What Do Birds Do When It Rains?

Get wet! And get wet they do. It was interesting to watch them since their feathers are the key to their flight, they must be maintained at all cost. It was that thought that caused me to just shoot birds in the rain today. I also found some monk parrots on a high wire doing the love bird side-by-side. With the visibility very low and gray, the monks could also be in silhouette.

I also had an amazing encounter with a female coyote. She actually came ,toward me, wanted to play, picking up a drink lid like a Frisbee. She would get down on her front paws then take off running. As I went on down the hill to turn around, she had moved onto the road and was looking at me. I turned around and came back up the hill. As I did, she went back into the short grassy area and started to play again.

The North American Mockingbird Songbird.

The rain had let up but was still a heavy mist. The cold front was just miles away. Also, a clap of thunder hit just about the time I shot this. That was al the warm humid air being mixed up in the atmosphere. Even the birds were in anticipation of cooler weather and sunshine tomorrow, I think.

The Monk Parrots

Monk Parrot on a High Wire Paired with a Single

I have seen other coyotes from the car and they would stand and watch then go off into the tall grass. Not this one. She actually did kind of scare me at one point and I put up the window as she got closer. She was beautiful but out of 24 shots, not one came out because I did a silly thing. I could not wait to see the images and run them back through the view screen. I forgot to change my settings from the excitement and they were all distorted either by poor lighting, rain, settings or settings. No excuse. I messed up. But I do have the proof even distorted as they are. I will run them as a separate post following this one. But first, THE BIRDS!!

It's A Lesson in Pay-Back Form

Over the years, I have meet a lot of photographers that tend to get ID ed as 600MM or 200MM to 500MM. You get the point. You know them more by the glass on their camera than as the person that they are.

I ran into one of these guys a couple of days ago. He is an excellent photographer regardless of what type of equipment he uses.We had a more professional talk about photography than we have ever had beforehand. He said that he, ''was not a butterfly, hummingbird kind of person". I understand  that. He then said that he might have to change his lens and shoot some hummingbirds. He did not know about a couple of places where he could do that at the lake. He had just discovered one on his own, saying," I didn't even know it was there."

I gave him a light pat on the shoulder and said, "I know how hard that must be for you" as we went our separate ways. Today, it came back to me as a learned lesson in pay-back form.



I went to the bank this morning to pay the only bill that I actually write a check for and while the branch has had tons of issues in the past, today topped the lot. They had no tellers. The corporate cloud sent them one teller from another branch and  he was at lunch. It was a new concept-- how to run a bank with no tellers and two loan officers that were doing little to nothing except making excuses why this situation went on a Chick-Fillet-A minute by minute until the one teller returned from his Chick-Fillet-A lunch. It was truly an experience! Unbelievable, but still an experience like I have never seen before. As more customers came in with stunned looks on their face, The one loan officer that had been there since the branch opened said that they were trying to keep it open. I said to her, you are killing it!! She said that their managers were aware of the situation but were not doing anything about it. The other loan officer came up to talk to me and he said that today was his last day there. He was going to another branch. I can't wait until next month to see how this drama plays out in the world of finance.

After getting my deposit ticket I headed to the lake with the sole purpose of "changing my lens" which I have not done in eons. I did. I didn't like. I changed back to my long lens and shot a few more images to compare. Back at home when I edited the images, there were some things that I liked about the short lens, but a whole lots more that I like about the long lens. So the conversation that I had had with CJ a couple of days back was a hard learned lesson. It was like I could hear my own words in my head telling me,"I know how hard that must be for you".

at msx-45mm

using 14-45m

at

at 150 mm

Happy Birthday KP.
XI200459

Playing  DEPECHE MODE all month in your honor for one of your most favorite groups.
This week, in your honor and with both our love for Mozart shared, I am playing REQUIEM, K626
I send in love on your birthday. Dad misses you so much. While I love all of you equally, you were my fist born.

One Pelican Struck By Car on Garland Road Bridge

This morning, on the east side of the 78 Garland Road bridge at the dam, one of the big American White Pelicans was struck by a car. Seeing it on the roadway was unfortunate. When we share the park, it is also with the wildlife.

Yesterdays Rains Runoff.

In one of these images, after closer inspection, it looks as if a dog is on the island.

Web Engineer

The Lines Were Long On Day One!

Well, the first day of early voting  on Monday, wasn't a day to vote for me. I went over the lunch hour to vote and was met with lines out the door. The lady in the car next to where I parked said that the wait time was about 35 minutes. I said that I came at noon thinking everyone would be out to lunch. She said that she had thought the same thing.

