Trying to get a little bird perched on the bench, I scared it away, leaving me with a picture of just the bench instead. I like it, standing there in the midst of the tall grass.

And this one is actually clutching a fish — well, half a fish (as opposed to this one)!

This osprey lives in a state park on Honeymoon Island in Florida, near Clearwater (and Tampa). Birds are fun — and difficult — to photograph.

I also saw a baby bald eagle in its nest this day, from 330 feet, the closest you are allowed to an eagle’s nest under federal rules. I never saw his (her?) parents though, but it was still cool to see a (not yet) bald eagle (the characteristic white head is developed later). Here is the baby, which was born around Valentine’s Day and was appropriately named Cupid.

There were lots of osprey, however, bringing fish in to feed their young ones. Yes, I realise this particular one doesn’t clutch a fish, but it’s one of the better pictures I took. I used the 300mm, which is an okay lens despite being very basic and cheap ($200).

I finally managed to put together a panorama from a bunch of pictures I had taken for that purpose quite a while ago. What kept me from posting this earlier was that the TIFF source files were too large for the program I was using; it ran out of RAM (no matter how large I made the scratch file). I finally put it together manually, after wasting more hours than I care to admit.

Anyway, the star of this post is this magnificient view, overlooking the landscape in Norway where I used to live before I came to Canada. In the picture you can see Lake Tyrifjorden, the Hole peninsula and beyond that the region of Ringerike. The viewpoint is called “The King’s View” – and it is truly fit for a king. Here is the general area on Google Maps.

Merry Christmas to everyone!I’m celebrating Christmas this year with Jenna and her parents in Michigan. We’re having a wonderful and relaxing time here, despite the economic gloom hanging over this country currently. Here’s a picture I took last Christmas when we were in Norway celebrating with my family. It is one of my favourite pictures, even though there’s fish on the table (well, salmon is quite decent for being so fishy).

Shot of the Chicago River (is that its name?) from a bridge, facing upriver (west-ish).

Sunset shot from Port Dalhousie in St Catharines, Ontario. I was taking pictures of the sailboat (which I thought would make a nice pictures), when this flock of Canda geese came paddling past, almost as if on cue…

…and about 11 hours after seeing the sun set, I was up to see it rise again on the opposite horizon. I climbed up on the causeway between Clearwater and Clearwater Beach. Hence you can see Clearwater outlined against the sun. It was very dry (amazingly, considering that this Florida), so the sunrise wasn’t quite as spectacular as it could have been I think.

Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico, on Clearwater Beach, FL. Quite pretty. Hmm, the slight tilt is accidental, but I rather like it.

This is a 190 degree view from the deck of my parents’ house in Hønefoss, Norway. If not stunning, it is at least pretty. You can see my sister Cecilie sunbathing to the right. The wall on both sides of the panorama is the same wall. This is from 2006; it has just taken me a while to post it.

A pelican getting ready to dive bomb an unsuspecting fish. Again and again I tried to catch a pelican the moment before they hit the water, and I was foiled each and every time. Just not quick enough. Have a couple of almost half-decent ones, but they’re a little blurry and the bird is half submerged already. Not this time I guess, but I still got some good pelican shots.

Well, his name might not Henry, but Jenna remembered a pelican on this pier from about 10 years ago, so it could be the same one couldn’t it? He was cool, just sat there to be photographed.

Update: apparently, it is the same Henry.