Wild PeaFowl Were All Displaying Today

A white peafowl displays

Several Blues Also Did The Same

A unique neighborhood between here and there has a population of over 40 peafowl running wild, sitting on porch railings and rooftops in the same neighborhood where they have done this for over 40 years. The neighbors are good neighbors and it might be a factor that keeps them in that same four or five driveways for those 4 decades. The show was awesome.

The Luck of the Irish Comes Through Again

When I got up this morning, I was still debating whether I would cover the St. Patrick's Day Parade down Greenville Avenue or not. After breakfast, it just didn't feel right and I need a certain amount of feel right to undertake those kinds of projects. The basic question was then: Do I feel like I have enough strength to do a parade? The answer was: No!

I have learned over the years that it is okay to present those kind of questions to yourself and not feel guilty about it later. Sure, I would have enjoyed  seeing people interact in those kinds of situations. But, the truth of the matter was, I didn't feel good enough to undertake a parade like that this year. So, I took the foot off the accelerator and got another cup of coffee and packed another lunch for the road. Regardless of what I ended up doing, I still had to eat lunch.

The road blocks for the parade would not have been a problem because I know enough back ways in to get to where I needed to be if my car just took control and headed for the parade step off point. But, it didn't and I knew then that my trip would end at the lake again and that I would feel good about it.

The reason why I had that feeling was that the moment that I stepped out of the house, a red shoulder and a red tail hawk were in an aerial chase right over my head, Every time my day starts out with raptors in flight or sitting on a pole or fence, I know that the rest of the day will be the making of excitement of unseen or unusual sightings. Then, without hardly a moments chance to flee away, I see these two reflective things over head at an altitude that I would guess to be about 15-thousand feet in formation and traveling at a pretty good clip, speed wise. It was my guess that I had just seen a pair of the latest version of military fighters and they were headed cross country or were in training  or would end up back at the Joint Naval Reserve Station just west of Ft. Worth.

When I got to the lake, it was almost instantly that I saw a big 600 mm pointed into a grove of trees. I continued on my regular route that would circle back to where I was. The guy and his wife were returning to their car and I pulled in and ask if he had been shooing hawks or owls. As it turned out, I learned that not only do we still have the Bards owl population but we also have a momma, pap pa and a branching chick of a pair of Great Horned Owls. I saw all three. Later in the day, I returned  and was able to locate the female but the chick that was branching and the male were no where to be seen.

Still, to have two species of owls at the lake is a bonus to birders and photographer,but also a bonus for the park systems management of the wildlife at the lake.

The Great Horned Owl Chick. It was a bit out of range for my lens, but the moment was captured non-the-less.

My grandfather always said that when, "clouds are high and thin, a weather system is moving in."

An Absolutely Amazing Day To Witness A Battle In Nature Play Out First Hand

Beautiful sunshine with a strong gusty wind from the north got me out of the house with a packed lunch in my tote bag today. Little did I know that when I stopped to have that lunch, I was less than a mile from one of the most amazing battles that I have every seen play out between a hawk and a snake. Talk about being in the right place at the right time is an understatement.

The plan was to take the lunch at a picnic table alone the lake. The gusty wind of 24 MPH was just a bit to strong to manage containers and the like at a picnic table. The elected choice then  was to just eat the lunch in the car. After having my lunch of 314 calories, and packing the containers away, I sat out to shoot the flowering cherry blossoms that I had been waiting to do with a blue sky background and today was perfect for that. I pulled into the parking lot that was just at a mile beyond my lunch stop, got my camera and headed down the trail a shot way beyond the foot bridge. There, I got that shot of cherry blossoms against a blue sky.  After shooting there for a little more than a third of an hour, I walked out onto the T-dock to see if I could spot the big old water snake that suns on a pile of downed reeds in the "L" of the dock or to see if any big turtles were on the logs to the far left of the dock You can't see the turtles from the trail, but from the dock, you get the turtles with a good reed background. But, no luck. There were spring breakers on either end of the dock with a fisherman that I have talked with in the past. He had just gotten there and was just putting his several poles into the water. So, I walked back toward the car. Just as I got to the trail, this red shoulder hawk flew past me at a bit more than eye level with this snake in its claws.

