Category: pond creatures

backyard visitors, Florida wildlife, nature, on closer examination, Passing time, perseverance, photography, pond creatures, Rise and shine, unintended images, Up and at 'em

Random stuff…

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The feature photo, and only photo that I know about at this moment, is the uninvited company I found out on the lanai this morning. I have resisted becoming attached to this lanai after loving the one at my old house. There is no lake here, no pond critter serenades, but the birds do sing so that’s something. But this morning I found myself at eye level to a creature that I quickly realized wasn’t a lizard. Lizards are so common, and mostly keep their distance, but this sticky-fingered creature was eyeing me up. As I was doing to him. So he retreated into the corner and then climbed to the very top of the corner brace. I thought that I would have to warn my friend when he came out because this little guy would be directly over his head if he sat in his usual chair. But Tampa Bay Lightning fans who have endured a disappointing play-off game and then a frustrating drive home aren’t given to getting up early the next morning. Maybe it’s the effort of growing a beard in solidarity with the players, a long-standing tradition I’m told. It’s currently in the whisk-broom stage, but I digress. It turned out that my fears as to the little guy’s jumping weren’t unwarranted, because he jumped onto the end table, landing with a thud, which is when I took his picture. Looks like he needed to wipe his chin after his breakfast. By this time the sun was baking me, the coffee was cold, and it was time to go in. I hope this guy finds his way back outside as stealthily as he found his way in, so I don’t have to check the corners of the roofline before I sit out here again…

a second look, bugs, dragonflies, Florida wildlife, life goes on, nature, nothing's easy, perseverance, photography, pond creatures

Self defense…

naturecoastimagesblog

It was back to the pond to look for the dragonflies again yesterday, but this time with my 150-600mm lens. I haven’t used it in so long that it resisted me as I tried to extend it to the full 600mms. And it was just so heavy that I struggled to keep it still even with the tripod. Then there was the zoom that was almost too much, so that finding the dragonflies that were right in front of me wasn’t easy. I guess I’ve been spoiled by the smaller lens I use all the time. But the dragonflies cooperated this time also, and I have no idea how that shell wound up in the grass but it caught my eye.

There were some acrobatics going on.
this was as close to seeing a face as it got.
Butt. shots were easier to come by.
They held their poses like champs.
After a while I concentrated on the flowers that were there in case there were bees on them, but I didn’t have luck with that this time.

The sun came out from behind a cloud after just a few minutes and that was enough to send me back to the house. No wonder the sunrises and sunsets are fun to do here in Florida. We do them in self defense.

a second look, adventure, attention to detail, birds, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, moments, nature, perseverance, photography, pond creatures, Rise and shine, sky, sunrise, weather

Quiet sunrise…

naturecoastimagesblog

I missed a very pretty sunset the other night, which may be why I rousted myself out the next morning for a walk at sunrise. The feature photo is the view as I arrived at the park a half hour early for the sunrise. It was still dark, but the lights in the houses looked so pretty, especially the ones directly across the water. The broken clouds in the sky gave me hope that the sunrise colors would show up, but they didn’t. What I did see out there were upside-down birds. Reflections in the water, of birds that I couldn’t see against the shadows of the weeds behind them. But the refections were clear as a bell. So that amused me. I was disappointed not to see chalk drawings on the pavement. If there had been some the rain overnight had washed them away. I’m thinking of getting some sidewalk chalk and leaving messages of my own…

I walked for a half hour and returned to the park. The sky was getting light, and an egret caught my eye.
I stuck around in case the sky lit up, but it never did.
Maybe it was the Halloween season that made me feel like the bird reflections were a bit spooky
.

I’m happy to say that my Lightroom problem was operator error, pointed out to me by my friend. It was fixed with a simple click. It’s good to have friends who know their way around a camera, and/or Lightroom.

'scene' along the way, a second look, attention to detail, birds, ducks, friends, fun, home, making memories, moments, nature, perseverance, photography, pond creatures, Rise and shine, sunrise

Sticking close to home…

naturecoastimagesblog

I surprised myself by being up early enough to catch the sunrise. Early enough to just go around the block to see it though. I oftentimes forget that I can see the sunrise so close to home.

A mama duck didn’t seem to be bothered by my car pulled onto the grass, or by me clicking away with my camera.
I had occasion to rearrange my car the other day and ‘found’ the lens ball, so decided to look at the scene through from another point of view.
I loved how pretty the color got against the blue of the sky.
I love when the birds fly through the sunrise color.

I’m afraid I’m guilty of thinking that if I lived a little further south then the sunrises and sunsets would be perfect every day. But really they are perfect enough just where I am…

a second look, adventure, birds, ducks, facing facts, Florida wildlife, fun, making memories, nature, perseverance, photography, pond creatures, road trip, sunset, turtles

Making do…

naturecoastimagesblog

All day the plan was to go to Dunedin for dinner, plus take in the sunset of course. But as the day went on the clouds got heavier and it started to rain. Much too late to go anywhere we saw that the clouds were breaking up a bit, so we went out in the drizzle and got some shots.

I see the raindrops in this picture when I look at it on my huge computer screen.
This turtle is enormous, we decided that he thought we might have a goodie for him. We didn’t.
This duck was probably thinking the same thing. She also was out of luck.

Later I saw pictures of the sunset from Dunedin and it was very nice. We missed a chance, but maybe it will work out next time.

a second look, backyard visitors, ducks, home, memories, moments, nature, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, pond creatures

Get your ducks in a row…

naturecoastimagesblog

One thing is for sure, I have plenty of old pictures to play with while I keep my distance.  I had totally forgotten about these ducklings on the lake until I scrolled past them in the computer.  And since I talk about all the wildlife out there, and a variety of ducks out there to boot, it now stands out to me that I only saw these two families of ducks out there.  Ever.

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I had to include this picture of Ozzie out there even if the ducklings blend into the weeds in the water.  As I was sitting there taking pictures of the ducklings I realized that Ozzie was laying in the grass not 15 feet from the edge of the water and the momma duck was letting her babies play along the shore without a care in the world.  I had already figured out that the wildlife out there paid no attention to Oz, there simply was no hunting gene in his make-up.  When Zoe was around she loved to run through a flock of birds on the ground, not to catch one, just to make them fly.  It was the labradoodle in her.  I once saw Ozzie snuffle a frog on the patio and then walk away.  He was a live-and-let-live kind of guy.  So I wanted to get a picture of Ozzie with the ducklings so close at the edge of the water, but I had to reposition myself to do it which caused momma to swim a few feet from the edge.  You’ll have to use your imagination to fill in the gaps.

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And I came across this picture too, of the pied-grebe face to face with his lunch.  There was a frond of grass that had blown right across the action, leaving a hazy green smudge.  Try as I might with all the new tricks I’ve learned in Lightroom I couldn’t do any better than this to clean that up.  Poor froggie, it just wasn’t his day…