Brave Little Birds

After literally years of saving up, I sprang for the 100x400 Canon L-glass lens I've coveted for ages. My friend Jill uses hers all the time and takes extraordinary pictures of dogs for her own enjoyment and also for her business, PoeticGold Farm.

This morning, instead of setting up a remote-shutter system to take pictures of skittish Goldfinches, I shot some braver birds, these Black-capped Chickadees.

They're brave little guys, more likely to chide you and hop from branch to branch than they are to hide in a nearby bush and wait for you to leave. In fact, in almost three quarters of the pictures I took this morning, the Chickadee is keeping a careful eye on me.

And they were very helpful in offering me an opportunity to practice my quick frame-and-focus skills with the new lens.