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Monday, October 28, 2013

Nature Notes: Berries Birds Trees Frost

A few of my bittersweet berries have burst open to show off their fall colors.
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The female cardinal below seemed to be lost in her thoughts.
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The little finch also stayed in repose for a long time.
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A male cardinal posed for me.
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An American Robin was also very calm.
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We had our first hard freeze over the weekend.
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More and more trees are putting on their spring clothes in Raleigh, NC where I live.
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The mourning doves are the same color as my deck.
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I've been spotting a lot of brown thrashers in my yard and on my deck.
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Last but not least a mockingbird.
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Today's Flowers and Weekend Flowers: going to seed and to sleep


My fairy asters are going to seed as they always do this time of the year.
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Only one of my hydrangea blooms still has a touch of color.
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The rest are brown and curling up for fall.
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We have a freeze warning tonight so I'll have to check in the morning for flowers with frost although I don't have much left in bloom.
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Friday, October 25, 2013

Photohunters: Stir and Shadows


The wind gave the trees a stir and shadows were cast on the concrete.
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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Nature Notes: October 13 through October 20

This week's nature notes begin in the NC mountains on Sunday October 13 and end in central NC (Raleigh's Lake Johnson) on Sunday October 20.
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The first group of shots were taken on a hike to the Elk River Falls.
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Fall colors were pretty far along in the northern parts of the NC mountain range but barely started at the southern end.
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Some of the mountain shots are similar to ones I used on other posts.
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I took so many pictures partly because every time I got out of breath I stopped to take a shot.
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I haven't been walking much lately so I got out of breath a lot.
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This waterfall was very dramatic.
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I love rocks so I tend to photograph them on hikes.
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I'm surprised that I've never hiked here before but there are so many places to hike in the NC mountains we still find new spots to explore.
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 I love the splash of color on trails this time of the year.
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I amazes me how trees can take root and grow out of rocks.
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I took the next shot on Monday, October 14 when we drove to Asheville along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the rain.
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There wasn't much fall color at all when we got that far south on the mountain range.
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The shot above and the next group of shots were taken at Crabtree Meadows which is further north on the NC mountain range.
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It stopped raining on Monday in time to hike up to the Crabtree Falls.
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It amazed me how a tree could grow in the middle of the stream and the water from the waterfall rushed around it.
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It was muddy from all the rain and we had to watch our step not to slip and slide.
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The next group of shots were taken on Tuesday when we went to Roan Mountain.
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It was a pretty drive there from Spruce Pine, NC where we were staying.
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It was nice to have a blue sky for a change.
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Some of the evergreens had lost a lot of their leaves (needles).
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Some of the evergreens were just dead trunks with no leaves.
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I like the way the yellow flowers were growing with the colorful mountain behind them below.
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The rest of the shots were taken back home in Raleigh, NC at Lake Johnson on Sunday, October 20.
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We're still in the early part of fall in Raleigh.
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I like to see how different parts of my home state get their fall colors at different times.
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I spotted these cormorants on the lake.
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Sunday was a perfect day for a walk and Bill suggested driving across town to Lake Johnson for a change.
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I like the way the cormorants spread their wings and keep them open for a long time.
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I had trouble shooting them because of the lighting.
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It looks like summer in the next shot.
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