More Traffic on the Lake

Over the past three years, there is a marked increase of traffic on White Rock Lake. During that time, SUP boards have increased. Kayak traffic has increased. Sailboat traffic has increased and now there is increasing use of Hobie Cats and Hobie Double Kayaks. Oh, did I mention the steam-powered converted sailboat? Then, there are the rowing clubs that have inreased and fishermen  that use boats.

 There is now a canoe,kayak and SUP board rental vendor in its third year at the lake. All-in-all, it's a good thing. The wildlife seems to be adjusting to the increase also. In some ways, they actually benefit. The question that presents itself next is: at what point will it become saturated? Of course, it may slow down as the economy  increases and people return to other forms of recreation that are developing in the Metroplex. Maybe, there is no need to sound the alarm yet, but observing the past three years has been an eye-opener of sorts.

Another subtle sign can be seen here in this mid-August summer afternoon shot. In the tree to the left of the sign the Monk Parots were being rowdy. A silhouette shot caught the rowdy little bird behaving.

Storms in the area last night and some this afternoon, as a result of a mid-August cold front passing, kept the temperatures not above 91 * F for a change. It also send a lot of dead wood flowing through the lake and over the spillway.

A Fine Art artist from Connecticut was visiting the lake today looking for inspiration. It's always amazing to me how White Rock Lake draws artist,photographers, writers, poets, musicians  and other creative minds. From this photographer's viewpoint, it is  a much-welcomed choir of angels that are as if they are on their day off. Least I fail to mention Roddy holding court every Sunday for years with his "FREE ADVISE" sign out. Dallas is so lucky to have such a jewel in the heart of the city.

Silhouette of one of many Monk Parots at White Rock.

With increasing Boat Traffic, new signs go up.

Last night's storms had 60 MPH winds and gave a much needed 0.75 inches of rain.

 

Run This Through My Herr-Voss

When you see "Run This Through My Herr-Voss" it's  a way to say that I've got something on my chest that I need to get off.

Yesterday afternoon,  with the temps going back into the triple digits again,  even the cat was trying to push me out the door for a little while. Since I had a low tire (a down side to front-end drives) I set out to see my friend,Jamal. He operates a stop and shop with gas and an air machine. Also, he had found a new Mediterranean restaurant from our visit of last week and I wanted to touch base with him as to when he wanted to go for dinner.

 On the way home, my eye caught a large ground movement in an area that is mowed regularly by the city and I slowed down enough to see a very large Red Tail hawk on its prey. I drove to the parking area, got out the camera and walked back along the road several hundred yards. This was the second big Red Tail that I have seen in as many months. Last month, I posted one on a squirrel dinner. This one had the same taste buds. One thing for sure, Red Tails keep the squirrel populations in check.

While watching this amazing bird feast on its kill, keeping movement down is always essential if you want to observe the food chain at work and learn about urban life of such amazing birds. The traffic is in a residential area but its on the edge of a popular park. Looking out for traffic on my side of the road and maintaining an eye on the bird, this one car was coming back and forth and pulled into  a near driveway. Thinking it was the property owner, I didn't pay much attention to the car beyond that. A bit later, along came a girl and two guys walking two dogs on the other side of the creek. There wasn't much concern with that in as much as they presented little disturbance with the creek between them and the Red Tail. In a split second, the people follow the dogs down into the creek and the lady in the car comes forward in a fast walk with camera in hand. Both converged on the hawk from both directions. Fear had already registered in my brain what was about to happen. Sure enough, the Red Tail stirs anxiously, stands at full tallness and the wings come out in lift-off position. Sure enough, it took flight with the squirrel that wasn't finished. It flew across another street into a wooded area that is part of a flood plane and wet land. No use looking for the hawk, I didn't feel like running from cottonmouth snakes!!

Here is the "RUN THIS THROUGH MY HERR-VOSS".
Some people are so self-centered, they have no respect for others in public areas. The lady had no clue what was about to happen. She actually thought that she was going to get as close as I had gotten to the Red Tail. And, she might have had a 60/40 chance had she been aware of the dogs on the other side of the creek.

