Trekking through the deep wilds

Well, okay, that might be giving a slightly overblown idea of the efforts, since all but one of these images were taken within seven meters of the front door here at Walkabout Estates. The one exception? Within seven meters of the back door. But I have a few spring photos handy and I’m gonna use them (in between more raptor images, so there’s a dual purpose.)

We’ll start with one read more

Not gold


The Insuperable Mr Bugg (who has abandoned his blog and now relies on [urk!] social media, so you can only see his photos if he’s your ‘friend’ or whatever, while I welcome everyone) and I went down to Jordan Lake for sunrise yesterday, and it performed as typical for this area, which is to say, not very well. Colors peaked a little read more

Just once, part 15


These two are small, so it’s no surprise that I only have one example of images of them, though I think I might have seen another last year when I didn’t have the camera in hand. This is a type of Syrphidae, or the hover fly family, known only as Orthonevra nitida, and the eye pattern is apparently specific to the eastern half of the continent.

Why do the eyes look like this? read more

Exactly/mostly as feared/intended

I don’t know who comes up with these holidays, I really don’t – it’s makes little sense to celebrate something so banal. Why don’t we have National Spaghetti Day or Stay Away From Seattle Day while we’re at it?

[Oh. We do.]

But anyway, today/yesterday is/was Encounter Extraordinary/Rotten Luck Day, and since there read more

Ze Frank is back… again

Yes indeed, we have more True Facts from Ze Frank, and this time, they’re about shrimp. Not one of which has anything to do with eating them, either.


Naturally, I can’t let it go at that, because ego. Plus the fact (true) that I’ve had two of the varieties that he featured close at hand, when I maintained a basic saltwater aquarium during my tenure in Florida. The first would be read more

A little content

I’ve been a bit busy of late, and haven’t been taking the time for posts – this will continue a little while longer, too. So I’m going to throw something down pretty quickly, the frozen pizza of the online world, because we need something here.

First of all, while this image isn’t the slightest bit impressive or even interesting, it’s evidence:


It’s read more

Just once, part 14


This week, we have a meadow vole, or at least I believe it is (Microtus pennsylvanicus, if I’m correct,) coming to the realization that the guy with the big black thing in his hands was actually closer every time it looked up. Meadow voles aren’t particularly scarce, but they have preferred habitats and are easy targets for numerous predators, so this represents read more

Much the same, but bright at least


So, it’s more of the same images that I get every spring, because they’re all on Walkabout Estates, but it’s what I could get today and it’s cheery, so deal. It’s not pics of food or me dancing in a halter top, you know? Okay then.

One of the azalea bushes out front is in full bloom, while the other, which is right alongside, the same species, and planted at read more

I’ve had better luck

While there hasn’t been a lot to post about, and not a lot to photograph, I’ve been keeping busy with various projects – not necessarily to fruition, but busy anyway.

Long story short: the barn-door tracker mentioned a few times previously has been occupying read more

Just once, part 13


While I have numerous images of plant species that have appeared only once in the blog, I feel that most of them are not strong enough to build a single post around – I have plenty of plant images that I find strong enough, but they’re all of species that have appeared multiple times. So not only has this species only appeared once, it might be the single representative read more

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