I had thought that all my computer problems were behind me by mid-December but Adobe and Lightroom weren’t through with me yet!  I suddenly lost access to Adobe Lightroom with no good explanation from Adobe and confusing notices regarding their help desk function.  It turned out that when switching from my PC; to the Mac I downloaded their Cloud software (which they push unmercifully) and my ‘temporary license’ had expired.  I finally determined what happened and downloaded the stand-alone version I had purchased earlier in the fall, but to do so I first had to delete the Cloud version.  After those operations were completed I found I had lost my Lightroom catalog, which stores all the changes (cropping, exposure adjustments, etc.) I have made to ALL my photographs processed with Lightroom.  I was able to restore the catalog using a backup and it finally (as was so several times previously) seems that I am back up and running.  If I didn’t have so much investment in Adobe Lightroom I think I would consider some other photo-processing software.  And if you really want to get an earful, talk to some of the users of Adobe Photoshop who no longer have an option to purchase a stand-alone version of that software!

But you don’t visit this site to hear about my computer problems.  I haven’t taken many photos this fall due to the uncertainty of whether or not I could process the photos AND the fact that we have an accipiter in the neighborhood that is visiting our yard.  The birds are terrified of its visits and only come out a few times a day to feed.  Almost all of the really interesting birds are shunning the yard, and I am left with 30-40 Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) which appear for a few minutes to scarf up scattered seed before disappearing back into the relative safety of the trees and brush.  We do have at least one Slate-colored junco (about seven years running now) and perhaps two.

So… back to some bird photos.  I took these photos of a Bald eagle on 12/6/13.  The photo of the eagle in flight was taken from the Cap Sante Overlook and the photos of the perched eagle were taken on March Point.

 Moving on to the Samish Flats, I took this photo of a Rough-legged hawk…

And finally, I photographed this raptor in the same area.  I think it, too, is a Rough-legged hawk but in viewing the photos I’m not as sure as I thought I was when I took the photo.