Our opening image this week comes from a negative from 1998, and I could almost give you the exact date – I know that it was on the grounds of the (then) Carnivore Preservation Trust on the one day that I volunteered with them. I had intended to do a lot more, but things changed. Anyway, this was my first photo, and first look, at a green heron (Butorides virescens,)
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Early to the party
Yesterday, The Girlfriend and I were checking out the progress of various plants in the yard when I glanced down at one of the rosemary bushes and stopped dead. This particular bush had a little extra alongside, one of the Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) egg sacs/oothecas that I’d collected less
Had I known…
Today, I suddenly discover, is a holiday, though why anyone would want to celebrate this is beyond me, but it’s Take Far Longer On A Project Than Planned And Ruin Your Schedule Day, which is why you’re seeing this here instead of another proper post. That’ll arrive shortly, but longer than I have left in the day, so shortly, tomorrow.
Don’t you just love downloading an updated
Should I be flattered?
… or, what?
Hearing some activity from the nearby pond and it being a warm night, I decided to grab the camera, with just the Mamiya 80mm macro attached, and go take a peek at what was going on. Just so you know, all of the photos here were captured in less than forty minutes – one of those effortless excursions.
On getting close, it became apparent that all of the noise was emanating
Briefly, birds
Yesterday, the Indomitable Mr Bugg and I got out for a short outing down at Jordan Lake, checking out conditions and taking a shot at sunset. The latter didn’t really pan out, despite the number of times that we’ve seen terrible skies in North Carolina go completely clear by sundown, but we still managed a few pics here and there. The first stop was over by the nest that was first spotted
Creeping ever closer
I think it really would be spring already, if the big weather systems would stop hurtling across the country and scaring it away. I’m going to berate everyone in states west of here for letting these hooligans get past them.
Yesterday the weather cleared and warmed again, and I did a small patrol of Walkabout Estates to see what was going on. I already knew the blue hyacinth
Visibly different, part 11
For our opening image today, we go back to 2005, my first trip to the Blue Ridge mountains in NC despite the fact that I’d lived in the state since 1990 – in fact, I’d moved out of state (to three different states, but that’s another story in itself,) before moving back in the year previous to this. Anyway, I was following vague directions to various
Token token token
For the sake of it, I did a few pictures today, and if you know anything about my writing style, you’ll notice that I did not say, “images” – this says something on its own. While signs of spring have been popping up here and there, indicating that the plants, at least, think it’s about time, we’re about to undergo a drastic drop in temperature tonight (like,
Just because, part 45
Some time back, I’d started noodling with a post idea and did a few slide scans to flesh it out, then never liked what I was producing and tossed it. But that gives us this slide, once again from a trip to Florida, representing the only image I think I have of ‘the Everglades.’
I mean, I have plenty taken within, but no others of it – nothing
Dittyday 6: The Motels
Just so you know, this one was brought to mind, and eventually found its way here, because of a lyrics quiz.*
The Motels are a band that barely escaped ‘one-hit wonder’ status in the early eighties, mostly by having two songs that became popular, but part of this was because these songs departed from their normal style their other work, or at least everything



















































