Meteorological Spring. It's the Real Deal!

Happy Spring, folks. Yes, I know some of you are already saying that I'm rushing the season already, but actually, it is the first day of spring in meteorological terms. Spring is March 1 to May 31. So what happened to the 20 or 21 or 22 days you were waiting to arrive? They are still there. But it's called astronomical spring--the traditional seasons as earth moves around our sun. It's important to know the difference and I'll leave it at that.

But, I do not want to make you work that hard so to better explain it, this appeared in the Accu Weather site today. It reads: "The spring season associated with the vernal equinox, called astronomical spring, happens on or around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, but meteorologists recognize March 1 as the first day of meteorological spring, which is based on annual temperature cycles and the Gregorian calendar".

So, yesterday, even though I had an appointment with my doctor and it took longer than I though it would, it was completely overcast and tons of moisture had moved in while I was at the doctors office. When I did come out, my whole schedule had changed. There was some images taken on the go and that is what is posted today. Enjoy, and hey, drop me an email now and then and let me know what you think about the images or if you have seen something in the past and just want to follow up. My readers are important to me.

Soccer fields look great.

More and more facilities are installing these.

 

 They are lightening alert systems.These are used at most sports facilities, golf courses and amusement parks. They can detect lightening 20 miles away and the warning will sound to alert those at the facility. Technology really is good.

This is deep in a large thicket where reports continue to come in that wild orchids and flying squirrels have been documented  with a site of both by naturist.

Highly Unusual Day at the Lake

Like Santa in the Night Before Christmas I went straight to the nesting pair of red shoulders breaking with my normal cycle of covering the full 9 miles of shoreline. Pulling into the lot across the street for the area where the hawks usually hang out, there was a lady in full bike gear squatted down pouring water onto something. She spoke to a family of four as they walked past, turned around and came back. Obviously, something the size of a small dog was on the ground in distress. After watching her pour more water on this life form, it was time to get out of the car and go see what was happening as it was, for sure, cutting into my bird time schedule.

As it turns out, it is a small opossum on its side in what I judged to be pain. It would lift its head a little and look around and then put its head back on the ground. As the woman said,"you don't know what kind of injury is on the other side". My thought was immediately focused on what I was also seeing that they lady had not observed. One of the big red shoulders flew from tree to tree and was watching every move at the opossum location. I pointed out the hawk to the lady and said that it might have been knocked out of the tree and fell to the ground, or that the hawk had actually tried to lunch and was interrupted by humans or had made some move to free itself from the talons of the hawk.

The lady mentioned that her father had been a falconer and that she knew about hawks and that her husband was bringing a metal cage and that they were going to take the animal to a Rehab Center south of where we were at the lake. I said that I would move on to my next location  since she had help on the way and I left, knowing that the hawks were still in the area and that when I could come back later in the afternoon, they would most likely be in the area still.

At next stops turned up nothing and I made my way around to Sunset Bay when I saw shadows on the ground in the area of a nest that I knew of from last year.  I parked the car and stood at the edge of the parking lot looking and watching for the shadows to move overhead again. Then, I saw the other pair of red shoulders in the tree line. Now, I had my first images of the afternoon and they were pretty good for the distance. But, as I got closer, the images got better. Now, I know what a 600MM glass would do for that image, but, one, I don't have a 600MM, I could get one, but there are other issues that go with a 600 MM piece of glass that I happen to think keeps photographers from being good photographers because the glass does get the image that every one seeks but these guys tend to forget why you are a photographer in the first place---or, second, you let the success of a 600 glass overtake your head and you think you have mastered photography and start to get sloppy. So, I'm happy with a 150-200 glass and I keep trying to get better and better with each image.

