Photohunters: Something Silly Outdoors

When I saw that the photohunters themes were silly and something outdoors I remembered some shots I took several years ago.

On a field normally used for outdoor yoga, exercise, or soccer, a group was playing Quidditch.

The is something rather silly about a group running around on the ground on brooms playing a wizard game. If the broomsticks had left the ground I would have been impressed.

Click for the Silly Photohunt and click for the something outdoors photohunt. 

Nature Notes: Early September 2013

I was surprised to spot a flicker foraging in my neighbor's grass.

Flickers tend to be shy and I usually don't see them on the ground. Sometimes they go to my bird baths but normally I only see them in the trees except when it snows and I put out food on my deck wall for them.

 

The American Robins were also foraging in the grass a few feet away from the flicker.

We've had a lot of beautiful clouds in the sky.

The camellia bushes in front of my house are setting their buds early which may mean they won't do well since they shouldn't bloom until early spring. Normally the buds start forming later in the fall.

The brown color on the leaves around the lake are from flooding. If they were washed off it would be green underneath the brown dirt.

The cormorants have returned to the lake which they do in late summer to early fall.

I was surprised how few geese and ducks were at the lake.

The next shot is another to show the dirt covering left from flooding.

On the higher parts of the walkway there is just low mud on either side.

Where the path is low there was so much mud and debris that the city had to use equipment to pile it up on the sides.

Some places ended up with dirt hills. The creeks that flow out of the lake must have had major flooding.

Years ago a friend and I walked around the lake after flooding and when we got to the low places the water on the path was above our knees.

Click for the home of nature notes.

Today's Flowers and Weekend Flowers: September begins

I still have a lot of blooms on my rose of sharon (hibiscus) plants.

The bloom above was either opening or closing and was on the same plant as the one below.

My fairy asters are beginning to bloom. The are tiny flowers with hundreds of blooms per plant but the shot below is a macro so it looks larger than it is.

The last two shots are from a rose bush at work.

I used to have yellow roses at home but my yellow rose bush died a year or so ago.

Click for Today's Flowers and click here for Weekend Flowers.

Photohunters: Your Fave Shadow

I am combining the fave and your shadow themes by showing some of my fave shadows.

I should qualify this by saying these are some of my fave shadows after a very fast look through my photo archives.

I have probably taken other shadow shots that would be favorites, if I had taken more time looking through my archives.

The second shot is my shadow on an oak tree and the third shot is my shadow on the beach. I like the shot below because it's hard to tell where the grass ends and the shadow begins.

Click here for the fave photohunters and here for the your shadow photohunters.

Nature Notes: Another Deck Bird Post

I'm surprised that I'm still seeing juvenile American Robins.

The next shot includes a mourning dove and a carolina wren with a landed fish.

The mourning dove primped for a long time.

The cardinal pair were quite cozy.

Hard to believe that it's September.

I always begin each month with: hard to believe . . . and it always is.

The catbird below kept getting chased out of the bath by the cardinal.

The next shot includes a female rufous-sided towhee and a male cardinal.

There have been a lot of towhees at my bird baths recently.

There are always a lot of cardinals.

The catbird was vocalizing very loudly.

Male rufous-sided towhees have such wild looking eyes.

I think the male cardinal in the next shot is one of this year's babies but he is almost fully grown.

The catbirds tend to blend into the deck.

Next is a carolina chickadee. They look like they wear little tuxedos. 

Below is an adult female cardinal.

Last shot is of an adult American Robin.

Click for the home of Nature Notes.