A Focus on Flying Things

Today (day 47 of summer) was a stay-at-home day after our visit to Boston yesterday. I started my morning as I normally do, with a cup of coffee and visiting you out there in the blogosphere. While I did so, I heard some raucous bird-calling out in the back yard. I took my camera with me to try to investigate what might be going on. I followed the sound to the trees in the back near my shed and peered up. The sound seemed to be coming from birds like this one:

That bird was close to the top of the tree so that is a tightly cropped shot – not as clear as I would have liked, but enough to identify as one of two kind of similar birds. I think this is either a northern flicker or a red bellied woodpecker. This scruffy looking thing seemed to be following closely, so I am going to assume it to be a fledgling of whatever type of bird this is.

My day continued in a low key manner. I vacuumed the pool (not very satisfactorily by the way! Any pool owners have some good tips for vacuuming up the super fine silt-like material that gathers at the bottom of the pool and “poofs” up into the water when you approach it with the vacuum?), had lunch, finished reading one of the oddest, but interesting, books I’ve ever read (The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, if you are interested) and enjoyed some time floating around the pool on my air mattress.

Other critters with wings that I enjoy photographing teased me and my lens this afternoon after I got out of the pool. Hummingbirds buzzed and chased at my feeder but never stayed long enough for me to focus a shot. The hummingbird moths and dragonflies, however, were a little more cooperative.

This hummingbird moth still gave me a bit of a time focusing – each time I had it in frame ready to go, it seemed to think another blossom on the butterfly bush looked better, but eventually I got this shot.

I found this friendly dragonfly face on a tomato cage in my garden.

I was really impressed with what I was able to do with Lightroom to improve this shot. I was able to bring out detail that I never saw in my original photo. Normally I don’t like to show you the “less pretty” photos, but I think the difference is really something here.

Camping Critters

No, the critters didn’t go camping, but I did see quite a variety on our camping trip to Goshen, MA last weekend.

A morning hike to a fire-tower brought me my first dragonfly shot of the season:

as well as an encounter with a bird that I’d never seen before:

We wondered at first if it was a quail, but the members of our group believed this nearly chicken-sized bird to be too large to be a quail.  Later in the day, the word for this bird just popped into my head, unbidden: grouse!

When I came home, I double checked my thought on the computer and the description of this bird seems to match that of a ruffled grouse.

An afternoon walk to the small lake beach provided a couple more interesting creature encounters.  This creature was of a very familiar type, but I’d never seen one quite doing this before:

I know many dogs, especially retrievers (not MY retriever of course!), enjoy swimming, but I’d never seen one swimming along side a cayak.

A pair of ducks made their way into the swimming area too.  They were unafraid of the people in the area.  I took a few pictures out of habit, but then I was happily surprised to capture this one:

I don’t know if this was the he or the she of the pair, as both ducks looked virtually identical.  I think he/she looks ready to conduct a symphony!

A far less symphonic critter was the next to slither by my lens:

I’m not generally bothered all that much by snakes, not that I’d like to have one for a pet or anything mind you, so getting this photo didn’t require much bravery on my part.  Later, however, my friends at the campsite looked at this picture zoomed in and believe we were in the company of a small copperhead snake – a venomous, but not overly dangerous or agressive snake.

There were also the usual chattering, curious red squirrels and chipmunks that ran around our campsite, but I somehow didn’t manage any photos of those.  One brave chipmunk that chose to come a little closer to us was rewarded with a treat of peanuts – I wish I had gotten a picture of those stuffed up cheeks.

Heat and humidity have taken over this region once again; upper 90’s are forecast and we are under a heat advisory.  Hope you are keeping cool today, whatever you are doing.

Back to the Woods

Summer is slipping through our fingers, I’m sad to say.  Although autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 23rd this year, today, Labor Day, often feels like the end of the season.  It didn’t feel like summer was over to Daphne when I took this picture though!  Let me back up a little.

Saturday morning seemed like it was to be one of those delightful days – a nice one for either summer or fall – with wispy clouds, gentle breezes and a high of 80°.  I hadn’t taken the dogs for a walk in the woods for weeks, mostly because the last time we did so,  they came back covered in ticks or the days had started out just too humidly for me to want to make the trek.  I decided we would avoid the tall grasses and hope for the best this time out.

I was rewarded with beautiful sights along our path, looking so different from when Becky and I went out together back in the spring, or even from some of our early summer walks.

The old tractor path we follow was lush and green, forming almost tunnel-like feeling

This field of tall grasses developed a purply-pink color that I don’t remember seeing before – I think it is just this particular type of grass gone to seed.

Wild black-eyed susans,

milkweed,

and goldenrod were in full bloom

Giant dragonflies hovered above the fields, though I struggled to capture them in a photo:

And just for you, Kathy, I even found a mushroom I could consider a little bit beautiful in its pink color:

The dogs and I happily ambled along the paths, a few times turned around by impasses likely created by Irene, but had a thoroughly enjoyable walk.  A small swamp with a running stream across part of our path was a bit larger at this time of the year, after the significant rain we’ve had recently, which gets me back to the picture at the beginning of my post.  The last time I showed this part of our walk, it looked like this:

It was the end of March, and warm for that time of year, but probably at least 20 degrees cooler than this past Saturday.  I didn’t think it was overly warm out, but then I wasn’t wearing a fur coat!

Hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend!  Have a wonderful week.

As Summer Fades Away

I haven’t put up a new post in a few days, and I’m thinking that will likely be the case for me now that school has begun.  The girls went back last week, and I went back to work, and dance starts up next week – all of which makes for more running around, and less picture-taking time. I’m still planning to shoot as much as I can, but the posts may not come as often.  We’ll see, I guess.  I found a few pictures today with subjects I’ve used already this summer, but something about them seemed to have that “summer is fading away” feeling, which is the way that I am feeling today.

Zinnia in late afternoon sun

The dragonfly, stopping by.. I liked the way this one was lit and the leaf “bokeh” in the background.

I loved the curl of the tongue in this revisit of the hummingbird moth.  I remembered to push up the shutter speed this time (1/1000) to get some stop action.  It was bright afternoon light, so I was able to keep a small aperture (5.6) to go with my now “famous” aperture mantra.

The color of this little dahlia struck me one afternoon.  Many of my purchased annuals surprised me this summer with colors I didn’t expect.  I assumed it was going to be yellow when I saw the bud, but then I noticed the tinge of pink around the edges, almost like it had a late summer sunburn, to remind it of a lovely day in the sun.

That’s my short, late-night post for today.  I had another planned for you but Flickr or my internet connection was acting up earlier this evening, so it wasn’t to be.

Stopping By Plants on a Sunny Morning

…. with apologies to Robert Frost.

Whose plant this is I think I know

The house is beyond the deck though

They will not see me stopping here

To watch the flies before I go

 

Hummingbirds must think it queer

To stop with a human near

Between the garden and the bush

The brightest morning of the year

 

I give my wings a little shake

To get her to make a mistake

The only other sound is that

The camera shutter make

 

Hydrangea leaves are dark and deep

But I have many nymphs to keep

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep