We open today with a fairly common yet distinctive bird around Florida, the American white ibis (Eudocimus albus.) A smallish bird for a wader, perhaps a hair larger than a crow in body size, but smaller than a duck, with the telltale curved red-orange bill and blue eyes – there are also black patches on the wings visible in flight, yet almost entirely hidden when
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Strays. Little orphans
Just a trio of images from recent days that didn’t fit into other posts – little to say about them.
This green treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus) has been living on the same trumpet flower (Brugmansia) for weeks now, which is rare, but I caught it as it was spying on me. Or counter-spying on me. Hey, this is my job hobby vocation calling pointless obsession!
While my brother
Neuse stuff
One of the exploring trips we took while my brother was here was the Falls of the Neuse area, where Falls Lake empties its excess into the head of the Neuse River, which then tries to pretend it really has no interest in the ocean by taking the most circuitous route possible, passing through Virginia and Wisconsin to get there. Okay, it’s not that bad, but seriously,
Sorting finds n+3
Once again, after a long session of sorting photos from the past few weeks, I have a collection of images not previously featured, all trivial (because I feature the good ones back when I unload them.) Well, except for this one:
I’m not sure how I missed this one when I did the initial fall colors post, but here it is now. This is a tighter crop than the original, and not too
I was there…
… when the aliens landed.
I was out pretty late the other night, after a day of rain and drizzle, and the humidity and temperature made it just this side of fog. I drove past a scene and thought, I really need to come back and capture this, and so on returning home, I snagged the camera bag and tripod and went back out again. It helped that this was about a kilometer from the house.
It
Visibly different, part 44
Back in 1998, I switched jobs, necessitating a move into Raleigh, which also necessitated finding new natural areas to explore and chase snakes within. In short order, I found the Falls of the Neuse area, where Falls Lake emptied into the beginning of the Neuse River, seen (in part) above. Many years later I recalled the discovery of this spot as occurring some weeks or months after
Obligatory colors
I’m not quite going to make a post for each day of October with this, though it comes close, plus I still have plenty of photos to unload, but I’ll set a record for the year of uploaded images. Makes up for September being so slow at least. So let’s take a look at the autumn colors captured so far, with the idea that I may still have some more soon.
Above, the American sweetgum
Best time for this – kinda
Just a quick Halloween-themed pic from today, that I really should have had up earlier but other activities took precedent. Once again, this is a marbled orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus) out in the yard, being far too shy for something the size of an acorn that looks like it eats halflings.
The trick-or-treaters have already come and gone, and we did the
“October?” That month is dead to me
Looking at the ol’ henge out in the yard, I see that we’re arriving at the end of the month, which means it’s time for another horrid example of what I consider an abstract image. I checked, but I seem to have nothing that fits with the theme of the day (that I haven’t already used,) so this is what we have, unless I sneak another in because I’m writing this hours ahead
Will do for now
I think this will be the tail-end of the beach trip pics, as well as the last for the year – never really got a ‘proper’ trip in, with one thing or another, but at least my brother finally got down here to see the Outer Banks for himself, as brief as it was. We grew up with Jersey beaches, which are in an entirely different universe (a more crowded and



















































