A new record!


The turtles outdid themselves today, and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to post another photo. There’s nineteen of them on this little tussock, now known to us as “Turtle Island,” because of course. And there’s even room for more if they’re careful (which they often are not.)

Near as I can tell, these are entirely eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys read more

Estate Find IX

This week’s find we credit to The Girlfriend, who discovered this little spud right outside the front door, of all places.


This is, most likely, an eastern mud turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum,) but truth be told, there is a fair amount of variability in markings that cross over with the striped mud turtle, especially in North Carolina where the striped mud turtle is read more

Go, and sin no more, February

… and spell your name right.

It’s the end of the month, natch (does anyone say “natch” anymore?) and so we are beholden, through the ancient rituals of this here blogareenie, to feature an abstract image of some kind, far too often a quite poor one. But we’re a little bit better off this month, because we have this:


I’m not going to tell you what read more

Couple more

Just for giggles, since I got an eclectic selection today, some of which are going to appear tomorrow morning.

The day was quite warm, nice spring weather, and the Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis) knew it of course.


This is the post for the lamp alongside the front walk, which continues to host many anoles both around the base and within, as you can see here – the hole read more

A good sign or bad?

These photos are absolute crap, and I apologize – they would have been discarded (or indeed, never taken at all) if it weren’t for what they show. But shooting at an oblique angle through double-pane glass will do that, though I had no other options. I consider myself lucky to have witnessed this, as brief as it was, and this was actually the second time – the first occurred read more

Not his best side

It’s been a couple of weeks now since I got these shots, having set them aside for a writeup, and I’m finally getting to it now. Don’t judge. Or judge all you want, because I’m not paying attention anyway.

While alongside the creek that forms the east edge of the property, I noticed a large yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta) drifting in the water, and read more

Sorting finds n+11

I’d put off this sort a little too long, especially since I’m getting new pics pretty much daily, so I had to slog through over 1,700 images this time – it took a while. But naturally, I ran across a few to feature that I hadn’t immediately put to a blog post, and here we are.


This… is a sparrow. I think. What species of sparrow, I read more

Estate Find VIII-ish

Just a couple of additions from early this morning – the Estate Find posts are written a day or two beforehand so I can keep to my schedule, but this morning had good conditions so I extended it a bit.

I woke up a little before sunrise, when I really should be waking up but I’m usually up too late the night before (or earlier that same morning,) so it often doesn’t happen. read more

Estate Find VIII


Another winter storm rolled in this week, but less severe than predicted – what we ended up getting was sleet and freezing rain, enough to coat everything but not much more than that. Not long after sunrise the sun had broken through the clouds, but soon afterward the sky became solid overcast and remained that way until just before sundown – I had gotten out before read more

‘Bout time, you putz

I’m talking about me in the title, since I finally got around to a task which I’ve had planned – well, mostly – for weeks. I have to credit this to the holiday, celebrated the 3rd Tuesday in February after an election year where you realize far too many of your fellow citizens are utter fucking morons, which is If It Goes Another Day You’re A Worthless read more

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