A mallard drake making a splashy take-off from Bushy Park pond during last spring's mating season.

Some kind of sparrow but I don't know what kind. Maybe one of you do? I don't have my bird book right here

Mist and sunlight make a beautiful combination

Pileated Woodpecker. Yosemite Valley, California.

The remains of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg’s last two blast furnaces dating back to 1965 and 1970 respectively, are being preserved at Belval with additional adjacent facilities. This structure represents Belval’s industrial heritage. Blast furnaces A and B of the former Esch-Belval plant depict the passing of an age, documenting the liquid phase of steel production and represent the most significant landmarks at the Belval site.

Blast furnace B was the last operational blast furnace of Luxembourg, which was shut down in July 1997 following the switch to electric furnaces as of 1993. A proposal from the Sites and Monuments Board led to the inclusion of the two Belval blast furnaces on the Additional list of National Sites and Monuments as of 18 July 2000.

The conservation project for the Belval blast furnaces is being developed within the new urban area framework. The blast furnace area will be integrated as a public place and will not remain an island in the middle of the “Cité des Sciences” (City of Science). The two blast furnaces will become the hub of the Cité des Sciences, not only at urban level but also at a conceptual, cultural and semantic level.

.....

A mallard takes off from a marsh at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Stafford County, KS.

Sony rx10 Mk4

...from the past that is! I am posting this one from the archives to introduce my new flickr friends to my favourite flower, the Osteospermum.

Have a wonderful weekend!

STATS UPDATE: A flickr staffer has announced in the Help Forum that they have fixed the bug that caused the problem.

www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157664424523132/page6/

A mallard duck in a splashy take-off from Bushy Park pond, Dublin, last autumn.

From my archives.

textures and effects by Remember Remember

See more in my Bridge set Here

See more in my Autumn set here

See more in my Texture set Here

See more in my Canal set Here

See more in my Landscapes set Here

commemorating the SpaceX launch tomorrow.

Taken during a beautiful sunrise in Sudelfeld, Bavaria ... at a time when it was still allowed to visit the mountains ...

Aufgenommen während eines wunderschönen Sonnenaufgangs im Sudelfeld, Bayern...zu einer Zeit, als es noch erlaubt war, die Berge zu besuchen...

I wish you a great weekend, my friends

Firefly's pilot is injecting a blast of propane fire into the envelope to adjust altitude -- he was quite low, just overhead. Pilots are very careful to keep flame away from the coated nylon envelopes, as flame will immediately destroy the nylon. 2016 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Sony /A6300 and E50/1.8.

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My introduction to Mount St. Helens along the entrance road to the National Volcanic Monument park. This volcano is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The Mount St. Helens major eruption of May 18, 1980 remains the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. Fifty-seven people were killed; 200 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways, and 185 miles (298 km) of highway were destroyed. A massive debris avalanche, triggered by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, caused a lateral eruption that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 ft (2,950 m) to 8,363 ft (2,549 m), leaving a 1 mile (1.6 km) wide horseshoe-shaped crater.

Source and more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens

Beautiful colours for a deeply depressing grey day like today.

The blast furnace bases at Ironbridge, Shropshire the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution

Mullet ~ (Mugil cephalus)

A Mullet fish explodes out of the water. There are a few theories as to why they do this such as to shake loose parasites or evade predators. I am constantly amazed at just how much height these fish can achieve.

Thanks for visiting!

Copper Basin OT-1 rounds the long curve at Kearny with a train of loaded copper ore for the smelter in Hayden, just a few miles east. The afternoon clouds are finally giving way to sun, leaving the foreground in sun with dramatic cloud cover still looming over the mountains in the distance.

We just got back from three days in the Aspen area and had a blast at the Snowmass balloon festival!

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All images © 2017 Daniel Kessel.

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More fun with glow sticks!

Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 614 pulls the Chessie Safety Express over Big Gunpowder Falls at Gunpowder, Maryland

Snow geese blast off near sunset from wetlands meadow on Sauvie Island, Oregon

Thank you all for your visits and comments!

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Observing and photographing my first long-tailed weasel in its white coat was a big highlight from this past winter.

I could hear this Union Pacific train for about 15 minutes before it finally blasted out of the fog. I guess sound carries on these cold foggy mornings. I finally saw the headlights just a few seconds before it reached me and got me with a cloud of blowing snow.

Blasting off into the setting sun, the Bozeman Local with consecutively number GP35's heads back to it's namesake with a healthy train.

Snow Geese - Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge

Santa Fe U28CG 351 leads sister unit 352 and a U30CG as the Texas Chief blasts past McCook, Illinois, on August 30, 1969. The retired units to the right of the frame are trade-ins to EMD that are awaiting scrapping at nearby Pielet Brothers.

Owen Leader photo, Joe Lewnard collection.

P001 pounds the switch at NE Boody, as it enters the outskirts of St. Paul, VA. Here they were greeted with a photo line of around 30-40 people standing on or next to the siding, desperate to grab a shot.

The slightly overpowered MRF (Miscellaneous Road Freight - officially train L594) has a 2 to 1 power to car ratio with IC 6260, DMIR 400, CN 6017, and CN 2011 leading one loaded centerbean and one random loaded ore car as they fly north at MP 59.9 on modern day CN's North Division Iron Range Subdivision mainline. The local freight is making a turn from Two Harbors to Keenan Yard and return via the former Duluth and Iron Range Railroad which was the other component half of the DMIR created in 1938 when the two roads long owned by US Steel were officially merged. Today Biwabik is home to a 6118 ft passing siding and a small little used yard, but in the old raw ore days it was bustling as a marshaling point for the mine branches seemingly radiating in all directions as well as the main continuing into Virginia.

This is a region that should need no introduction to even the most casual fan as the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway is in a word legendary. I won't bore you with pages of history as I couldn't do the road or region justice anyway. It simply needs to be experienced for oneself. But I will direct you to two resources. Absolutely check out the fabulous historical information here: www.missabe.com/

And for a fabulously well written overview of modern CN operations find yourself a copy of the April 2023 edition of Railfan and Railroad right now! shop.whiteriverproductions.com/products/rfr-202304

Biwabik, Minnesota

Friday May 12, 2023

Redcar, Teesside.

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, het hoogovencomplex werd in 1902 door de "Rheinische Stahlwerke zu Meiderich bei Ruhrort" gebouwd, en werd later overgenomen door de Thyssen-groep. Tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog raakte het zwaar beschadigd, maar het werd in de jaren 50 weer opgebouwd. In 1985 waren de hoogovens van het complex te klein geworden om nog rendabel te zijn, en werd het complex gesloten. Tussen 1991 en 2002 werd het terrein als openbaar park ingericht.

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, the blast furnace complex was built in 1902 by the "Rheinische Stahlwerke zu Meiderich bei Ruhrort", and was later taken over by the Thyssen group. During the second World War hit the heavily damaged, but it was rebuilt in the 1950s. In 1985 were the blast furnaces of the complex had become too small to be profitable, and the complex was closed. Between 1991 and 2002, the site as a public park decorated.

Barn Swallow. (view large on black) After a brief stop on the water the Barn Swallow (note fhe forked tail), takes off in a flurry of water droplets making it difficult to get a sharp image. A familiar inhabitant of barns and other outbuildings, the Barn Swallow is easily recognized by its long forked tail. It was originally a cave breeder, but now the swallow nests almost exclusively on man-made structures. IMG_5660

Eurasian Wigeon take off at Miller Knox Park.