Beautiful Day, High Winds and Fantastic Yellow Black Swallowtail

The total shots today  were in the 200 range with 99.5 percent on one butterfly---the Eastern Yellow Black Swallowtail. It's black on the topside, yellow on the bottom side with counterpoint patterns in the opposite colors. The wingspan is nearly double of the Monarch.

If There Is Reincarnation---

A Hotdog double or she was reincarnated as herself.

My secret location of Heart Leaves

Hotdog came back as herself. When I saw this identical cat to Dawgie,  it sent shivers down my spine. She's been gone 4 years this month and she stopped and looked right at me in the way that she always did. I had her for 13 years and never have missed a cat as much as I miss the Dawg.

Had Amazing Interaction With This Animal

but do to my error, not one of the images came out clear. Still, with her quick moves and playfulness, you can see how she was interacting to some degree. I think she actually got a bit peeved when I continued down the hill to turn around. She came onto the roadway and watched me turn around and then ran back to where she was first spotted grabbing a cup lid in her mouth like a Frisbee and did all sorts of playful jesters. At one point I got a bit nervous and put my window all the way up. She didn't like that at all. Prior, she had acted alike she was charging the car, then backed off and got playful again. Still, these images will serve date and time and be a storyboard of our meeting along the way. She is the first coyote that I have seen in the park in about a year, and fourth encounter with one in the past 10 years. They are all over the park but lay low during the day. The neighbors all hear them at night when they communicate with each other across  and around the lake.

A Female Coyote between the tall grass cover and the roadway.

Look at the beautiful fox-like tale. She seems to be very healthy with no mange.

I wish that I could understand what animals are thinking. Over the years watching animals almost daily, one begins to see a deeper meeting to their actions and how they must be so misunderstood by us humans. After all, we are an animal ourselves. And while we are blessed with a brain to reason, we don't always use it that way when people put cats and pups in bags and toss them along side a road or even in the water. That is just cruel for a brain that is designed to do better than that, don't you see?

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.

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