January 26,2021 – Featuring Dave Cesari and hawks and a little of me just playing around! What does playing around mean? Read on!

Dave wrote: Hi Jim,  Here are some pictures for the blog.  I went up to an area on Lake Ontario called Point Peninsula. This area has many  abandoned farms with open land that has a high population of mice and voles. It is an area that attracts hawks and owls. There are a large number of Rough-legged Hawks there this year. Rough-legs breed in the high Arctic. Some winters they invade the northern states. They are a large but relatively weak footed hawk. They come in two color morphs a light and a dark morph. Here are some shots of both color morphs. I have been trying for a number of years  to get a good shot of a dark morph. I think I succeeded this year.  Dave

Now, my turn to play around.   Read on please.

But first I had to quit playing around and get serious.  You see, I did not know the definition of “playing around.”  I did not want to tell you the wrong thing.  So, I did some serious research on the internet and found that play around has 5 characteristics:

1. it is an activity you choose and direct.
2. you do it for it’s own sake and not some outside reward
3. you have some mental rules but there is lots of room for your own creativity
4. play is imaginative – it takes you away from the immediate real world
5.  you are alert and physically or mentally active but not in a stressed frame of mind

Yep, I told you the right thing.   Now I know I was “playing around” with this photograph.

 I was doing all five characteristics of play when I played around with it.  Scroll down, have a look-see: