Crops & Clips: October 2012 Meme Mashup

This month's potpourri gathered from the archives features the themes of critters, fences, skies, macros and reflections. It is a retrospective view of photos taken three years ago, in October, 2012. At the time I did not seek to portray each of these memes, so it is a bit of a scavenger hunt. Let's see how far I need to go into the month to find at least one of each. If I can get them all I will have won the game ten months in a row since starting in January, 2015. This month's flashback once again produced the required set of images, but not until the 23rd of the month.

As usual there were plenty of photos of CRITTERS--

My first photo foray into our neighborhood Florida wetlands yielded on October 3, 2012, a nice portrait of a Prairie Warbler:



Two mornings later we encountered an adult Bobcat, sitting in the middle of the gravel road that accesses the wetlands:



Male Black-throated Blue Warbler on October 10:

 

Fall migration generally provides a greater abundance of colorful warblers than in spring, and 2012 was no exception. This is a Northern Parula, photographed on October 14...

 

...a Yellow-throated Warbler on October 22:



Halloween Pennant dragonflies, as seen in this MACRO were numerous:

 

We "reverse migrated" to NE Illinois at the end of October to celebrate a Halloween party and pig roast in honor of our son-in-law's milestone birthday. Rudely thrust into winter-like weather, I did photograph some species for the first time, such as this Purple Finch, on October 25...



...and a Lapland Longspur on the last day of the month:



I would be remiss if I did not include just  a couple of more "party critters," yours truly, in costume...

 

...and unmasked...



...and Cleopatra (Mary Lou)...





 flanked by our granddaughters Cinderella (Cari)...



...and the Queen of Hearts (Graci):



My search for REFLECTIONS and SKY photos was productive of many images, such as this Sunrise on October 7 from the back patio of our home:



Paradoxically, this early morning shot on October 8, looking to the southwest over the wetlands seems to portray the sunrise, but the apparently diverging rays are not from the rising sun but rather from the opposite direction (behind my LEFT shoulder)! The rays of the sun filters over the tops of the thunderheads and paints long parallel pink streaks. Perspective gives them the appearance of diverging from the west, but they actually are converging towards the vanishing point. Almost every summer, tropical winds carry dust particles 5,800 miles across the ocean from northern Africa. The dust is able to cross that distance because it travels in its own air layer — the Saharan Air Layer.

 

I captured another "mirrored sunrise" on October 20, this time directly opposite the rising sun (notice how the clouds are illuminated from the near side rather than from behind):



Saharan dust produced the pink sky that enhanced this view of a Great Egret, on October 26:

 
 
At first I thought my search for a photo of a fence in the October 2012 archives was in vain, until I looked closely at this photo of a gathering thunderhead. I was rushing home to beat the storm. It looks back to the gate to the gravel road that leads out of the wetlands. A vehicle is parked just outside the fence, but you must click on the photo to enlarge it:




Fearing that Tex would ban me from her meme for posting the above, I carefully re-reviewed the month's photos and discovered that I had overlooked this October 23 image of a family of Wood Storks gathered on a neighbor's back yard FENCE:

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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa). 

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to I Heart Macro by Laura

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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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