it doesn't block our view and serves as a protective barrier for those unaware of the acute bank immediately beyond. Since he was out working in the yard today I figured it must have been a mass of buds pushing out or a nest of some sort. I looked down at Meika (my rotty) and realized she was intently looking at the same object I was. There must be something to this I figured but what could it be? I struggled to focus in on the object in question. (Mind you this is only 8 yards from where I was standing.) It moved...I saw it move... "It's a pheasant!" I exclaimed. Knowing my first response was incorrect I called to Brent! "What is it!?" What a looker! First time we have ever seen a 'Ruffed' Grouse in the 'View' zone. It was difficult to make out the form of the speckled reddish brown bird due to the natural reddish brown coloring of the young hazel. Perfectly camouflaged with colors of browns and white, which looked like spaces between branches, it could eat the newly formed catkins without being detected.


Now... the honest person that I am... I need to let you know this is not actually the bird I saw. Yes, I am more disappointed than you. After grabbing my camera and making my first attempt of getting a good close up without frightening the bird away my flash went off and reflected back at me through the glass. You could just imagine what that picture looked like. I changed the selection on the menu to no flash and handed the camera to Brent. While he was slowly opening the sliding glass doors, I grabbed the dog and held her silent. He was able to get two pictures in without using the flash before the bird flew away. I was so excited and just couldn't wait to post a new article on my views. I quickly took the memory card from the camera and inserted into my computer to download. The disappointment that came across my face as I viewed the white cloud of the reflection in glass and then the dark of the other two pictures. I blew them up in hopes of being able to see a bird but to no avail all was dark. So as you can attest, I am not a photographer. I would only like to be. How many times have I mentioned I need a better camera. It's time for an investment. These two pictures do not fully illustrate the dark reddish brown of 'our' grouse but they are on the same type of tree and engaged in the same activity of eating catkins. Guess I'm fortunate to be able to find the same bird doing the same activity in the tree in the same season.
To this I will close this off and say my view of persons, such as myself, that have blogs can put pictures from the Internet in their posts and nobody would be the wiser. But at least I'm willing to admit it.