Yesterday, I looked out front to find the female red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) actually sitting on the post lamp that illuminates the front walk (well, when it’s dark, and the light is on – the sun handles it most times.) This sits about six meters from the front door. Naturally, she flew off before I could get the camera and try to decide which window would provide the
Category: Nature
Just once, part 49
While adding the image for this post, I searched on “northern” within the image title, and only two came up that were not northern water snakes – this one, and the polar vortex on Saturn (not my shot.) Now, if I search in the tags, I get 14 hits on
That makes two. Or is it three?
I was sorting images a few hours back, which often results in finding a few more pics to post, and indeed did moreover, it falls in line with the ‘Just Once’ topic, since it was featured earlier this year.
That’s a yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius,) snagged while out chasing wood ducks the other day, on a tree right alongside the pond –
Wood if I could
So, a presently ongoing saga. A couple of weeks ago I heard an odd call while out on the back deck of Walkabout Estates Plus, overlooking the pond – I didn’t recognize it but thought it seemed familiar. Then, on a hunch, I got out the binoculars and began scanning the area, and confirmed my suspicion: out in a secondary pool some distance off, I could see some wood ducks
Perhaps the last for the year
In crossing the yard the other day, I saw movement in a bare-ish patch of lawn, immediately recognizing it as a ground skink – I pounced, managed (after a couple of tries) to get it into my hand, then had to endeavor not to let it slip between my fingers. But this gave me the chance to do a few studio pics.
Mimicking their natural habitat isn’t hard, since they like leaf
November, your mother and I think you should move out
We’re just a tad late, but not too much, and so we’ll see November out on its own (but always welcome to visit, as long as it’s not overnight) with the month-end abstracts. And this month, we have two (urk!) smutphone examples, because that’s what I had in hand at the times.
Nice textures, but probably not too confusing or mysterious. We were transplanting
Just once, part 48
When first/last I featured this duo, I said that I wasn’t sure where it was taken – the obvious choice was the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, given how long ago it was taken and the negative film used. Except I didn’t recall ever seeing mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) there. Since that time, I found several more examples in my negative pages,
Further along those lines…
Just a follow-up to yesterday’s post, from early this morning. Because I opened the blinds in the bedroom and found the female red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) standing in the lawn right outside the window, but she noticed the movement and decided it wasn’t kosher, that close and with her down that low. I realized, many years ago while doing wildlife rehabilitation, that
Defying expectations
So yesterday I determined that there were a few shots that I wanted to capture today, and had them scheduled in. The weather, however, had other ideas, and most of the day was rainy, not at all conditions for what I had planned (which, successful or not, I’ll reveal eventually – just not in this post.) Thus I resigned myself to skipping photography for the day and working on other tasks
Just once, part 47
This week we have an American coot (Fulica americana,) found in the ponds of Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. I’d photographed one once before this, in Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida – not a very good shot, but it showed their semi-webbed feet well – but as for being featured on the blog, this only