As far as the people with the dogs, they were young 20-somethings and didn't care what a old man with a camera in his hand might be observing on the fringe of a park known for its wildlife-in-Urban splendor. The young couple and friend and the lady with her point-and-shoot in hand immediately backtracked in the other direction when the hawk took flight. It was like watching to cue ball on a billiard table hit to balls at once and one goes to the left pocket and one goes to the right pocket. They knew what they had done. People don't know how to share common space with others who might be enjoying nature  while they occupy or consume their afternoon with no purpose in mind.

Earlier, a business owner had come by, pulled off the road quietly, sat in his Jeep and watched the hawk, got out his camera and snapped a couple of shots. I walked across the road to talk to him. He lives in the area and had experienced the  same two American Bald Eagles seen in the area earlier in the year like me. The point being, you got three people stopping. One can share the common public land with another while the other two groups have no clue how to share nature and respect the observers as well as the feeding animal or fouls. That's what "ruffled my feathers" or as and old steel man would saw: "Run This Through My Herr-Voss".

Here are a couple of pictures from of the beautiful tail feathers of a Red Tail hawk.

 

B__G Upside Down or Right Side Up on Maple Avenue

The heat advisory has not been a good thing, especially with  a 40-pound camera bag hanging off a shoulder. Having said that, some of you have noticed that the post have developed a more spacial distance between the postings. Most of you also know--especially the Canadians--that some of my extraordinary shots have come after extended spells of drought and I don't mean weather! So, while making a trip to the drugstore and the grocery store at the tail end of a dry spell, I had been waiting until the new,but old,sign at Love Field went back up following the renovation at the terminal buildings and the like. Surveying for parking places, angles etc.,etc., I turned down Maple Avenue to come back around into a left turn lane to get the Love Field shot when I spotted one of the city's new marketing campaign's big blue letters B and G in the driveway of a business. I've seen them in some unusual places but this one was a bit more odd. Parking in a lot across the street,walking across the street I encountered a guy from the new gym, who's driveway the letters were sitting. He explained that he had called the city and requested a set of the letters for the Grand Opening of the CrossFit Big D. The rest is history.Here are a couple of shots from the gym and the new, but old, sign at Love Field where Denton Drive and Mockingbird Lane cross. The sign is at the end of runway 13R for normal flight operations. It's about 26 or 27 degrees on the reverse when landing but is designated Left rather than right.

CrossFit Big D Grand Opening

Turning your world upside down in a BIG way.

Several sets of these letters can be found around the Metroplex. There is even one done in Rainbow colors for the Gay community in Uptown.

When the weather turns better, like November, I'll come back and get some good closeups.

A Sound That Can Only Be----STEAM!

I heard the sound that can only be made by a steam whistle long before actually seeing that familiar plume of steam  rising from the hull of a sailboat steering right at me. Could it be? A steam powered boat on White Rock Lake. When the Linda Lue docked, it was without doubt an operating steam engine. One of the clues was that its owner, Dean Smith, was wearing a pair of heavy leather gloves.The kind you wear when you  operate equipment that is hot from steam boilers.

Dean had a friend with him and said that he and his dad,Cole, had built the steam power and engine on a modified fiberglass hull of a sail boat.It was a kick to see the gauge,stack and needed wood used as fuel.But, the whistle was a genuine steam-powered whistle He also said that his son, was a student at Texas A & M Galveston in their Maritime School. He mentioned that one of the local newspapers had done a feature article on  he and his dad within the past couple of weeks.

Over the years, I have seen a cornucopia of watercraft on White Rock. Today, was a first to see a boat under steam power sailing up and down the shoreline. The fact that White Rock continues to peg the needle of unique places to visit in Dallas moved the needle farther to the right today.

Dean Smith is standing.

The Sights and  Sounds of Mark Twain's River Adventures Have Arrived at White Rock Lake.

