Well, it is rut season…

… but I’m doing what little I can to avoid being too deep into it. Meaning we’re going to briefly lean away from the same subject matter for a little bit (meaning, “a post,”) before we go right back to the same rut again. So here are the, um, other subjects from yesterday’s trip to the lake.

As we (meaning the Irascible Mr Bugg and I) walked form the parking spot read more

And a crayfish, briefly

National Wildlife Day, which was yesterday, was actually a pretty nice day for February, nicer than February actually deserves because it’s in winter and also spelled stupidly. And since I had a photo outing scheduled, I succeeded in getting plenty of photos of wildlife, if by ‘wildlife’ you mean ‘birds,’ with one exception. A moderate variety of birds too, at least read more

Just visiting

Late this morning I got alerted by a friend who lives on the neighborhood pond that there was a new visitor hanging out, and I wasted no time in getting over there. Thankfully, the visitor decided to stay put long enough.


This, of course, is a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus,) and the first that I’ve seen there, though my friend has seen them in previous years. read more

Profiles of Nature 59

We’re trying to keep the post count up, so of course another Profiles was going to sneak in. You only have yourself to blame*


Today we have the honor of meeting Enkhtsetseg, currently quite high in demand as an animal trainer for movies without a CGI budget. – you can interpret “animal trainer” in two different manners because they both work, just don’t read more

Sorting finds n+7

Just a couple, but with a bonus that’s truly exciting and interesting, I can assure you.

[Hopefully, the critical thinking espoused herein has helped you not to fall for that feeble little tactic, if you weren’t already immune to it.]

Anyway, the fuzzy moon:


When I first examined this sequence of moon shots, I was magnifying to full resolution to determine which was sharpest read more

Less than a week


All of these photos were taken a week ago, except not quite – it was Saturday morning, but around sunrise, and this is posting well before sunrise. Just to take that accusatory tone away from you.

I won’t say it was a great outing, given that the sunrise didn’t perform worth a doodle and the bird activity was kind of sparse, but we (meaning the Incalculable Mr Bugg and I) still read more

Three of three

Getting back now to posting about the second trip down to Jordan Lake and the, what, twelve pics that will accompany it? And it was a slow day, but I’m also cheating a little.

Right as I was bundled up to leave, through the back window I heard a red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) calling, obviously quite close. Since I had the camera more-or-less in hand, I tried slipping quietly read more

I am fail

Yet another holiday rears its ugly head, but this time I was unable to celebrate it, and I apologize for not letting you know sooner, but what am I, your mother? (Seriously, am I? Because there’s a period from my early thirties that is largely blank, and I suspect my memory was wiped, so who knows what I was up to?) Anyway, the holiday is (still, as I type this, so you have a chance,) International read more

A break


After three days of near-solid rain, including a horrendous downpour while we were getting dinner last night, the sky suddenly cleared, mostly, and I went down to Jordan Lake out of curiosity, mainly to see how much higher the water level was. Surprisingly, it barely appeared higher at all, so either they kicked out the stops down at the dam end, or most of the water in the area read more

Sorting finds n+5, blurred bird edition

Scared up just a couple with the last big sort, and had a little bit of a theme going. What luck!


While down at the Neuse River, three great blue herons (Ardea herodias herodias) were visible simultaneously at three different compass points, though most images of them were lackluster. This one, however, gained some action points when doing a quick shake to settle its feathers. read more

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