This evening, Rich and I set out on our walk, I mean, our quest, to the Weeping Willows that are Far, Far Away (well, the intersection of Tour Pointe and Town Commons).  There we met two ogres (according to their prey!) named Shrek and Fiona.  I began photographing them as Rich asked “Can we go yet?  Can we go yet?”  Shrek promised to come to a Royal Ball in Goldy’s yard as soon as he’s old enough to fly away from his parents! :)

Note:  As we prepared for our walk, I told Rich that I wanted to go see if we could find the baby shreks.  I don’t know why I kept mis-speaking, but after about the third time, it was clear that our babies had gotten their names!  We’ve seen the shrike parents sitting in the tops of the weeping willows for months, and it’s fun to see their new little family.  The baby shrikes look a lot like the adults, but if you look closely, they have a yellow line under their beaks, and gray scalloping along their black wing stripes.  I was so excited when one of the babies landed right in front of me and started flapping his wings to beg for food!  I dialed in some exposure compensation for the gray afternoon backlight, and I was happy with the detail in the resulting image.