Then, I made my way back to the original site when I first arrived at the lake and found the opossum delay keeping me from getting the shots that were there.It had only been about 10-minutes before I spotted the female sitting in her usual spot. Shockingly, I saw shadows on the ground moving in that direction and I looked up just in time to see the male come sweeping into the area where the female was sitting. And then, before I could get my camera off my neck and pointed, the male mated with the female. That pretty much cemented the fact that the pair were ready to start the nest site officially and the female will be laying eggs shortly. After shooting both the male and female before the male flew off to patrol his territory, I watched  the female for some time and she was content to sit where she had been sitting prior. I decided to walk around to the other side of the wooded area to another clearing to see if I could find the male or get a better shot of the female, as she had been facing in that direction anyway. To my surprise, I saw another photographer that I like and we were talking when he ask if I had seen the Bard owl. I said, "no, but I had heard it earlier." After taking a secretive location oath, I promised not to tell where the big owl was hanging out. Every one knows where the other big owl hangs out and they all look there. No one seems to be very informed on this one and I can understand why you don't share the wealth on things like this because the rush of traffic would drive the big owl away. I got the shots. They are pretty good.One is good in a bad kind of way in that the big eyes are so funny and the feather pattern is out of focus as the owl moved from a narrow branch to a more sturdy one. I got home late. Hungry, dinner was had on the go as I headed home.

Full wing span flying into trees

Red shoulders had just mated

Bard owl

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.

 

Record Setting February

We have had five 80-degree days in February this year (11 for the entire winter). That's an all-time high--pardon the pun! Did I say that tomorrow and Thursday are in the mid 80s? Actually, that is to warm for me. My preference is for that 65-72 range and through the most of spring. Or, at least until June. It is already stacking up to be one of those hot summers, I'm afraid. We normally get 18-100-degree days in a summer but I remember not that many years ago we had some 40 odd days of 100 plus.

It seems to me that not that long ago I posted something about not having a blog that turns out being a weather report! I'll have to check on that, for sure. But, I must admit, that out side of the gloom and doom days of rain and low hanging clouds, I have enjoyed the sunshine. In fact, staying in the house when it is sunny just isn't something I can do anymore. The instant the sun hits the window just right, it's time to head out the door.

Yesterday, was just one of those days that I had sunshine, good subject matter and a good day with the editors submitting  images for publication. I'm rather looking forward to the St. Patrick's Day parade down Greenville Avenue. Up coming will also be the Dragon Boat Races on Lake Carolyn in Las Colinas. Finally, the Las Colinas Entertainment District  is rising out of dirt across from Cottonwood Four Seasons and the anchor, the Irving  (Las Colinas) Convention Center.

There is construction going on under the bell tower at University of Dallas. While there looking at the construction information boards, the news earlier in the week that Irving's mayor will not seek re-election this year; it also came to mind that the talk about what to do with the land where the old Texas Stadium once stood was brought up again. As, I'm driving over some of the new roadway the thought came to mind that with all the flyways criss-crossing, there isn't going to be any land left to develop it seems. The point is--all this construction--all the different political jurisdictions--it's just amazed that things are getting done finally. Then--there was one project that I cannot recall what it was, but what I do remember is that the completion date was 2030 or 2040. Breaking out in a laugh the thought was--2030-2040, most likely, I won't be here!! So, I put the camera in the bag and headed for home.

New Entertainment Center at Las Colinas

From Carpenter Freeway up to O'Connor and Williams Square

This has long been promised to Irving Residents.

Cowboys, Cement Trucks and Undecided

Well, today was actually a fun day, but it was rather slow pickings for something not in previous news cycles. Some days are like that. Still, I had a interesting discussion about photography basics and I even saw a current syllabus given out at a local college. The photographer that was taken the course was understanding of the requirements of the course and  had already shot some of the items. One of his images was very good. What I did find amazing was that the syllabus mentioned the "golden hour" but totally failed to explain what the golden hour was and how it played an important part of photography. The golden hour is technically what is called, "civil twilight", a period after the sun has set but before the Vail of darkness moves in over the light being reflected into space that gives enough light in a spectrum that makes everything "pop" in a picture. Civil twilight occurs twice daily. After the sun sets, and before the sun actually appears over the horizon in the morning, and is that light that lights up where we can see but the suns rays have not reached us just yet. Personally, I like the morning civil twilight more than the end of the day civil twilight. It's just a preference, but it is important to know when it appears and how long it will last. That is published by the Naval Observatory and is a program like sun rise times or moon rise times etc.,etc.

