Most Viewed Photography Blogs (166)

Another create your own photo caption for your enjoyment and/or participation.
There were a couple of good ones last time.

My first offering is; Overconfidence can be dangerous.

Add your own one(s), if you like.

Here's the photo;

Have you ever done something and felt totally exhilarated afterwards? This morning was one of those mornings for me. This week has been overcast and yesterday it just teemed rain off and on all day. I didn't ride my bike as I was exceptionally tired from the long drive and work I'd done the previous day.

I didn't realize how windy it was this morning until I wheeled my bike out of the garage. A gust of wind blasted me, almost toppling my bike on it's kickstand as I shut the garage door. Well! This was going to be an interesting bike ride! Pedalling into the wind, I had to work twice as hard as I usually do, and lower my gear a notch.

Usually, I don't like riding into the wind, but this morning, somehow it was refreshing. Riding towards the dike, the approaching train sounded like it was coming right at me. Sunflowers bent their sunny heads with the force of the wind, the nearby cornfields rustling eerily in the strong gusts.

Too much cloud cover to see any colour of the sunrise this morning, it was still a glorious morning, the unmistakeable screech of eagles circling above. Smaller birds flitted in and out of the bushes, although many of the summer birds left during August when the smoke from the forest fire was so bad.

I didn't stop for any photos this morning, I simply enjoyed the ride, the dawning of the day, and the exhilaration of having completed a strenuous ride.

My sister has left to drive back to Arizona, so I've added a few photos of a couple of days ago, some with her, some on my early morning bike ride.

One of my first views on my bike ride. Mt.Cheam standing guard over the valley, the sun rising behind it.


After riding under the bridge, one of the farmers kindly lets me ride through his fields.


One of the sloughs I cycle by, quiet on this particular morning. Usually, herons and ducks are present, and if I'm lucky, the beaver.


Riding past the Friesan horses after a rainfall, raindrops were highlighted on the numerous spider webs in the page wire.


My sister and Mom dropped by later in the morning, where we went out for lunch to the local deli, and then headed out to where the old truck was located. She took photos of that while I busied myself with the rare local wildflowers. Blue chicory is common and grows everywhere. The white chicory is rare, but there it was! And the variegated kind they don't even mention, but again, there it is!




We headed to the historic site of Harrison Mills, where an abandoned mill crumbles and is the canvas for graffiti artists. My sister was thrilled that I took her there, although she'd been there a couple of times and never found it.


Behind the mill, I believe this was the remains of the old dock where they shipped lumber down the river.


A CP rail train traversing the river where two rivers converge.


A very good but busy week. The wind this morning blew all the cobwebs out of the brain and it looks like it's also blowing the clouds away and blue sky may prevail!

I JUST (moments ago) finally added 119 nature photos to my Flickr
"photostream" that include lots of different species, all taken during December
of last year.
This includes photos from both NJ & FL.

If you would like to see them all (as well as many previous additions) go here;



For those of you who are terrified to go to a secure site
I added a few here by way of imgbb.com But, those do not retain near as much clarily/
resolution.

Regardless, here are a few;

Osprey (fish hawk) flying;




Great Egret landing;




Pileated Woodpecker;




Woodstork flying;




Ruddy Duck pair;




Green Heron;




Anhinga;




Mooreshen;




Sunset;




I hope you enjoyed them and had a very merry XMas.

Or add your own caption for this photo;

Or add your own photo caption(s), if you like, or just enjoy those that do.

Here's the photo;

Due to the pandemic, it gave me time to look at some of my photos from 2 years ago, that I really didn't get the chance to appreciate. I am posting 6 of them each week. This is my 4th posting of photos in this series.
If you don't mind, let me know which is your favorite of the 6. Thanks.

Rather that give you 6 different species of animals as I did in some of the previous photo blogs, this time I will focus (pun intended) on one species.

The following photos are of adult Brown Pelicans. It's a bit of a misnomer, as actually the juveniles are brown, while the adults are more white. The juveniles are hatched more interior away from the shoreline, while the adults migrate more to the shores, where fish are most plentiful.

Brown pelicans can live about 15 to 25 years of age. However, in captivity they have been known to make it past 31 years of age. Adults can weigh 6 to 8 pounds and have a 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 foot wingspan, which is larger than a bald eagle. They rear 2 to 4 eggs. A group of pelicans flying together is known as a pod, but also has been referred to as a fleet.

With no further ado, here are the photos;

Usually I spend the winters in Florida, as it is much warmer there in the winter than the state of New Jersey (NJ)
However, for the first time in many years, I did not do so last winter.
I'm not sure I will this winter, at least until an effective Covid-19 vaccine is available to me.

Now that the softball season is done here in NJ, I've had a chance too look back at the photos I 'snapped' 2 winters ago and created a large folder in 2 external harddrives for those photos. I'll show you some each week.

Thus, here are 6 for this week;

This is a mating pair of Sandhill Cranes. They stand about 4 to 5 feet tall.
A month later I was able to find their nest and have other photos of her in the nest.
Also a couple of months later, I was lucky to find their 2 hatchlings and got photos of them too.
At a later date, I'll show you some of those photos too;




Where I stayed, the woman had 2 acres of gardens. This is a macro shot of some of the stamen from one flower;




This is a Monk Parrot. Someone a long time ago had 2 as pets and must have either released them,
or they escaped. Either way, they have been fruifull and mutiplyed.




This is a Peacock Butterfly.




