Camera Critters - Stellar's Jay

I hope you aren't tiring of the photos from my recent trip to Colorado. Today's featured photographs are from Rocky Mountain National Park near the Estes Park entrance. As we were driving along, a deep blue bird flew across the road in front of us. "Oh!" I said, and my husband stopped because he is learning that "Oh!" means I've just seen something wonderful and need to take a picture. :) We ended up having to turn around so I could see a small group of Stellar's jays foraging among the pines.



The sun was going down, and I was disappointed that I don't know my hubby's camera better. Add the flitting behavior, and I ended up with dark, grainy, and mostly blurry photographs. I was able to lighten these two up a bit with PSE 7.0 and de-speckle so they aren't quite so grainy. Why didn't I use a flash? Well, it's against park rules, actually. And truthfully, we could not get close enough for the flash to have been a benefit even if I could have used it.

I was so excited to see these birds as I always am when I add to my life list. They look to me like blue jays that have fallen into a pot of indigo dye.



Be sure to check out the other submissions at Camera Critters.