Landing in the big tree on the draining ditch that caused the footbridge to be created on the trail, I trained my camera on the hawk. Several people were stopping to look at the hawk and asking about what was going on. Just then, the hawk drops head down with open wings and was holding on to the snake in its claw. The other claw was free and the hawk was keeping it away from the snake as well.  At first, I thought that the hawk had gotten tangled in some fishing line or something when I saw the snake curl with it's tail wrapped around a smaller branch in the tree.  The hawk was hanging from the snake stretched out a bit more than about a foot and a half. Finally, the hawk was able to raise up and grab the snakes head. At which time, the snake released its hold on the tree and the hawk was able to fly into a second tree. There it could manage the snake better by standing on its head pressed against the tree branch and finally have his lunch. Even the hawk knows that if  you control the head of the snake, you control the snake.

The Hawk goes for the snake's head

Here, it's all over but eating dinner!

There was a bit of blood on both the snakes head and the hawks beak before it was all over, but "all over" was the phrase of the day and I had the shots!!!

NB---
Don't forget to click on any of the images to enlarge the shot. I will publish more of the hawk's battle with the snake with the agencies where I list. It appears that there are those that try to download the image and call it their own. So, it is getting harder to publish images on the blog. I'm retired and I supplement my income with my images and curios of those images.

Storm Update

This evening, there is still some thousands of the estimated 80,000 without power. The winds at DFW officially hit 78 MPH as the line of storms pushed through this morning. The Amazon Fulfillment Center just north of DFW airport had the roof blown off. An FAA tower wast toppled. A Jetway at DFW was blown off. Planes at Grand Prairie Airport south of DFW had major damage to many aircraft. Homes were toppled, Construction Condos were toppled. Damage in Mesquite where the first tornado of the year hit this past week, was reported. One of the TV stations reported that a wind Gage at 80 feet above ground reported winds over 90 MPH. The reading is way out of range for what is going on down near the ground. At 80 feet it would be a different world. But if Hurricane force winds being at 74 MPH, even though these were straight line, 78 would put it at Hurricane force winds.

At the lake, big branches on some old trees were down and between Dreyfuss club point to Sunset Bay, twigs and branches covered the road.The water levels were up all over the lake and several areas had water up to the parking lots.

Five Canadian Geese had dropped in to visit on their northern migration. They seemed to be just resting and taking care of the feathers and didn't seem worried about much else. I  spotted 15 pelicans at high altitude riding the thermals and could only find about 5 more on the lake. I had counted a total on the island before it flooded today at 21 total as a larger number has already taken to the return migration. With the big snow storms still going all over the Rockies and north, no doubt, they are hold up somewhere.

Layover because of bad weather-- most likely.

At this rate, there will not be a tree left in this section. The last storm took out 8 old and big trees.

The big Sycamore across from Sunset Bay has been loosing limbs by the dozens. This is a widow maker with three more still up in the tree hung up on branches.

The Day Before The Storm

90 MPH winds hit the Metroplex early this morn.  A southside airport had several planes that were damaged. Several homes south of Oak Cliff were damaged.  Behind the first front comes front #2. It is in the mid 70s this morning. Later, a wind advisory kicks in with up to 40 MPH winds and then the second front. It will drop temps by about 10-15 degrees for tomorrow and the next several days. The redeeming factor is S*U*N*S*H*I*N*E folks!! That Sun with a big Thank You!!!  It is Springtime in Texas!! Weather changes by the hour  It also looks like the weather will be cool with plenty of sunshine for the largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the Southwest. It kicks off Saturday morning down Greenville Avenue in the North Park and Park Lane area and runs two miles down to SMU Blvd. From then on, it's let the party begin on Lower Greenville.

. 

 

 

Raindrops on a Red Bud Bloom

Nature's Canvas

Foggy afternoon on the lake

 While the weather has been so crappy lately, I have been playing with the settings on the camera again. I'm using an Olympus that I have used the past 9 years after putting the Nikon in the bag still waiting for the service repair ticket to come from Nikon's customer service.