I went on my route to try to get some good shots with the sun out and blue sky. About three-thirty I returned, but the lines were even longer. On the evening news, the topic was how the polls all over the city were lines out the door. So, its going to be interesting to see who gets tossed out from being an incumbent. I have a feeling that a lot of incumbents are going to get tossed on their ears in these mid-terms. Plus, the number of signs out in front along the sidewalk were triple to what had been there during  previous elections and primaries.  Actually, I'm glad to see people doing that and not being an old stick in the mud by not turning out to vote. The last election, some two-thirds of Texans didn't vote according to some reports being aired. True, it was an off year, but still, that is a lot of hand-sitting there, bud! Politics in Texas is different. I'll give them that, but those days are falling by the way side as a whole new generation of hi-tech, social media, Whole Foods, gluten free, i-phone, app happy kiddos are showing up at the polls. Ride 'em cowboys!! Politics are tossed them riders left and right now.

Return to Native Grasses Is So Nice

A look at another world.

Simply Put: Delightful!!!

Pelicans out for their afternoon thermal riding.

After the first cup of coffee this morning, I looked out onto the porch thermometer and saw that blue sky and sunshine and it was in short order that I had put myself together, grabbed my auto coffee cup, filled it with fresh brewed and out the door I went. It  was just past 9 o'clock. It was perfect! The air was a bit chilly until the car warmed up. Unlike yesterday when I dressed with the wrong layers and got to hot as the outside air warmed I made sure that didn't happen today by changing the layering of cloths so that I could eliminate layers as it warmed. By 1 p.m. I was down to just a T-shirt and jeans. It was a total delight as I shot butterflies and pelicans fishing, riding the thermals and those graceful landings. I even got a Great Blue Heron and an Egret. But, most of all, I was able to walk some distance and not have any problems.

It was 3 o'clock before I headed in and wasn't so sure that I was even ready then to be inside for the rest of the day, but I did manage better than I thought.

Yesterday, there was the third wave of migrating Turkey Vultures--Buzzards-- migrating overhead in large numbers. The Buzzards of Hinckley Township, Ohio was among some of those most likely. Hinckley, North Texas might has sighted your migrating Buzzards. It's rather interesting watching waves of 70-80 buzzards riding the thermals overhead. My question is how do 70-80 buzzards find enough road kill to feed them during their migration? Maybe that is why they ride the thermals during migration. They might be looking for something to eat.

Tomorrow is the opening of early voting and I'll be glad to go vote and put that to rest.

Fishing at the Spillway

A migrating Monarch is on a very high nectar bloom. 

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Just west of the Kayak Boat Ramp

Toni Morrison once said, " All water has perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was."

Well, that helps to explain some of the millions of gallons that is every where in North and Central Texas right now.

After the Doctor today, it was only sprinkling and I drove from the Doctors to the Lake. Sadly, two big and mammoth trees have been lost. The ground is just saturated and the weight of the trees shifty the pivot point enough to bring the trees down under their own weight. What a loss. Both were in areas that have a fair amount of traffic with people walking their dogs and picnic tabling just west of the Kayak rentals boat ramp and the other is just across from the new boat shelter that has just been built and where photographers watch Owls and Red Sholder hawks. In fact, the Red Shoulder was sitting on a light pole on Mockingbird as I came down and he was a bit restless. After seeing where the tree stood and where it fell, it was clear that it might have been a nesting tree this past season.

And, the link that we are only one person away from knowing everyone was kind of driven home while talking with my Doctor. He had gone on vacation to India to see his mother and father and had stopped in Istambul,Turkey on the way back to the states and was there just a day or two after the Washington Post reporter went missing. Never in a million years had I ever imagined that someone I knew would have been in Turkey at that time where a journalist of reknown status would go missing. It just points out how small the world has become as it grows even smaller today.

It's like I would never have imagined in fourth grade when Mrs. Ray had our class pick a spot in the world where we would like to visit someday. I had picked Rio. Just over three decades ago, I'm on a flight climbing out of Rio over the bay. I'm looking down at the beautiful site when it all comes back into memory that I had picked Rio for that class project.  Here I was looking down at the very place that I had walked, dined, and absorbed the culture for a while. Where would I want to go now, I had been to the place of my dreams.  That's an awful experience to have experienced. Awful in a good way. So many people have dreams that are never fulfilled. Actually, I had never expected for me to have fulfilled mine either. Fate deals hands that are random but also  a part of a master scheme of life, I believe.

Along Buckner on the street side and just west of the Big Thicket Building on the park side.

If this had happened with someone sitting at the table, it would have been severe. This goes the the trunk seen at the top.