View of Alaska Range from Denali State Park dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/denali1.htm

KINGFISHER...

KINGY...

In my 62 years on this earth, this was the most intense and beautiful lighting show I have ever witnessed. It really got me close to God! It was my second spiritual experience at the end of the road. 8-10-21

Jousting Stags practising for later in the year.

High speed paint drops collision

Feuerlibelle weiblich

Let the sun shine into your heart

Love is in the air......

youtu.be/NNC0kIzM1Fo?si=WMlAifglEnhhAk_3

Mute swan

Scientific name

Cygnus olor

The mute swan is one of the most familiar birds in the UK, its long, curved neck and graceful glide a regular sight on our waterways and waterbodies. Mute swans feed on plants, particularly waterweed. They usually mate for life, but some will have numerous partners.

Perhaps I shouldn't have gone to the pond today. It was warm, but it was extremely windy. I thought I could get some dragonflies just perched, and more important knowing that females darners perch in the grass even during the day when the wind must buffet even the best three-inch fliers.

Instead, I found a number of Pacific Forktails perched. Perhaps they'd been hunting, and maybe I could get one with a mosquito or gnat "over for lunch." Instead, I ended up with almost duplicates from previous forays. I wondered, if these are so colorful, what must the multicolored head look like really up close? This is the answer! Blue, orange, blue-grey, blue-gray south of the border, purple eyes ... and all in perhaps a quarter-inch of its whole body.

Well, I was hoping for more duckweed, but I'll certainly settle for this beauty and her pick of perches. While the male looks like a Bluet with a predominantly black body with less blue than most, the female is the most distinctive of damsels if you can get close enough.

I also went out to the Slough, and found some "unique" wild hibiscus, what look like hollyhocks, and a few marsh plants that are new to me. We'll get to those on Monday unless something even better is found tomorrow. (And for variety, I still have a few birds in archives that can fill the avian void we're experiencing inland right now.)

CPKC train 261, daily Shreveport, La. to St. Paul, Minn., follows Amtrak up the river at Minneiska.

Demanding chick......

This young Robin was keeping mum very busy.

An ant (likely Formica argentea as it was identified before in the same flower bed and the abdomen seems to fit) is seemingly farming 2 winged aphids on a Pink-flowering Onion stem. Home, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. 4 August 2022

Fes tannery

fydo jack russel

Bee at work

Little bird in the big city ... at Toronto Island

The BNSF H-MEMTUL heading north Turners after some Icy Snowfall making for some great backdrops.

"Conrail is gone, but the paint scheme lives on."(When I wrote this)

Thanks for visit comments and favorites, have a nice day.

I thought this would be a nice picture to start the new week, so have a great one!