First off, thanks to all who submitted entries in the “Tis the Season” bird photography contest. Over 60 entries were submitted so it’s going to be tough for Xwinger and I to narrow it down to a winner.
At the end of each year I create a bird calendar for all my family members with all their birthdays on it. This year there were a lot of possible Great Bird Pics to include as we traveled to Ecuador, U.S. Virgin Islands, South Dakota, California (twice), and South Africa* so it was particularly hard to narrow it down to 13 (12 months plus a cover) shots.
As a side note I used Mixbook this year to publish the calendars and I had nothing but problems with the orders – it took over a six weeks to get them straightened out. I won’t bore you with all the details, but here’s one example: I shipped calendars to Des Moines; the grandkids’ calendars arrived but they also included one of the calendars that was supposed to be shipped to the Hoffman Estates grandkids and didn’t include the church calendar and my sister-in-law’s calendar. Even when I carefully detailed what was missing they still screwed up the re-shipments. Over the course of the ordeal I ended up with three copies of one of the grandkids’ calendars!
Anyway, back to the calendar pictures thenselves. Today I’ll share the cover and the first six pictures and the other six soon. You’ve seen most of today’s pictures as they were included in some of my travelogue posts from earlier this year.
Here’s the cover photo, taken in Bodega Beach, California:
Golden Tanager in Ecuador:
Red-headed Barbet in Ecuador:
Cinnamon Flycatcher in Ecuador
Antillean Crested Hummingbird in U.S. Virgin Islands
Blue-winged Mountain Tanager in Ecuador
Upland Sandpiper in South Dakota
*I know I was supposed to be sharing my South Africa trip but it’s been hard to find the time to create the posts. Someday soon. I promise!
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