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Union Pacific 9336, 9316, and 6242 pull 90 loads of Sufco longwall coal along 10,883 ft. Bald Mountain, east of Starr, Utah the evening of June 23, 1991. The train loaded earlier in the day at Sharp, Utah, and will be delivered the following day to the North Valmy Generating Station in Nevada.
Deadhorse Point State Park has many vantage points to view this amazing landscape. Below you can see the Colorado River winding through the desert as a storm approaches.
Thanks for stopping by
Britannia Bridge is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. It was originally designed and built by the noted railway engineer Robert Stephenson as a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans for carrying rail traffic.
In Iceland, the connecting trips between famous sites gives additional opportunities to discover amazing landscapes. Here, on the road to Vík í Mýrdal
On Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. It's awesome and a bit scary to be up in the clouds so to speak and watching a storm approach with accompanying thunderings. Have a great weekend everyone!
There are wildlife encounters, and then there are moments like this one. A Great Grey Owl fills the entire frame in a breathtaking head-on approach, its massive wingspan spread wide against a stunning backdrop of boreal forest and distant mountain peaks. At nearly 1.5 metres from wingtip to wingtip, the sheer scale of this magnificent bird is fully on display here, every barred feather illuminated by bright daylight in extraordinary detail.
What strikes the viewer immediately is that single piercing yellow eye, fixed with absolute and unwavering intensity directly down the lens. This is a bird that commands complete attention and knows it. The Great Grey Owl is the world's largest owl by length, a silent and formidable hunter of the northern boreal forests, and yet there is something almost mythical about its presence, earning it the well deserved nickname "Phantom of the North."
The rising sun tries in vain to break through the clouds as St. Maries River Railroad’s turn to Plummer rolls over arcing track through Shepherd Road grade crossing on September 27, 2021. The Geeps cant into a curve that once hosted time freights and Hiawathas from the Milwaukee Road.
Hancock County - Iowa
One last photo from the amazing frosty Sunday morning I enjoyed so much! As I was looking around, I noticed a cloud bank coming in from the northwest.
That eventually clouded over and included a low fog layer by noon.
This time of year, a beautiful frost, pristine blue and sunshine is an event! This was followed by 5 plus days of dark cloudy skies!
Copyright 2021
This hummingbird is approaching what we call the "basement," one of the many branches they enjoy perching on.
Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili...
If you're interested, you'll find a more detailed closeup here (it's the 8th photo from the top): www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (it's very brief but pretty unusual: a tiny wall lizard attacks two young great tits): www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqkSsyrm7E
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: MY LONG AND ARDUOUS JOURNEY TO BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
If you've set yourself the challenge of exclusively shooting the wildlife in your own back yard, you might find - as I did - that bird photography is really, really hard.
It's not that reptiles are easy to photograph either, mind - but at least the ones in my garden stay (for the most part) on the ground, and one can learn how to carefully approach them with a camera. They're also clearly egoists, which from a photographer's point of view is is a great character trait: if a lizard detects a human in its vicinity, it's only interested in saving its own skin, and it won't alarm its buddies.
But birds... oh man. Over the years, my feathered friends and I have developed a lovely routine that now defines our peaceful co-existence. As soon as I as much as open a window (let alone the door), I'm instantly greeted by an eruption of panicky fluttering and hysterical shouts from my garden: "SAVE YOUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND FLY FOR YOUR LIVES: THE HAIRLESS, PINK MONSTER IS COMING!!! (Yes, I speak bird, and I know that this is exactly what they are shouting 😉).
Needless to say, with the exception of the redstart I already showed here, all my efforts to get the kind of detailed shots I usually strive for with my nature photography ended in complete failure and utter disillusionment. I was ready to give up on stalking the winged misanthropes in my garden altogether, but then winter came - and changed everything.
One day this past January I observed my neighbor Signora P - a kind, elderly Italian lady - putting something on the low garden wall in front of my house. At first I thought she was just putting some treat there for her cat Romeo; the young tom patrols that wall constantly (it's his favorite spot in the garden, and during the warmer months he usually lurks in the thick foliage next to it to prey on lizards).
