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Thursday, August 4, 2016

Crops & Clips: Flashback to August, 2013

This post continues my game of searching my archives for images which match the themes of critters, fences, skies, flowers, macros and reflections. It is a retrospective view of photos taken three years ago, in August, 2013. While it is a bit of a scavenger hunt, it also reminds me of creatures and sights I might expect to see again at this time of year. Let's see how far I need to go into the month to find at least one for each meme. If I can get them all I will have won the game twenty months in a row since starting in January, 2015.

I nearly started the month with a misstep as I admired this placid early morning scene just after sunrise in our local south Florida wetlands:

Harbour Lake looking west at sunrise HDR  20130804

Striving to get another view, I walked a short ways out on the muddy path, not noticing a critter nearly underfoot in the grasses just to my right.

Harbour Lakes dock looking west 20130804 

[WARNING: Anni and other ophidiophobics may wish to skip the next few photos] My peripheral vision detected a slight movement and I forgot about taking any more landscape photos. My intrusion triggered a venomous Cottonmouth Water Moccasin to adopt a threat posture:

Cottonmouth 20130804

Cottonmouth closeup 2-20130804

I backed off and the snake swam away:

Cottonmouth retreating 20130804

A juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk roosted on a power pole:

Red-shouldered Hawk juvenile 20130803

Back home, my first backyard yard "critters" of the month were a Tricolored Heron and a pair of White Ibises, foraging at the edge of our lake:

Tricolored Heron 2-20130804

White Ibises 20130803

The next day a Tawny-edged Skipper sipped nectar from Ligustrum blossoms:

Tawny-edged Skipper probably 20130805

A male Julia heliconian began unfurling his proboscis to join in the feast:

Julia heliconian male 20130806

The Julia opened his wings to display their beauty:

Julia male 20130807

We migrated to our second home in Illinois on August 9th, to see American Goldfinches...

American Goldfinch 20130812

...and a molting Field Sparrow on a sunflower:

Field Sparrow molting 20130812 

A Northern Cardinal lent color to our daughter's back yard:

Northern Cardinal 20130814

A photo of the creek in Bliss Woods did contain a weak reflection, but my earlier lakescapes performed double-duty by including skies and reflections:

Bliss Woods HDR 20130815

Still looking for fences, but I cannot pass up this image of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail...

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 20130824

...nor can I neglect a Red-headed Woodpecker, on August 20:

Red-headed Woodpecker South Nest 03-20130820

On August 28th I finally captured a fence, along with a well-kept barn at Hannaford Woods:

Hannaford Farms barn HDR crop 20130826

Well, once more I passed the test. As usual, finding a fence among my photos proved to be the most difficult task.

= = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = = =

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 Today's Flowers Friday by Denise

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue


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
________________________________________________

42 comments:

  1. a nice barn scene to finish off. :) glad you didn't get any closer to that critter. fine shots of it, though! love the goldfinch and the tri-color.

    (and maybe you can sneak in a feeder to see those painted buntings.) :)

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  2. Hello, cool capture of the Cottonmouth snake. I love the birds and the butterflies. Pretty sky captures. Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

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  3. oh, so many lovely shots. Loved the landscape. The common sparrow is a favorite of mine. Love to watch them.

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  4. I am not surprised you backed away from that snake but glad it swam off. All your bird photography is excellent but I really loved the Goldfinch

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  5. Another glorious series, Kenneth! I never tire of your photos. And in case I haven't mentioned this before, I love your header! :)

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  6. Wonderful post. Oh my gosh you were that close to a Cottonmouth Snake, I would have been scared to photograph it but it sure was a cool thing to see. Great bird sightings and a very nice barn/fence scene.

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  7. You always get such great photographs!

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  8. Another great series of shots, and my favs are the cottonmouth shots!! Great captures.

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  9. Absolutely gorgeous captures you got there! How lucky that you live amidst such a rich treasure house of nature!

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  10. What a gorgeous series of shots.

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  11. Wow, beautiful shots, thanks for sharing :)

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  12. Nice shots,at times it can be dangerous in the wilderness

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  13. Great shots Thanks for sharing and have a super weekend!

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  14. Great color in those sunset reflections.

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  15. Love the reflection photo and the butterflies.

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  16. Lovely sky but there are some wonderful wildlife shots in there too...Great photos, love them.

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  17. Great pictures of the birds and phantastic reflections!

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  18. Oh Wow, you have the most amazing coloured critters in your part of the World. I loved seeing them all and such beautiful photography. The first image would make a wonderful watercolour painting.
    Have a wonderful weekend :)

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  19. Hello, beautiful bird and gorgeous butterflies. I love the pretty Julia?

    Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

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  20. Another marvellous collection, Kenneth.

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  21. I'm walking with you and loving every moment

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  22. Your photos are amazing Kenneth. I loved looking at the birds and the flutters, and even the cottonmouth as they are a good educational tool in id’ing them in case we come across them one of these days, and to steer clear :) I personally have always found his kind fascinating ever since I was a little girl. Thank you so much for linking with Today’s Flowers also, especially after my break. Very much appreciated. Have a great weekend!

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  23. You've got much better Goldfinch pics than I, KCS.

    I'm truly envious of your water moccasin. I never got anything more than regular water snakes.
    ~

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  24. Nice post - I am about to head north, into the warmer parts of Australia - apart from birds I hope that I may get some reptile shots as well!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  25. Oh good lord....nightmares of cottonmouths tonight.

    Excellent image ...the very first one. It's so beautiful, and tranquil. Your birds and butterflies, exceptional. I especially thought the one of the Goldfinch was prime realty for an enlargement and frame! Wow.

    Thanks, Ken, for sharing your post link this weekend at I'd Rather B Birdin'. [I like seeing that nasty critter swimming AWAY from us...yay]

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  26. Oh-oh, Anni, you looked! Can't say I didn't warn you!

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  27. It's hard to stay cool for snake photos! I took a few from inside my house this week...but it was a 'good' snake. Enjoy your weekend!

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  28. A really beautiful series of images, Ken! I'm jealous of that Julia photo. I can't find one. I'm NOT jealous of the Cottonmouth. They seem to find me without any problem. As the man said: "I'm not afraid of snakes, but I sure do respect them"! And since the Cottonmouth can be unpredictable, I respect them more than most!

    Hope you and your family are enjoying the "northern home"!

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  29. So much beauty here Ken as always, that Julia with her/his wings spread is exquisite! Thanks so much for sharing the love up-close with I Heart Macro.

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  30. Beautiful and colorful birds. You are very brave enough to shoot the snake.

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  31. Versatile amazing images!
    Wonderfully colorful.

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  32. Wonderful photos - even the snake!
    I'm so glad you shared at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-little-dab-of-color.html

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  33. Hello Ken!:) Your archive is full of wonderful images. Love the shots of the American Goldfinch, and Red-headed Woodpecker. The two butterflies are so beautiful. I had never heard of a Julia before but with it's wings open,it's stunning. The snake incident added drama to your already fabulous post, so glad you saw it in time to back away. Great shots of everything.:)

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  34. Amazing images as always. I will post an image of our badlands at http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.ca/ shortly. I remembered yours from last week!

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  35. Fun memories -- you're definitely a winner!! Scrolled back since I Haven't been here for a while and really enjoyed the South Dakota tour -- those posts brought back memories for me!

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  36. Beautiful photos! We've been away in the city, and I've seen few critters close up. Happy to view yours.

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  37. What a beautiful series!
    Great shots. Love the Woodpecker!

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