more from Hawk Ridge

It's always fun to check the board to see how many birds were seen the previous day and what today's totals are.

While the expert observers had little difficulty identifying the various birds passing over us, they were flying too high for satisfactory photos. To give you some idea, this and the next two pictures were taken with a 400mm lens and then cropped by more than 50%.

The decoy owl was the best target! The few raptors that flew in to check it out made passes that were too fast for my trigger finger.

But then, there was always the Lake, the colors, and blue skies to enjoy! -- in addition to meeting fellow birders.

more to follow