I Used Up My Free 1GB For Photos On Picassa!

I was getting ready to upload a post and wanted to add one more picture when a warning came up that told me I had used up my free 1GB of space on Picassa. I've been blogging since 2006 and this is the first time I've encountered this problem. I found out that if you re-size your photos to 800 pixels it won't be applied to your 1gb limit but I'm not sure if that will affect the image quality. I tested one photo and it looked okay. I have a few questions for anyone who has experience with this situation.

1) If I re-size images to 800 pixels will the pictures still look okay on the blog at the x-large setting?

2) What is a safe way to free up space?

3) If I delete my old blog posts will that free up space?

4) Is there any easy way to re-size images that I've already uploaded?

 I wouldn't mind paying the yearly fee to add space but if they are unable to automatically renew your plan because of a change in credit cards you won't be able to go back to your original plan (whatever that is).

I'd hate to stop blogging because of this issue. Any advice would be helpful. -thanks-Larry

Early Christmas Crossbill Gift From Canada

The forecast for a winter finch irruption this year has been accurate so far. This Fall I've seen dozens of Pine Siskins and Purple Finches. On Saturday,  I had a close up look at dozens of White-winged and Red Crossbills at Hammonasset State Park. The top photo shows the male and female White-winged Crossbills.

The crossed bill on these birds allows them to extract seeds from  pine cones.

Sometimes they seem to argue over cones like kids arguing over a bag of potato chips.

I had a little more difficulty getting close to these Red Crossbills.They would suddenly take off then circle around a few times before landing in a tree again. There are several different types of Red Crossbills which care best distinguished by analysis of tape-recorded flight calls. That's not something I'll be trying any time soon.

It's nice to have the crossbills visiting Connecticut this winter. It seems they are running low on food sources up north. Those crafty Canadians must have used up all the pine cones making decorative baskets!

 

click to play -click right corner for full screen

Where's A Safe Place For Deer To Hang Out?

I did a double take when I recently found several deer roaming about in a cemetery in the Middletown, Connecticut.

New Birding Movie, Comets, and Winter Finches

I'm passing along a couple of links from other blogs which had some interesting information.

1) New Birding Movie-The first one is from the Kaufman Blog. A new birding movie titled: "A Birder's Guide To Everything" (IMDB website) is coming out in 2013 starring Ben Kingsley. I have a feeling I might enjoy this movie because it isn't being over hyped the way The Big Year was. Here is a sizzle reel from Vimeo. I first learned about the movie on the Birding with Kenn & Kimberly blog.

The next two links are articles written by Patrick Comins for WXedge.com

2) Comet may be brighter than originally expected in March 2013  (Note that there is an even brighter comet expected in November 2013!)

3) Winter Finch Warning in Effect for All of New England
It looks like winter birding should be exciting this winter in Connecticut! I've already been seeing lots of siskins, Purple Finches and Red-breasted Nuthatches.