A Big Boy sits;Two poodles get a boat ride and a Mixed Lab poses.

Got up early yesterday morning. Headed out to Fair Park. The "confirmed" move on the museum's face book linked page on Twitter said today was the day. The Union Pacific Big Boy 4018 steam locomotive was scheduled to move to its new home in Frisco,Texas. After two hours of waiting with several dozen people, railroad workers and a few wannabe hotshots , the Union Pacific main line would not permit the move over their tracks. The dead rail siding out of Fair Park must interchange with the UP before being transferred to the Burlington Northern Tracks. After 14-months of observations, one would tend to piece together a little undercover political maneuvering being displayed between a couple of factions involved between the railroads and jurisdictions. That is my observation based on prior knowledge of the situation. It goes without saying that burning bridges is never a good thing.Having said that, the bottom line is many people with interest in railroading  had that precious Sunday off wasted;some being very hurt, not once but several times, during the course of this move to Frisco. Another thing struck me as being odd. An old Wichita Falls REA rusted truck was missing from Fair Park's fenced in area for the former museum. Not a word was said about that. HUM? File that one under, "Keep an eye on that",Casey Jones.

While switching was about to begin to jockey things around, the railroad was going to exercise their muscle under the color of "safety". It was time to get out of that mess and find a source for my special project this summer: "Seniors and Retirees and their Pets at the lake". It didn't take me long, either. I stopped at McDonald's and got lunch to go, drove over to Dryfuss Club and sat on the hilltop watching the TOP O' TEXAS ride at Fair Park cycle up and cycle down  while I ate my lunch. Afterwards, it was time to get some great animal shots. Over by the marina area, it was quick to book up the afternoon with three great dogs. Two were poodles belonging to a couple and a Lab mix that loved his tennis balls and the water.

People have fun with their animals at the lake and spend a lot of time and money to keep those pets safe and happy. Enjoy a few choice shots.

The F-7A

Captain Greg his wife and their two poodles go Hobie Kayaking

Ace, a mixed Lab loves the water and the two tennis balls in his mouth!

 

In Texas, When It's Miller TIme, You Stop!

Where else can you find a cooler, a tent and orange cones in the middle of 16-lanes but in Texas.

Blueprints and a blueprint reader for this project

It's Miller Time!

Perception is everything so when I came across a second tent in the HOV lanes there was something strikingly different with the white tent.

 

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A couple of days ago while running errands, I came across a construction crew working on LBJ 635 in the High 5 area.A couple of images were posted (Color on the High 5,posted July 9).

Yesterday,the crew was still working and it was a Saturday.It was also 100-degrees. The frame work is so complicated that it takes a set of blueprints and a blueprint reader to walk the crew through the installation of this fiber technology. Talk about being frustrated with toy instructions, this would drive you mad.

 The fun part was down the road about 50 yards and a comic like Jay Leno or Dave Letterman would have a field day with potential one-liners. The white tent must be different than the blue tent that was still up from a couple of days ago. Note the orange cooler sitting in the center with four orange cones surrounding it! That cooler has got to have a six-pack of Millers! 

Randy Travis Fans

Yesterday afternoon, I went out to The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano to see Randy Travis' Tour Bus. The trip was for me personally. However, after sitting in my car and watching fans come out of nowhere and walk up to the bus, take out their iPhone and snap one,sometimes two, images of the bus,  struck me how  deeply this area cared about the country singer. He  lives on a ranch  a few more miles from the hospital. It was something to witness in person.

The people  of Tioga , about 800 total, are praying for his recovery following the initial heart condition and then stroke that he suffered. So, while I said that my trip was a personal one initially, after witnessing the number of fans that came to photo his bus while I was there, helped to make the decision to take a couple of images and post them  for his fans that could not come in person.

 May the Lord hear the many prayers and help him recover fully from his health issues.

The Tour Bus of Country Singer, Randy Travis.

 The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano  just a few yards west of where Travis' bus is parked.