After being down to as low as 70 degrees about a week ago, the pool was up to a balmy 85 degrees today. I did my usual slow half mile in the afternoon. When I got out of the pool I noticed a foraging flock of small songbirds high in the trees that border the next lot to the east. I got my Leica 8x32s <\/a> and was able to make out Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Pine Warbler, several other warblers that I could not see well enough to identify, and an ILE first for me, a Downy Woodpecker. <\/p>\n Tomorrow is packing day for the DeSoto Fall IPT; I head to the west coast on Thursday. <\/p>\n Thanks to the generosity of the great folks at B&H, I am proud to announce the first-ever B&H\/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest. The rules are simple: <\/p>\n 1-Anyone can enter one or two of their favorite avian images that were created in 2018. As below, each image must be sent in a separate e-mail. 1st place: a $100 B&H gift certificate All prizes will be awarded. <\/p>\n 8- Entries my be submitted from now until January 16, 2019. Happy New Year! Please remember to do your holiday shopping at B&H using a BAA affiliate link or by clicking here<\/a> or on the banner just below. <\/p>\n Good luck. <\/p>\nThe 2018 B&H\/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest!<\/h3>\n
\n2-Image clean-up and repair is permitted.
\n3-Send you JPEGs in two separate e-mails<\/em><\/strong> only by clicking on this link: Contest Entry e-mail<\/A>.
\n4-Please size your properly sharpened JPEGs as follows: 1200 high or wide less than 600 kb.
\n5-If you do not follow the instructions above to the letter your images will not be judged and you will not receive any notification.
\n6-There is one judge and you can guess who it is.
\n7-Here are the five prizes:<\/p>\n
\n2nd through 4th place: a $50 B&H gift certificate<\/p>\n