Day 21/365 Bird Garden

I had an AMAZING day!  I decided to go to the Botanical Garden today since I was off school for a snow day.  I bundled up in long underwear, a snow suit, sweatshirt and coat and headed out.  It was absolutely worth it!

I headed to the Garden and was amazed at the beauty of the snow all over everything.  Because it's so cold, I think I was one of 3 people out there today.  It was so very quiet and calm.  I was very happy to get lots of pictures of the beautiful snow on the sites that are so familiar.  I was having a wonderful time just walking around in pure peace.

I happened to spot a cardinal when I was in the Japanese garden.  I took a quick shot of him but it blurred because I wasn't expecting to see any birds at all, let alone a cardinal.  As I walked through the walkway with the slats of wood I saw a ton of birds sitting up in a tree and decided to check it out.  To get to the birds, I had to cross a bunch of snow, and I wasn't sure it was even a path. I was sort of afraid that I was trying to cross a little pond or something, but I figured that it wouldn't be that deep even if I did manage to fall in.

Well, I am so happy I did because I found a part of the garden that I never knew existed before, the bird garden.  There were so many birds over there it was unreal!  I found 3 more cardinals, the pictures I am posting here today, and they just sat and ate things off of the bushes they were on.  I was very excited to find this spot and can't wait to go back again.

Somehow, I think that taking pictures of birds might be the most exciting pictures for me to take.  The sheer thrill of capturing one clearly on a camera is much more exciting than taking pictures of flowers, trees, candy, people, etc.  I don't get this excited when I take the other pictures!  What fun!  I'm so happy we had a snow day today, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten to have this experience. I am still freezing and I've been home for 2 hours.  I might have to put an electric blanket on to get warmed up again!

EXIF info #1, #2 and #3: T2i, Tokina 100mm lens, f6.3, 1/400 sec, ISO 100, +.7exposure, no flash