More o’ dem birds


While World Migratory Bird Day yielded just one bird for me, the previous couple of days were a lot more productive, as my brother and I did a short trip out to Washington, North Carolina, and points further east. Here on the waterfront of the town, a nest box for purple martins (Progne subis) shows a lot of activity, in a prime location where there were plenty of riverside read more

A lot of bird photos

On an outing back, once again, to Jordan Lake (we’re in a rut) this past Friday, the bird activity was higher than it’s been all year, so far anyway, but unfortunately a bit distant. I shot a very large number of frames, but probably better than half will be discarded too much of it was either trying to snag the actions of a distant subject that couldn’t be seen read more

That’s a bit better

I was out on two photo excursions earlier this week, and the first made me distinctly aware that something was wrong with my autofocus. Well, mine was all right, but the camera’s was off noticeably, for damn near every frame. I provide some examples:


This is full-frame, and while it’s taken at 600mm, the osprey (Pandion haliaetus) wasn’t that far away – read more

Birds and snakes, an aeroplane…

… and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.

Now that I have that earworm firmly established, let’s get to the pics.


A few days back we got a ton of water dumped on us here in central NC, like most of the country I believe, right after temperatures had gotten above 25°c, then dropped precipitously (sorry) during and after the rains. Yesterday, with the sun out and the temperature read more

On our way

While we had several warm spells far earlier than normal, interspersed with some overnight lows dropping below freezing, I think spring is getting a toehold now, and the critters and plants are on schedule. The Insoluble Mr Bugg and I went down to Jordan Lake Friday for a late afternoon and sunset shoot, and there were a few subjects to be found, though it’s not quite the active season yet. read more

It is an ex-September

Yes indeed, despite the scarce posts this month, we can let it go on no longer – you had more than enough time, September, so the fault is all your own (which nicely deflects the blame from me.) What kind of abstract have you produced?


Hmmm, well, we expected more after all this time, but a C for effort anyway.

This was another snagged during that trip to Jordan Lake the other day. The exposure read more

The saga repeats. Kinda

After determining that the woodpecker nest was reoccupied, I never got back down there to check on progress. Part of this was due to already doing extensive (and successful) video of the fledglings read more

Sorting finds n+1

It’s happened before: when sorting through recent photos to see what is discarded and what is kept (and subsequently sorted into appropriate categories,) I will find a photo or three that I didn’t feature back around the time that I took them, but feel they deserve some recognition. This happens often enough, in fact, that I decided to make it a category, but since I read more

Mostly typical


I did a student outing to Jordan Lake three days back, now concentrating on more species than just the woodpeckers, but mostly seeing what I normally do, with a couple of exceptions. But first, an observation that I meant to post earlier and forgot. This sunset shot dates from the 14th – nothing exciting, just an illustration, because the next one is from the 18th.


In between, read more

So far, so good


A week ago now, I posted about finding the nest of a red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus,) including being able to see the opening clearly enough that I should be able to spot the nestlings as they got bigger and closer to fledging out and leaving the read more

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