We've had rain for over a week here in New York and that puts a real damper on things for someone who enjoys wildlife photography on their free time. Due to all the rain and the fact that I knew today was going to be a completely gorgeous day, I used a vacation day to get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. 

I took full advantage of having the day off by beginning my day first thing this morning and getting out of the house before 7:30am, I stopped home for the afternoon to enjoy lunch and take my dogs out for two walks, then I went back out in the evening to make several other stops. Throughout the day I saw many different types of birds: eagles, a bunch of song birds, and a barred owl. 

For the first time, I decided to take my big camera out for the entire day. The camera, lens and tripod weigh a total of 16 pounds and so now I'm completely exhausted and my entire body hurts from lugging it all around. If I were to guess, I carried it for at least 4 miles. Although my whole body may hurt, it was all worth it because I got to photograph so many different birds. The biggest highlight of my day was a barred owl since it is very rare when I come across one of them and to be able to photograph it at roughly 1600mm with fantastic light made it even better!