As I Travel The Wagon Wheel Around The Metroplex

I keep my eyes open to technology---especially cell towers and the like. It all started with a comment made by a state employee on a job site when the upgrades were being made to the LBJ 635 Project between the High 5 and Interstate 35E. The blog has more than one post where one statement became entrenched into my mind about how people in Dallas were "asleep at the wheel" when it came to the technology being installed then  and also addressed the technology coming down the pike, no pun intended.

So, from that point forward, I was much more aware of things to be looking out for and then started doing a bit of research on what is already out there and what was headed our way. When the plans to radiate Dallas with 5G technology were first introduced in a short little ditty on the local news, the bells started going off. Growing up around the old AP and UPI telex machines--anytime one of the news agencies had a hot story, they put it out on the wire with a series of bells that ''woke up the new rooms'' to that fact  something important was coming across news worthy.

From that research, is where I first found an article about HAARP, the little known project up in Alaska where the government was exploring the fact that they could send a laser into an upper atmospheric area and modify the weather. Well, that 5,000 mile cloud that was seen last fall as a first, and the criss-crossing of contrails were beginning to fill in the afternoon sky with total coverage of high clouds sent chills up and down my spine.

Whiterock

Richardson

Richardson

Now, in the latest of articles, there is a link between the HAARP project and 5G technology, cell towers that are doing more than just relaying microwave transmissions for communication so, once again, I began to observe cell towers in greater detail and low and behold, the towers are getting retrofitted with little mini-cone type dishes all associated with 5G.

That lead to more articles that communities around the country are working in an effort to stop the further expansion of 5Gs which are appearing on top of telephone poles, cell towers , light poles, buildings and water towers across American.

It's not my place to take a point of view, but from an editorial stance, I sure can take pictures to help others make their own decision to research more and have some ideal of what one of these things looks like. 


It's kind of like the parody on world war II quote of German Pastor, Martin Niemoller's sermon writing about Dachau that began with the words, 'First they came for the Socialists  and I didn't speak out because I was not a Socialists.''  Now, I am not saying that this is an all-out conspiracy of any kind. I am saying that we, as citizens need to wake up and stop the social media hate that so much time is being spent upon and start getting active in issues like this kind of stuff that can help us all live healthier and better lives in general.

Golf Ball Size Hail Due Tonight But, Quiet Afternoon At the Lake---

even the birds were asleep or otherwise being quiet about their activities . Saw a three  woodpeckers. A few shovel bills, mallards, gulls, pelicans  were sited here and there. Cormorants looked glued to their tree branch. A great white egret that flew in to fish and then disappeared, and, of course, the mud hens were at the ready for hand outs that were far and few between this afternoon. Finally figured it out---it's spring break beginning today.

The one thing that really made a difference today was the light. The suns angle has moved up just enough that it is casting that perfect light on the down wind side. In fact, this is the kind of light that I love to shoot nature images. The harsh shadows are gone. Well, at least until the sun gets back to the same location on its way back south.

It was also a moment of discovery to find thing that seem so out of place. Someone had pitched a make-shift tent in a thicket near the Filtration Building. The other one was much less threatening and even caused me to think about my dad's military service when the Americans were liberating France at the end of World War II. I even remembered some old pictures taken in Paris with my Dad and his buddy in uniform at the Eiffel Tower and another on the Champ outside a pastry shop. So, the joy of discovery can be delicious at times and tug on heart strings that haven't been pulled in a while. I'd love to find those pictures for my younger brother of our Dad. My brother mentioned to me just a few weeks ago that he  would love to see those pictures. It's been years since I last saw them.

We have three days of rain and clouds coming in tonight with the possibility of golf ball size hail sometime around 2 AM tonight. The front will move on out quickly but then the cooler temps will roll back in. Everyone seems to think that the last freeze we had a couple of days ago is it for the winter. Statistically, March 12 is the average day of our last freeze. It was in the 80s today.

I

I use my old friend, Mr. Sycamore to test my white balance from time to time.

A moment that I never expected to observe all alone at the lake with memories of my Dad.

A woodpecker later was pulling leaves off the tree and dropping them to the ground. I was sitting under the tree at a picnic table.