But once I detected a lot of movement on that wall through my window, I understood she had put a little pile of bread crumbs there; she was feeding the birds who soon arrived in flocks. This was certainly well-intended on my neighbor's part, but her noble action came with a catch, and I'm afraid quite literally.
When I took a stroll through my garden the next day I discovered a suspicious amount of feathers on the ground next to the wall. Romeo had apparently switched from his low-calorie summer diet (lizard) to more energy-rich meals consisting of "fowl" (it was winter after all, so from a nutritionist's point of view this made sense).
I would find fresh traces of Romeo's victims (mostly feathers, but also the odd wing) in my garden over the following days; so my first intuition that my neighbor was feeding her cat hadn't been that far off after all, as Romeo was now clearly being "served" fresh birds on a daily basis. And although the hungry visitors seemed to be aware of the danger and became slightly more prudent, they just couldn't resist the tasty snacks Signora P put on that wall - and neither could Romeo.
It was obvious that I had to act, but talking to my neighbor - who is as stubborn as she is kind - would have been futile, I knew that much. I pondered the matter long and hard - until a light bulb went off in my head. The idea was genius. If successful, what I had in mind would not only increase the birds' chances of surviving Romeo's appetite, but also greatly benefit my own photographic endeavors.
I started to enact my master plan the very next day by buying a giant bag of bird feed (consisting mainly of sunflower seeds) from the store. Then I dragged a huge piece of a tree trunk (approx. 120 cm in height) that we normally chop firewood on from the shed out into the garden and emptied almost half of the bag's content on top of it. Signora P's buffet for birds (and cats) was about to get some serious competition 😊.
My reasoning was as follows: not only would the birds be lured away from the fatally low garden wall to a place where they were safe from the cat - there was nothing around that tree trunk that provided cover for a predator, and the birds had a nice 360° view around it at all times - but I was also able to photograph them while hiding in the shed.
However, in order for my plan to work there was one little extra measure I had to take, and it was one that risked lowering my own life expectancy considerably once the owner of the property - my mom - discovered it. You see, our shed is completely windowless, so if I wanted to use it as a blind, I had no choice but to cut a hole into one of its wooden walls... which I promptly did (I figured all's fair in love - and photography 😉).
Granted, I have absolutely zero carpentering skills, and it showed. That hole was an ugly mess: the shed's wall seemed to have had an encounter with Jack Nicholson's ax-wielding lunatic character from the film 'The Shining'. Needless to say, I was incredibly proud of my work (I mean, come on: there now was a hole where before there wasn't a hole, and it was big enough for the lens of my camera to peek through, so it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned).
Now all I had to do was wait for the birds to discover the tree trunk. In the meantime I started to mentally prepare myself for the inevitable confrontation with my mom and go through possible explanations for that splintering hole in the wall (it was either gonna be a rabid woodpecker attack or an emergency rescue mission with a feeding tube for a little kid that had accidentally locked himself inside the shed - both seemed valid options, though I slightly preferred the locked-in kid due to the involved drama and heroism 😉).
A whole day went by, and not a single bird visited the sunflower seeds. I had expected that it might take a few hours until the first of the ever curious great tits or blue tits would show up, but given how tiny my garden is, an entire day seemed excessive. Then another day came and went: the birds kept flocking to the bread crumbs on the wall, and my tree trunk kept collecting dust. To add injury to insult, a few fresh feathers on the ground were proof that Romeo was still feasting.
It was incredibly frustrating: I provided my winged guests with a much better view - plus a higher chance of surviving the cuisine - than Signora P's place; I risked (almost) certain death at the hands of my own mother (OK, the act of vandalism on the shed I had committed for my own benefit, but still), yet the birds kept ignoring me.
Then, after three days, just before sunset, I spotted a single blue tit on the tree trunk picking away at the sunflower seeds.
