Winter Bluebird

Oddly, though we are near the northern end of the Western Bluebird range in Western Washington, they have a tendency to hang around over the winter.  This move has proven pretty disastrous on occassion (the first year we had them in our boxes they raised three broods, then we lost almost all of them to a nasty winter snow storm followed by freezing rain that kept them from food).  This year we have about a dozen that form a loose flock and work their way around the area.  I had the cat out yesterday when they showed up and ran in for the camera.  I managed to get some decent images, though they did require a bit of cropping.  This one posed on a perch I put up above the box they used last summer.

7D2, Sigma 150-600mm contemporary at 531mm, f/9, 1/1250, sio 800, aperture priority, pattern metering with +2/3 stop compensation.  Processed in LR5 & CS6.  Cropped to 6.9 MP.  Taken November 20th at 11:51 am under partly cloudy skies (a bit of haze saved me).

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