I have a student who I teach at school who has a wealth of knowledge about nature, wildlife and especially.  We get to talk about his hobby quite often, and Travis has been giving me tips for how to photograph  these feathered beauties.  He spends hours osberving, photographing and learning about all species of birds.  His photographs are quite lovely as well.  On a number of occasions he has carted his binder full of captures to show myself and some of the other teachers. 

As I was walking through the Corduroy Brook Nature Trail during Christmas with my family, I heard the call of this little guy, observed some seed that another trail user had left for the birds, and waited for him/her to land.  He/she was quite skittish, as I am told that birds need time to get use to your presence, and I was clearly an intruder, but for my first try, I am pretty pleased.  Now as soon as Travis reads this post, I can identify the species and perhaps the gender.  I still have a lot to learn about that sort of thing.