Today Is....

My favorite  leaf, the Sycamore. I measured one today that was 15-inches by 11-inches.These are at the very top of the tree but I have a feeling that they are about that same size as the ones that I measured.

National Look at the Leaves Day and National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day. Just happen to have a few shots today of such things.

WRR Radio, the classical station  here in Dallas, has a weekly program at 8 P.M. our time (CT) featuring a Symphony Orchestra  each night. Tonight's broadcast is from the New York Phil and the program is once again playing Mahler's Requiem, in memory of those that were lost in the Las Vegas Shooting. It seems that they, NY Phil, plays this when there has been a major national tragedy. The chorus and the orchestra together have a very deep meaning for me. Gustav Mahler and I would have made good friends in our musical thinking.

So, the rain has finally made its way up from the Gulf as this post is being written. Eagerly, I am waiting for the 50 degree nights due next week when the day time temps will be in the 70s finally. It really has been a long hot summer. It hasn't been that Texas Sizzle that drains your energy completely, but it''s been hot non-the-less.

Sorry that I didn't come across a hummingbird. So, I'll sub in for the hummingbird, the place where the mallards have been hanging out this summer to stay cool. The tires and the ducks kind of blend in. Click on any of these pictures to enlarge and see the details closer.

Under the training sail boats are 10 mallards in the shade.

A butterfly recharging it's energy with some nectar for the milkweed and others that draws butterflies like honey to a bee.

Today Was Think Day While Testing Settings

Some of you know that up until about eighteen months ago, I had been a loyal Nikon man. Between my Nikon and the Olympus, it was the Nikon that I grabbed as I ran out the door. But, because Nikon wants to push me to upgrade, it seems that they have no other solutions to my software problem and I have not run across a Nikon body that has been reconditioned.

After being forced to use my smaller Olympus with less glass than the Nikon, much to my surprise, I have "fallen in love with my Olympus" and will probably put my glass on the market and the body. Any revenue I will plow back into additional equipment for the Olympus. In fact, they are telling me that they will be coming out with a ring that will allow my glass from the Nikon, to work on my Olympus. The current problem is--of course-- the motor drives are not synced or compatible from one maker to another. (You really don't think that either maker engineered it to be that way on purpose?). I defer that answer to a later date--like the year 2250.

So, with T-shirt and shorts (again) I wondered the lake a couple of times looking for the big birds but not any of their favorite haunts revealed the birds whereabouts. So, thinking about some up-coming projects and the increasing hot weather already, it's going to be an interesting spring and summer and that is not good for me as the meds warnings clearly tell me that I should avoid extreme heat and the things that go with being dehydrated and heat exhausted. Like yesterdays post, my favorite temperate is that 65-70F range.

A couple of song birds eating berries were the sum of the afternoon pictures outside of a pair of mallards that floated out from underneath a dock walkway. (Don't forget to click on an image to enlarge)

Song Birds Eating Berries

Pair of Mallards most likely will build their nest in the reeds, but these flood rather qickly.