I was photographing a line of rusted panels along an industrial street which is not paved. There is a cement plant at the far end and also BNSF tracks where cars are sorted and moved  into the businesses with sidings. My car was already dirty so it really didn't matter that the dust being kicked up by the cement trucks coming in for re-loads was settling over my car. It's going to get washed off tomorrow with heavy rain and storms tomorrow that is part of the system that brought 10-inches of rain to LA and Southern Cal. We are going to get heavy downpours and winds could reach 70 MPH in some of the storms,

In a cloud of dust and a hardy Hi-Ho Cement Truck.

A family member ask if I would take a group picture on their iPhone at a quinceanera. He ask and I always will take a picture. When he thanked me for the picture of the rather large group, I ask if I could take a picture of  the men's hats. This was a nice hat.

This is the road off Harry Hines into the new Parkland Hospital. The building is so massive and a cantilever building also.I really have been studying the building for that perfect shot. I'm zeroing in on a solution but I'm not there yet. This is the small part of the cantilever structure. The main  part of the building is on top of all this and coming this way to the left of the three rows of rooms that can be seen here. From down town  you really get a feel of just how big $1.3 Billion dollars can build in a hospital of 800 rooms--no doubles-- plus all the other services that go with a major trauma center. The county announced that the old Parkland of the JFK era is up for sale. It includes 12 buildings across the street from this new structure. UT Southwestern Medical  is using some of them and of course, they just built the new William Clements Hospital, a 400 bed teaching hospital less than a mile up the road in the west campus of the Medical District

Moving 20Miles Per Day

Nature has an app that works pretty well year in and year out. Once in-a-while, it gets snarled up but hey, "that's life"---or as they say in midtown Manhattan, "You'll have that from time to time, yes you will." Already, I hear my mid-town and upper west side friends racing to get back to the steel pilings in South Hampton, Riverhead and Brentwood. Hello, Mike! Hello, Steve. Hello, Denis.  This could be very confusing, but there is a Steve in Riverhead and one in S. Hampton. Denis in Brentwood and another Mike in the Westbury area.

The white flowering trees are fully out as well as red buds like this.

The Daffodils

This is Winfrey Point, the highest point at White Rock Lake. During WWII Winfrey Point was wooden barricks that served as a prison camp for Rommel's North African Army. (The Desert Fox's men lived at Winfrey Point as prisoners.)

Red bud trees, flowering trees, new growth are showing up all over the Metroplex.  And--get this--there has not been a single day in February that has hit the freezing mark. Spring, my friends, has sprung!

When that happens, it even has an official measure. A measure that says that spring moves northward at a calculated rate of approximately 20 miles per day. Ironically, when the leaves begin to turn up north, the peak colors move south at a rate of approximately 20 miles per day. Now, that's an app that mother nature perfected eons ago. Amazing. It's truly amazing. But, you take the facts that the Tropic of Capricorn that is the southern most point that the sun reaches on that first day of winter; spring or fall occur when the sun crosses the equator and of course,when the sun hits that  most northern point that is know as the Tropic of Cancer, we have summer and the southern hemisphere has winter. In other words, the northern and southern hemisphere are in reverse. So the old Celtics, Mayans and other early cultures payed attention to those things in order to live. Now, we just take things for granted and don't even stop long enough to say thank you.

So, here's to spring 2017. May it be everything we anticipate. Anything more---well, that's just a gift don't you think?

Happy Valentine's Day

It is raining in Dallas. What was I to do?