When I got up the next morning I immediately realized that the loud noise that accompanies each and every tit activity had shifted from the wall to the shed. At last the dam had broken: there was a flurry of movement around the tree trunk, and I counted at least 5 different species of birds feasting on the sunflower seeds.
From day 4 onward my plan worked beautifully: the birds now indeed mostly ignored Romeo's "snack wall" and kept to the tree trunk. And yes, I was able to play peeping tom from behind the shed's wall and photograph them!! 😊
Thus, dear readers, I finally managed to produce some acceptable bird photos, and I had even saved my feathered friends from a deadly foe in the process. All through winter and spring I took advantage of my new bird hide, and in late May I started mixing some cherries with the sunflower seeds. The idea was to attract a Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), and as you can see, it worked!
It took me almost three weeks and more than a few tricks to capture that clever fella, but given how long I've been rambling here already, that's a story for another day. As for my mom, she still doesn't know about the hole in the wall, so please don't snitch! 😉.
I hope you like the photo and wish you all a wonderful weekend! Many greetings from Switzerland, and as always: let me know what you think in the comments 🙏 😊 ❤!
P.S. if anyone has their own funny tale about the obstacles we photographers are prepared to overcome for a desired photo, please write it in the comments: I love such stories 😊
I've wanted to use this backdrop for months and months yet I just didn't have the right outfit for it; but now behold, for the King Approaches :D
AvaWay= Luthien Crown
Aitui= Cannonball Jacket FATPACK
The White Crow= Senior Crow Cane
Cult= 007 Men's Sneakers
Gabriel= Chains Alha, Bravo, and Charlie (Gold)
Static= Illuminatus Earrings
Bondi= The Peacemaker Sunglasses
Codex= Bullet Punk Earrings
Dura= U105 Hair
Gild= Long Chain Set (Gold)
Spotcat= Cuban Chain v2.0
Legal Insanity= Vasco Studded Denim & Belt FATPACK
panDEMONium Ink= Tiger King Tattoo
Not Found= Jonas Skin and Shape
Belleza= Jake Mesh Body
Catwa= Dino Head
[I am so very very very sorry, but I can't remember which facial hair I used... Does it look familiar to anyone? :( ]
night arrives
unannounced
in a black limo
a silent presence
who follows you
into your room
closes the door
points to the book
of days on your desk
dark finger a shadow
across your past
which disappears
with each turning
of the page until
there are no more
leaves to fall, no
birds to sing
your faint praises
only this moment
and maybe
mercifully
the next
--M deO
Visit Crystal City:
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K4 61994 The Great Marquess approaches Keld on the S+C with the southbound Fellsman of June 19th 2013.The p/way hut has seen been better days but I decided to include it as I was not expecting any exhaust !
Copyright David Price
No unauthorised use
Walking along the beach to Porthleven with the clock tower of the institute on the right and the labour pier jutting out into the sea.
I'm very grateful for all your visits and would like to thank you now for stopping by, and any comments you may leave. Much appreciated, John...
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. ©2018 John Baker. All rights reserved.
Time is running out to post any old pictures of when it was still snowing. But they're pretty, so maybe I don't care. Maybe I want to post them anyhow. :-)
Final Approach
Lady Mallard landing at Shearness Pool in Bombay Hook NWR
2019_10_15_EOS 7D_3179-EditA_V1
"Approaching Storm"
Lightning strikes as a storm rolls in across the starry central South Dakota sky.
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A BNSF vehicle train rolling east Montana Rail Link, curves toward 365-foot Cabinet Tunnel in Cabinet Gorge east of Colby, Idaho, on the morning of October 2, 2021.
ED-MO is headed west approaching the Hoosac tunnel. At this time CP Rail run through power was the norm. Todays train has three different paint schemes, St. Lawrence & Hudson, standard CP Rail and a CP Rail 'Dual Flags', against the Fall colors they look quite nice.
Scanned from a slide Fuji Provia 100F Canon EOS Elan7
a fresh frozen puddle on the lid of my compost barrel. :-)
Some more photos will follow within the next few days.