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A Great Egret approaches a snag for a landing at Little Creve Coeur Marsh in St Louis, Missouri. I really like this version in black and white. Check out those water droplets coming off of both feet as he opens his claws to grab a perch!
The sky darkens, signaling winter storms approaching the Clark Fork Valley of Montana on the afternoon of February 5, 2021, as a westbound BNSF grain train crosses the causeway separating Frog Pond from the river between milepost 56 and 57 at Trout Creek.
As I approached Monument Valley I was totally unprepared for the breathtaking scene before my eyes. I had to stop and attempt to capture it.
I was out on the nearby meadows again this morning. The windy weather made taking macro shots almost impossible and the flying grass pollen caused a terrible hay fever attack. I returned home rather quickly but it was lovely to see that the thistles on the meadows are beginning to flower and I hope that they will soon attract some butterflies. For now only a hoverfly was interested in the first buds.
on the 'plains' you can see the storm fronts approaching for miles, this one came in fast with some high winds......I put up the 'sparrow hawk' house maybe eight years ago to no avail but the flickers like it....
LMS Ivatt Class 2MT No.46443
(built in Crewe in 1950)
46443 climbs away from Victoria Bridge approaching Arley Station. (SVR/MF Charter 26/11/2010)
Having split off the Cowen Subdivision just a few minutes ago, the Z813 continues south to Alexander on the Pickens Subdivision. The parallel road tells part of the story of coal mining in this region, which remains a profitable but dangerous business in these parts. In 2006, the nearby Sago Mine disaster claimed the lives of a dozen coal miners in an explosion.
With 14,197-foot Mount Princeton towering in the background, Rio Grande GP40 No. 3075 and Cotton Belt GP40-2 No. 7291 power a five-car local of zinc concentrate between Brown Cañon siding and Salida, Colorado, on January 9, 1998. For a year-and-a-half after Union Pacific closed Colorado’s Tennessee Pass as a through route on August 23, 1997, it still operated a once-a-week local from Pueblo to Malta, near Leadville, on a round trip that took two days. Looks like they are losing some of the zinc ore out of the three gons without covers on this somewhat faster section of track approaching Salida.
More images from my recent visit to the CRC (Cdn Raptor Conservancy).
Thanks for all the faves and kind comments!
Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Pennsylvania
This is worth the time to read it.
- It's peacetime, but a storm is approaching.
- You are only 21 years old, you have never seen military action, but find yourself in command of 250+ regular troops and militia.
- You are ordered to build a road into wilderness, and it's French territory.
- You make a pact with the local indigenous tribe, whose chief informs you a French patrol is nearby.
- You take tribe members and some of your troops to surprise the French.
- They surrender, but the tribal chief has an axe to grind with the French...literally...and kills the patrol commander...after he had surrendered.
- Not good.
- You know the French will be furious and come at you with far more troops than you have in your command.
- Your indigenous friends, including the tribal chief, now abandon you.
- You build a fort, and name it Fort Necessity.
- The French and their Indian allies come storming at you...using the very same road you had just built.
- The French commander happens to be the brother of the French patrol leader who was murdered after he had surrendered.
- You screwed up and built your trenches within musket range of the surrounding tree line.
- Which fills up with French and Indians taking shots at you.
- It pours rain, filling your trenches with water and causing all your gunpowder to become useless.
- It's looking grim, but suddenly the French want to parlay, and offer what seems like an honorable treaty in exchange for your immediate withdrawal.
- But they make you sign a document in French...and you can't read French.
- Congratulations, you just signed an official document that states you assassinated the French commander of the patrol and the entire thing is your fault.
- Clever French.
- You return to Virginia thinking your career is finished in dismal shame.
- But the Governor and the state assembly thank you and reward you instead.
- Unfortunately, your actions lead to the start of the French and Indian War, which spreads to Europe in what is eventually known as the Seven Years War.
~ Your name? ~
- George Washington...yes that George Washington, famous adventurer, winning commanding general of the American Revolutionary War, and First US President, "the father of our country".
- A war he won against the British, whom he served here at Fort Necessity.
- The day George Washington was forced to leave Fort Necessity?
- July 4th, 1754. JULY 4th, what is now celebrated as US Independence Day.
True story. Better than the plots of most movies made these days. You might be wondering though why the US National Park Service, in its recreation of the stockade at Fort Necessity, has that very British-looking Red Ensign flag flying in front of the fort. It is because the American flag did not exist in 1754. It would take another 22 years before that storm burst upon North America.
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Love how the leaning tree appears to be moving towards the stricken fallen branch. Another misty scene from Hillock Wood, Princes Risborough