What a thrill to be looking back three years to June, 2014. It was a very active month. As usual I will search my archives for some interesting memes among the 368 photos processed out of the thousands I took that month. I will find lots of Critters, including plenty of Wild Birds, some beautiful Skies and Reflections, Wordless scenes that depict All Seasons, and do hope to continue my string of Fences. Let's get started. We began the month at our permanent residence in south Florida, where, on June 3, I photographed a female Northern Flicker (I know it is a female because appropriately, she lacks a black mustache): I cannot resist including another photo taken the same day, a portrait of a Muscovy drake in our back yard. I think he is so ugly that he curved back across the line to beautiful: A White-tail buck in velvet was an irresistible Critter (June 5): Alas, already overburdened with Critters, I still must honor the singing Eastern Meadowlark who greeted us on June 8, when we returned to our second home in NE Illinois: On June 13 we embarked on our Alaska cruise. On the way out of Vancouver, BC I captured this lighthouse scene which inspired me to "paint" it (using Corel PaintShop Pro): Three days later, approaching Hoonah, Alaska, the water was too disturbed to provide me with needed reflections: I see a couple of fences at the dock! In Hoonah, this boat looked as if it had been up on dry-dock for many years, so I decided it certainly needed to be "painted:" The next day June 15), only the heads of these two Bald Eagles were reflecting-- not entirely satisfying: A roar and tidal waves as the Hubbard Glacier is calving: The docks at Seward, Alaska, with our ship "Radiance of the Sea" in the background: On the way back to Anchorage on June 23, a last look at Denali (Mount McKinley) through the train window... ...and finally a real reflection amd a beautiful sky, though blurred by the train's movement: To spare the reader more boredom, I left out the remaining 354 photos, but if you need more punishment, feel free to skim my Alaska blogs (Critters galore!) Cruising to Ketchikan, Alaska
Join me as I peek through the Retrospectroscope, a look at events three years ago during the month of May. As usual I will hope to find photos in my archives which meet the themes of SKY, REFLECTION, FENCE, MACRO and CRITTERS. Of course I am never at a loss finding shots of critters of all sorts, but mostly avian. This time I really had an easy time matching all of the memes. A nice thing about this exercise is that it prepares me for what I might find during May of 2016, God willing! We began the month of May at our second home in northeastern Illinois. Fair weather clouds over Nelson Lake in Batavia, Illinois on May 2, 2013 The observation deck at the east side of Nelson Lake A Canada Goose kept watch inside the flimsy fence around the roof of a silo: Yellow Warbler: Eastern Meadowlark on budding oak sapling: Violets in bloom on May 6: Leaves were emerging on the hickory trees: Wake Robin (Trillium sp) bud ready to burst on May 6: Fittingly, a gathering of American Robins: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, May 8: Baltimore Oriole in song: House Wren singing: Wild Blue Flox: A visit to the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago to see gorillas and wolves: Clay-colored Sparrow on May 13: Female Mallard and Spotted Sandpiper: Our granddaughters collected dandelion seed heads... ...and blew on them, dispersing them like little parachutes: Before leaving for Florida I snapped this view from the front door of our Illinois condo: Construction of the 74 new dwelling units was well underway. Our dooryard prairie which had harbored so many birds, butterflies and flowers was now extinct. Our unit is in the second building from the left. The open space in front of the camera would soon be occupied by additional homes. The black plastic fence did not contain all the construction debris: The next morning after we returned from Illinois we visited the herbicide-damaged heron rookery and found four active Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nests, inclucing this one with sky-blue eggs: A Great Egret cast a fine reflection on the still water: The off-road vehicle vandals had cut through fences and knocked down the signs which provided no barrier to their rampages: On May 27 the night-herons were raising their chicks:
During a visit to the zoo she noticed a sparrow in the tree above:
At four years of age, she loved to find fossils along the shore of our lake in Florida...
...and watched the Bald Eagle nest:
Graci enjoyed nature walks with her little sister and their huge Tibetan Mastiff:
Graciela writes-- Several times I tried to set up a bird walk with my grandparents but the first couple of times it rained. They did take me out to Bliss Woods but the mosquitoes almost ate us alive! Grandma with me on the bridge over Blackberry Creek in Bliss Woods: We heard this House Wren singing very loudly: A phoebe was catching mosquitoes and I saw it carry food to a nest under the picnic shelter. Gramps couldn't find it at first in the dark but it flicked its tail: I could not see the whole nest, behind the post: When it stopped raining we planned to walk at Nelson Lake, particularly to try to see a Bobolink. On the way I asked Grandpa to stop off at a neighborhood park because I had found a nest and did not know what type of bird it belonged to. The nest looked like a Chimney Swift's nest but it was made of mud stuck to one of the metal support posts under the edge of the roof of the pavilion. I did see the bird but did not know what kind it was. It had a blue back, cinnamon color on its throat and a dark line like a collar. Grandpa said it sounded like a Barn Swallow and sure enough it it was. If the video does not launch in the space below, try this link.
While we watched the nest an adult bird flew in and seemed to be feeding one or more tiny babies. We were not able to see them, but after getting a few photos and a video we moved on to Nelson Lake. It was cloudy and pretty cool for July: We began hiking the trail and we saw lots of birds, mostly Red-winged Blackbirds. There was a large picnic shelter and I went under it to see if I could spot any bird nests. I found three nests, one with a robin sitting in it. We saw some precious baby swallows on the roof of the shelter, but inside there were no swallow nests. I saw some places where there may have been swallow nests but they looked like they had been knocked down, hopefully not on purpose.
The tiny swallows looked right into the camera when Grandpa took their picture. They were so adorable! As we walked along the path I mostly heard Red-winged-Blackbirds and Song Sparrows: Then I heard the Common Yellowthroat singing "wichity-wichity-wichity." After Grandpa spotted the yellowthroat and pointed it out to me I said it was very cute with its little black mask. He had to wear a coat but I live in Illinois and am used to the cold weather. There were many milkweed plants with flowers, Black-eyed Susan and sunflowers. We saw some Cedar Waxwings among the Queen Anne's Lace.
The meadowlark was whistling "Spring of the year." At first we could find no Bobolinks until Grandpa saw a female, which flew by really fast. Then I spotted a male down close to the ground. It kept moving but down low where I could not see over the grass. Gramps could not get a picture of it, but a Dickcissel suddenly hopped up on a flower right next to the path. I didn't know how beautiful it was until I saw it on the computer: The good thing was that there were no mosquitoes! Two days later we went over to check the Barn Swallow's nest again. This time we could see FOUR baby birds! Ten days after Graci found the nest, on July 15, 2015, there were FIVE hungry nestlings! (Click here if video fails to load in the space below):
Well, here is Grandfather back again, to add some sky and reflection shots from our Canada Rockies rail trip. This is Lake Louise, Alberta on a very calm morning... ...and this is an oil painting effect on a photo of Bow River just above the falls at Banff, Alberta (click to view full size image in FLICKR):
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 _______________________________________________
