It’s Friday November 1st and it’s freezing outside—literally. My weather app says it’s 31 degrees and it feels like 23! Yikes! Less than two weeks ago, it was so sunny and warm that we were out walking in shorts and t-shirts! Michigan weather is like that– happy one day, miserable the next.
Belted Kingfisher, female 
House Sparrow, female
In spite of the vagaries of Michigan weather, I’ve had a surprising number of opportunities to squeeze in a picture walk here and there. When it looked like I only had an hour or two between bouts of rain, I’d stay close to home and visit the business park next door, or the nearby woods where we live, or the preserve across the street. When there was a bigger window of opportunity, I’d venture further afield to the fish hatchery, the nature center, or the bird sanctuary.
Blue-headed Vireo 
Song Sparrow
Goldfinch 
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Once the season changes from warm summer days to fall and winter chilliness, it gets harder and harder for me to find things to photograph. When I was out at the fish hatchery the other day, for example, it took me forever to spot the well-camouflaged snipes, yellowlegs and killdeer out on the mudflats. It also took me beyond forever to pick out the Northern Shovelers swimming among the mallards in the adjacent pond. From a distance, those birds all looked the same. It was kind of like a ‘Where’s Waldo’ search– but without Waldo’s brightly colored clothes!
Field Sparrow 
Cardinal, female
I enjoy the challenge, though, of trying to find things. It’s a big part of what makes photography such an addictive hobby. When I am concentrating on finding an elusive bird or insect or mammal, there’s no more room in my brain for anything else–like today’s politics or the devastating effects of climate change or the well being of my friends and family. So I keep going back for more, for another ‘fix’, as often as I can.
Ring-billed Gull 
South Haven Lighthouse
Over the last couple of years, I’ve wondered exactly how much of an addiction to photography I really have. How many pictures does it take to qualify as an addiction? a thousand? Five thousand?? I know that I take a lot, but what, exactly, is a lot?
Mallard 
Northern Shoveler
Pectoral Sandpiper 
Killdeer
There are several different websites you can go to where you can determine how many ‘shutter actuations’, or pictures you have taken, for any given camera. I’ve had my current camera, a Nikon D5600, for exactly 2 years and I’m the only one who’s uses it. As of September 2019, I’ve apparently taken 109,510 pictures!! That’s a lot of pictures by any standard I expect! In fact, Nikon says that the shutter expectancy for my particular camera was met when I’d reached 100,000 pictures!
I’m going to guess, that If there’s a standard by which one qualifies as an addict, this is probably it!
Northern Flicker 
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Worth it, spectacular shots 😊
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing. I love taking pictures, too! I review my birds by looking at your posts.
Thanks for the feedback! I depend on an app called iNaturalist for identifying many of the things I photograph. By the way, I’m fairly new at this and wondered how people even find my blog. How did you come across it? Thanks.
Jeanne