OH, I see what you mean. This must be more of a tech thing, using the camera to it's limits? They want to see every tip of every feather and give most of the credit to the camera? I just think that pic is a work of art, I think the "soft edges" enhances the beauty of the birds and the flowers. May I print it and hang it? I could send you a few very bad pictures of my little pond, never seem to be able to get the brids that love it so much to pose for me. Wax wings, Indigos, Tanagers, Orioles, Towhees, Cardinals, Gold Finches, Grosbeaks, Dees, Robins, all make a very colorful splash along with all the flowers blooming around it and the goldies IN it..

Finally saw our first waxwings this week in our blueberries. To me, the arrival of waxwings in southern Il seems strange. I associate the waxwing as a northern bird. However, they don't arrive here till mid June and stay sometimes two or three months before disappearing. Most birds migrate through here much earlier and stay a month at the most. We also are enjoying our towhee every single day as he visits the ground surrounding our feeders. I only see one though. We are fortunate to have loads of cardinals; and, yesterday, he spent a good half hour chasing one particular female around. I think the poor lovelorn thing must be getting desperate. Finally, our summer tanagers are back, and I have been blessed with some real close encounters with them. They like to hang out at our red raspberries and blackberries and have a very unique vocalization.

A couple of years ago, I had a pair of waxwings nesting in a tree in my yard. A robin kept approaching the nest. Even though the robin didn't do anything to the eggs, the waxwings ended up abandoning the nest with the eggs in it because, I guess, of the robin coming too close to the nest and disturbing them. Even though robins don't pose a threat, I guess they felt the nest wasn't safe. I think the robin liked the location of the nest. Anyway, they stayed away for quite some time. They eventually returned and dismantled the nest and moved it to another yard. I had provided wool for them to build the nest so they didn't want to leave the wool behind so they relocated. I was sad to see them leave, but the next year they successfully nested and had 5 fledglings that all successfully left the nest.

When I first saw this I was on my iPhone and couldn't see any. Now on my PC I see several although my mature vision can't see 20. Nice shot. Thanks. tj