We took a walk on the 21st in the eastern Columbia River gorge, allowing us a good stretch o' the legs and our camera a good test of its capabilities with the Tamron 18-250 attached. It did not disappoint, and we have several images at the /ccreek folder on picasaweb. I've seldom shot real telephoto shots while hiking, but several birds made it worth trying, and the images will keep me at it!
The first bird, a mistakenly-ID'ed Western Meadowlark (his/her back was turned, depriving me of a better ID -- honest :)) is perhaps the best image, but the Mountain Bluebird was a touch more colorful and a surprise as well. I'd never seen one outside of the Ruby Mts in Nevada, so at 400' in Washington was not expected! Of course, the vultures weren't all that expected either; thankfully I shot in RAW mode, so later processing brought the sharpest image to life later. And oh yes: the flowers were wonderful as well, lots of grass-widow and two types of parsley, along with yellow bells and short sprigs of Bitterroot waiting their turn to show in a few weeks.
