“All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.”  – John Coltrane

As I have actually been putting in a solid effort into studying music these days, I can’t help but come across the wisdom of the greats like this quote from tenor sax legend John Coltrane which is personally a little hard to ignore as I seem to be surrounded by so much nature.  When I saw that the last day of 2014 was to be a mild one, I started planning a bit.  Surely, this would be a great day to go a-wanderin’!  But, for reasons that I won’t get into here, any plans of true adventure would have to wait for another day.  A mini adventure though is always on the table!

So, with camera and a baggy of bird seed in hand, I drove out to Pike Lake in search of my feathery friends.  As I’ve written numerous times before, there’s something about having a bird fly to you and grab a peanut out of your hand to instantly make you feel good again.  Why wouldn’t I want to end what’s been, let’s face it, a pretty rough year for me on a wonderful note?

What I was most excited about this time though were the nuthatches.  I have had these birds come to my hand before but, it’s very rare.  This time though, I just left some seed on a fallen tree and snapped away.  It didn’t take long before the nuthatches came and oh my, are they ever beautiful!

Of course, the chickadees were there as well doing their thing.  I’m not sure why but, I seemed to have a bit more trouble shooting them this time.  Maybe because it’s winter and they’re more twitchy in the colder weather as a means to stay warm?  Or it could be that I’m more impatient because I’m the frozen one.  I don’t know.  On the bright side, the pictures that I tried in manual mode when I left seed on the stump didn’t turn out quite as bad as they have in the past so even as a photographer, this artist is definitely improving!  (I hope my photo editing is improving too!  I haven’t yet colour corrected my monitor and while they’re supposed to look good on any screen, I’m not 100% sure.  Of course, with camera and computer technology trying, but failing, to be smarter than us, the colour will never be perfect to begin with!)

And a trip to Pike Lake wouldn’t be complete without a ‘hello’ from at least one squirrel.  Well, I say ‘hello’ to the squirrel whereas, I’m sure the squirrel just says back, “Drop the food and get the hell out of here!” but, you get my drift!

Happy New Year, everyone!