poultry show and other things

It's hard to believe I was in Fresno yesterday (~160 miles away), but I was. I got up at 4am and was down there at 7:30am. I'd been considering just driving down there for the heck of it to see friends but figured if I was going to do that I ought to go ahead and show something so I entered three birds. I never even managed to see all the birds at the show, I sort of forgot to make a point to do that, which actually makes some sense because I really was there to see people. And with the exception of a badly-need 2.5 hour nap in the back of the minivan that morning I spent the entire time talking to people, it was great. I missed a few though, there are people I saw in passing once or twice but never got a chance to chat with. That's a bummer. Time flew, my Black cockerel that I like so much won best RCCL, and that made me happy. The show let out around 5:30 or so, I had dinner with a few friends, hit the road, and was back home at 9:30pm. Talk about a whirlwind. I'm glad I went though. I'm not sure when the next one will be or what all it will entail, and I REALLY need to figure out what the heck I am doing with these birds.

Blurry, but a sunrise nonetheless, just for proof I was awake early:

You know how some people always manage to blink when they are photographed? Well so does this bird. I took 4 photos and this slightly blurry and not well posed one is the only one where he isn't blinking!

It rained all day today. This afternoon I went down to the Woodbridge Ecological Preserve with GM to see the sandhill cranes. They are starting to migrate out, and today was the last day of the guided tours and I've been meaning to do that all season so I figured let's just go anyway. The weather kinda sucked and was not conducive to good photography, but it was neat to see all the cranes fly in at sunset. Next year I need to make a point to do that earlier in the season and on a day when there's more light. The pics are way gritty, but these are the best of them:

Two sandhill cranes:

Three snow geese and two greater white-fronted geese:


And last but not least, a little cuteness! All together now, awwww!