This is a fairly rare hawk. It is more common in Mexico and sometimes can be seen in the central part of Florida. This is the first one I ever saw;




This one I titled 'All the world is a stage and this one bites'




OK, if I get time to do so, I'll post 6 more next week.
If you don't mind let me know which of the above 6 is your favorite. Thanks.

Smoke from a forest fire 6 miles away is so thick you can almost bite the air and chew it, if you could inhale enough air not to choke on the smell. Yesterday, I braved the murky skies to take a bike ride, constantly checking where the sun would be rising.

As I took my normal route around the town, although there were a couple of birds chirping near by, everything seemed muffled and muted due to the smoke. Wildlife was noticeably absent, as were even the local cows, hiding amongst the trees.

Riding by the cow and weeks old calf sleeping in the far corner of their paddock, I headed back towards the river, past a hay field with irrigation sprinklers working to keep it green and growing. Bordering the hayfield, 10 ft high corn stalks hide everything else within visibility, other than a faint outline of Mt. Cheam behind the screen of smoke.

Taking my left hand off the handle bar, I reached up to scratch my right shoulder blade under my bra closure. As I scratched, a finger of my bike glove got caught on one of the hooks of my bra, and I couldn't seem to move my hand to unhook myself.

Panicking a little, with my hand stuck up my back, a hill loomed before me - I needed both hands to be able to shift gears and ride uphill, or to even stop without going over the handle bars. The right hand brake stops the front wheel, and the left, the back. So if I hit the brake with my right hand, I'd go a over t over the handle bars.

Slowing down and peddling steadily, I kept trying to work at getting my hand free. No luck. Finally, I twisted and turned my hand to free it from the glove, and fortunately, it's worn enough to be loose.

After much manipulation, I finally pulled my hand free, my glove still attached to the hook on my bra. Finally being able to stop without falling, I reached back and managed to free my glove and put it back on.

Thank goodness I ride at such an hour that I don't see anyone, as I'm sure that must have been a funny sight, riding my bike with my hand stuck up my back trying to free it. It didn't feel too funny at the time, and road rash definitely would not have tickled my funny bone.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, the sun finally making an appearance as I returned home (who would have thunk I'd be too early!). I took a couple of shots of the sun creeping over the mountain, bright red behind the smokey veil.

I think I'll travel west today for a bike ride closer to the ocean, and hopefully, less smokey skies. And if I get an itch on my shoulder blade, I don't think I'll be scratching it with my glove on.

Some of you may be familiar with the woodpecker named Red Bellied.
That bird has a little red on it's underside and a lot more red on it's head.
So, several people have asked me, "why isn't it called a redheaded woodpecker ?".
The answer is, that there are several woodpeckers that have red heads.
So to name any one of them a redhead woodpecker would confuse observers,
as to which would be THE redheaded woodpecker.

Well, there's another bird, a rather intelligent one, that's named Green Heron.
Is that because the bird is mostly green ? No.
Is it because the bird exhibits jealous behavior ? No.
It's because it is the only heron, that has some green color on it in the USA.

Why do I describe it as rather intelligent ? Because it's the only heron or egret
that actually uses a tool. One of the main sources of it's diet is small fish.
This bird has been witnessed to find small pieces of bread, or other food items,
as fish bait. It will put the item on the surface of water and wait until fish arrive to
feed on the food source and then grab the fish with it's beak.
Pretty clever for a heron.

While I never feed wildlife, I have gotten to know individuals from a number of species.
Indeed, in New Jersey I have been accepted into different herds of wild whitetail deer.
They have become very familiar with me, while taking pictures of them and grow to sense & learn, that I have no intention of hurting them and now they approach me.

Similarly, while in Florida there is a female green heron that has grown to be very tolerant of my presence and closeness during the past few years. I've named her Gretchen. Her acceptance of me is unusual for a couple of reasons.
First, I am only in Florida for 4 months a year. Does she remember me after 8 months of absence ? Secondly, her mate immediately flees into the woods at first site of me. She doesn't follow him. That's very unusual for a bird.
Well, she's more familiar with me, as I have photographed her for several years.
He's newer in her life.

It has allowed me to get quite close to her. Indeed, sometimes too close for the focal distance for my lens. I am often backing up as she approaches me. I've often wondered if she believes this is because I am afraid of her.
I should point out that a green heron is about the size of a pigeon.
I've seen a similar confused reaction with other birds in the wild,
when they first witness a similar situation.
Perhaps it aids in their acceptance of me, not wanting to harm them.
Regardless, it's allowed me to get some terrific full framed shots of those birds.

Here's seven of Gretchen from this most recent trip to Florida. I hope you enjoy the views. You can improve the views somewhat by clicking on them individually.
They are perfectly clear on my computer. But less so on here.















If you would like to see more of my photography, you can at your leisure.
Just go to my webpage which has 1,000 photos in it;




Next time I will post some recent photos of a Redbellied Woodpecker.
Some are quite unusual, but I'll get into why next time.

.
I just uploaded 41 nature photos to my Flickr website;
all taken last month.

You can see them all and their descriptions there, as well as many more.

For those of you who are terrified to wander off of Connectingsingles,
I added 7 of the 41 below for your viewing pleasure here.
On Flickr I was able to rotate the photos correctly, but on imgbb it seems that I am unable to do that.
So the one below of the Redtail Hawk perched is sideways.
It's upright on the Flickr site.















Which is your favorite of the 7 ?
Which is your favorite of the 41 ?

Have a terrific Tuesday.