A New Look

No photos with this post. 

A couple of months ago a friend pointed out that I was photographing many of my yard birds on the same perch.  This was absolutely correct... I had a distinctive (as in forked) perch mounted perfectly above my water feature and many of my visitors would take advantage of that perch.  Once this was pointed out to me I realized that I had photos of many different species... all on the same perch.  I resolved to vary my habitat somewhat and to that end began canvassing friends for pieces of wood that I could rotate in and out of the watercourse landscape.  That I've done and in the process I've come up with a wonderful root that may serve as a permanent fixture adjacent to the pond... along with several other smaller pieces of wood that I plan to rotate in and out of the immediate environment. 

My wife had recently contacted a landscaper about doing some other work around the house and while those negotiations were occuring our original watercourse company left a couple of brochures on our door.  I contacted them yesterday and they came out and gave me a bid for some watercourse changes.  I accepted their bid and all the work is to be done in one day... today, Tuesday. 

Since the watercourse was installed I've had to photograph from north to south... ie, into the sun.  In addition, the roof shades the watercourse in the late afternoon.  I'm having the watercourse changed so that the water, instead of falling off the north face of the rock, will fall off the south face of the rock.   In addition, instead of a straight cascade it will have a curve in the cascade.  The upper and lower ponds will remain as they were... it's only the direction of the water that will get changed. 

This change will have several advantages.  I will have an access rock installed (actually I've pretty much already done that myself) that will allow me to more comfortably access the upper pond and watercourse.  The watercourse will now be much more visible from the kitchen so we'll be more aware of when it's being used and by whom.  I'll have the landscapers build in a few plastic pots so that plants can be more easily grown among the rocks.  And finally, I will be taking photos of watercourse visitors with the sun behind my back and for longer periods of the day since the roof will not be as much of a factor in terms of casting a shadow on the watercourse. 

The landscaping will be disrupted although the landscapers have promised to remove and replace the plants that have to be temporarily moved for the project.  So things will be rough for awhile but the way things grow in the PacNW the area should be back to normal by spring.  I'll try to take photos of the new watercourse and post them on this blog, but I've found in the past that such things don't lend themselves to displaying details in photographs.  If you're a friend feel free to stop by during the work or in the aftermath to view the new landscape.  And in a couple of weeks I will have my good camera back from Nikon and should be happily spending time in the yard again. 

And speaking of Nikon, if you use one of their cameras that utilizes a Compact Flash card you need to contact me for some money-saving suggestions!