Sunrise With The Tele

I like to zoom in with the tele on sunrises sometimes.
I did some layer masking so I could lighten, but still keep that nice round sun.

Dramatic Sunrise

Pretty Flower

Iris, I think.

Snow On Water In June

Snow on water in June:


Not really.



This is why you don't want a cottonwood tree that produces cotton.
Kind of a mess.

Even the flowers got dusted with it.

Music

Let Me Take You Out, Class Actress

1901, Phoenix

You've changed, Sia

Marching On:
Timbaland
OneRepublic

For those days we felt like a mistake
Those times when love's what you hate
Somehow we keep marchin on
For those nights when I couldn't be there
I've made it harder to know that you know
That somehow we'll keep movin on

There's so many wars we've fought
There's so many things we're not
But with what we have I promise you that
We're marchin on, we're marchin on...

UPDATE 25Aug11:
Changed/updated dead links so all work now.

Blogger Template Designer

I'm testing Blogger Template Designer on a test blog, if anyone is interested in that.

At first, I couldn't figure out how to use my own header image and make it work:



But then I discovered that the problem was Picasa automatically making my images thumbnail size when I went to copy the link info.
Sheesh.



Have to select the original size from the drop down menu, THEN copy the link.

Seems to work okay in Blogger now.

Swings

Swings:

(Soft Focus in Paint Shop Pro 9.)

Trees

I liked the morning sun shadows on these photos.

Cedar Waxwing

Sharpest:

I cloned out the branch across his face. Turned out pretty good, I thought.

The rest were soft feather detail:


This is an improvement over a previous pic I posted.

I love the look of these birds. The black mask, that puff of hair that sticks up on the back of his head.
I hope to get more/better photos.
There were three of them in the tree, but could only get so close.


google images
npwrc

enature
• "...waxwings tend to nest late in the summer when there is a good supply of berries."
• "These social birds have the amusing habit of passing berries or even apple blossoms from one bird to the next down a long row sitting on a branch, until one bird eats the food."

cornell
(NOTE: Year Round in North Dakota.)
• "...a silky, shiny collection of brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, rakish black mask, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers."
• "The name 'waxwing' comes from the waxy red secretions found on the tips of the secondaries of some birds. The exact function of these tips is not known, but they may help attract mates."
• "Brown-headed Cowbirds that are raised in Cedar Waxwing nests typically don’t survive, in part because the cowbird chicks can’t develop on such a high-fruit diet."
• "Because they eat so much fruit, Cedar Waxwings occasionally become intoxicated or even die when they run across overripe berries that have started to ferment and produce alcohol."

Painted Turtle

My first turtle picture.
He's a painted turtle.

I thought he looks kind of funny in that position, resting on his belly with his back legs out like that. I have a more normal pose too, but decided to post the unusual one. There were baby turtles too, but I didn't get any pics of them before they jumped back in the water.

npwrc1
Reptiles and Amphibians of North Dakota

npwrc2
Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta belli)

enature
(Belly picture.)

Old Blue

I've seen "Old Blue" a lot this spring. I've taken many pics, but nothing much better than I already have. This one had a nicer setting than I usually get so will post it. Plus I had the XSi and tele with me this time so got a little closer too. He's in the same area as the breeding Canada Geese and yes, there are baby geese (goslings), but I don't have any good pics of those yet. They're adorable, so I sure hope I get some good shots of those. (google images)

Great Blue Heron
Previously

A different one is posted
here.

Common Grackle Female

I think this is a female common grackle.
Has that creepy sinister grackle eye.

Male pic previously.

cornell
enature
google images

Brown-headed Cowbird Female

Brown-headed Cowbird Female
(Molothrus ater )

Distinctive bill.

npwrc
Breeding Birds of North Dakota
By Family Icteridae (With blackbirds, orioles, grackles, meadowlarks)

cornell
(Has a pic of a Parasitized Yellow Warbler nest.)
"Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks."

enature
"Upon choosing a nest, she removes one egg of the host's clutch, and deposits one of her own in its place. Unlike parasitic Old World cuckoos, which lay eggs closely resembling those of a host species, cowbirds lay eggs in the nests of more than 200 other species, most smaller than themselves. Some host species eject the unwanted egg, others lay down a new nest lining over it, but most rear the young cowbird as one of their own. The young cowbird grows quickly at the expense of the young of the host, pushing them out of the nest or taking most of the food."

More info

UPDATE:
Sat, 19 Jun 10, got a pic of a male.

Photo Walk - New Trail

New trail, yippy skippy.


Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa):

bugguide
enature
wiki
butterfliesandmoths

Fox:

Small Mammals of ND

Toad:

Could barely see this little guy, very camouflaged.
Toad vs Frog
Reptiles and Amphibians of North Dakota
Woodhouse's Toad (Bufo woodhousii), maybe?
enature

My first pic of
Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus):

npwrc
cornell
enature
"Voice: Rich warble similar to that of a robin but softer, sweeter, and faster."
(I thought it was a robin, before I saw it in my telephoto lens, because it sounded like a robin.)

Flowers:

ID by family
Mustard Family
Looks like a Sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis).
google images

Turkey Shoot - Photography

Turkeys - Hen and Gobbler:


I see these wild turkeys all the time, but just never have been able to photograph them at close range before. Oh, but there comes a time when, for some reason, they will allow a photoshoot. I took tons of pics. The male (gobbler) is interesting to watch. He can be fairly muted, and then he'll puff up/out his feathers. His head is a lot lighter than the rest of his body, so some of my pictures lost detail on the head. There were several hens with him (polygamous).

Turkey - Meleagris gallopavo (Linnaeus)
npwrc1
npwrc2
cornell
enature



Turkey Facts
Caruncle-fleshy bumps on the head and neck
Snood-long flap of flesh that hangs over the beak
Wattle-red skin that hangs from the neck
Upon sight, the beard appears to be hair, but is actually a mass of thin feathers.
Male turkeys also have sharp, spike-like projections on their legs called spurs.

Most interesting pic:
Looks like they are up to something, but I don't know what.

Fern

Wonderful ferny stuff. I want some.
It was difficult getting a good photography angle on it.
I'm not sure what kind of fern it is. Googled for ferns and North Dakota. Found three possibilities.

Looks like the:
Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Todaro (ostrich fern)
usda
npwrc
google images

Ferns for ND
Native Plants for Landscape Use in North Dakota
Ferns
(GOOD link. Tons of plants listed for ND and also other states as well. See Tables of Contents.)

Also mentioned:
Botrychium virginianum (rattlesnake fern)
usda
npwrc
google images

Cystopteris fragilis (fragile fern)
Must be the
Cystopteris fragilis (L.) Bernh.
brittle bladderfern
usda
google images

Imagine - Dream

The Soft Focus Effect in Paint Shop Pro 9 seemed to fit this pic.
Font is P22ZanerOne.

Baby Killdeer

We have a new baby at home. Hanging out on our gravel road.


Killdeers are way fun to observe. They were skittering along down the road as fast as their skinny long legs could take them. It was so funny to watch.



I got tons of really good closeups of the mom. An improvement over what I had previously.



Very pretty eye:


I don't know if it would be called the "distraction display," as in fake an injured wing, but she did oddly crouch down and sometimes fanned out her tail. And I got a picture of her colored rump. Cornell said it is bright orange, but it looked more gold to me.



Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
enature
cornell
"bright orange-buff rump"
Has a pic of one in flight that has a good view of that colored rump or tail.

Also
audubon
wiki (video of distraction display.)
And
The Precocious Killdeer
GOOD read and pics on baby killdeers.

Baby birds that hatch with their running shoes on are called precocial.
Precocial means "ripened beforehand." [killdeer, for example]

Birds that hatch blind, naked, and helpless are called altricial, which comes from a Greek word meaning "wet nurse." [robins, for example]

Killdeer nest on open ground, often on gravel. They may use a slight depression in the gravel to hold the eggs, but they don't line it at all, or line it only with a few stones. Since there is no structure to stand out from its surroundings, a killdeer nest blends marvelously into the background. Furthermore, the speckled eggs themselves look like stones...

It takes 24 to 28 days of incubating for the chicks to hatch....

But baby killdeer are small, bright-eyed, fluffy replicas of their parents. Just seeing one will bring a smile to the grouchiest face in town.

Bandwidth Exceeded

I've had a couple of bandwidth spikes that disabled my free image hosting account until the first of the month.
First spike happened sometime between Sunday and Monday, 23rd and 24th of May.
And the final knock out hit happened by Wednesday morning, 26 May 10.

I think someone, or some bot, may be stealing my bandwidth, because I know this blog doesn't get that much traffic.

So,
I've been making some adjustments and will monitor more closely once my account gets reactivated June 1st.

In the meantime, I moved my blog template images to Blogger's free image hosting site, Picasa, so this blog wouldn't be a total ugly mess.

No more new posts until my image hosting gets reactivated on 1 Jun 10.

Clouds

Nifty storm clouds. It has been raining a lot recently. Get very interesting clouds on those day.


These next two I dug up out of my 2007 archives and tried clarify on them to bring out detail.
I call them ocean clouds.
One is a closeup of the other.
And yes, the moon was out.
Time/date stamp was about 11am on 2 Oct 07.