If you’re seeing this, it means I failed in finding something newer or unique or somehow more exotic like I think the Estate Finds should be, when I went out looking yesterday, and so kept this fallback image. It is of course another Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis,) but curiously, one from just a few days ago as soon as the temperature peaked above 10°c
Category: Nature
Ta ta, January
And as January vents its last shuddering gasps, we dance happily on what will be its grave (just so it can see us do it) with the month-end abstract. . Plural, actually, and they all have a theme, though they didn’t have to, but such is the nature of nature abstracts. Sometimes.
During the first of the cold days, we’d get some patches of ice on the pond here and there,
No more nights like that
You certainly recall a few months back when I awoke quite anxious that my business cards needed updating, and I’m happy to report that this has now been taken care of.
This takes a surprisingly long time, even longer this time around. Part of that is, I have multiple designs for the cards, all example photos of mine, so I don’t change one, I change several. And part of it is due to routine
A figment of imagination
Photography has been a little slow for the past few days, though this is also due to my own lack of effort. Still, things occasionally pop up.
Take, for instance, the conditions on the pond a week ago today:
… versus today:
Seriously.
These guys (which would be yellow-bellied sliders, Trachemys scripta scripta, and eastern painted turtles, Chrysemys picta picta,) wasted no time
Estate Find IV
Yeah, it’s liable to be birds for a while, though I missed my chance at some deer the other morning. I try to keep variety in mind, but at this time of year? Ya got birds.
The morning after the overnight snow storm, the sun broke out (which usually happens in NC, so credit for that at least,) and I was out using the light. The birds were extremely happy with the new selection of feeders that
Now in daylight
Naturally, I wasn’t going to leave the snow pics at just some night time exposures – not when we got such a decent, scenic coverage. It’s been a few years since we had a proper snow, and my basic attitude is, once a year, for photos’ sake, and that’s it.
Nothing too scenic here, just the northern portion of the backyard pond – the wood ducks from
‘Round about midnight
… I went out to get some pics.
The snow started in a very lackluster manner, just dusting the colder surfaces, and kept that up for hours, but by 11 PM it was getting more serious, and a little after midnight I went out to capture some night exposures. It was quite bright out there, from the low cloud cover reflecting the lights of the town to the streetlight on the opposite
Just enough to count
So, did I get anything else for World Waterfowl Day? Well, read the title.
After a couple of days with no sign of them, the two pairs of wood ducks returned again this morning, being a little more brazen than before in that they ventured much further out into the open pond than previously. However, this did not mean that they treated my presence with less suspicion. The Girlfriend was watching from
Estate Find III
Now, this… this one makes me pleased. Actually, psyched.
Remember last week when I said that cedar waxwings had some of the best coloration of the North American birds? Well, wood ducks (Aix sponsa) have them beat, or at least the males do the females are considerably less flamboyant, which we’ll see in a moment.
More importantly, however, was that this one, and three more, were all spotted
How do I get in the loop?
Man, I hate finding things out too late, but at least this time I’m not, though it’s certainly cutting it close. I just happened to check out the calendar for Sylvan Heights Bird Park and discovered that tomorrow, January 17th, is a whole new holiday (for realsies):