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So far, for my The Little Mermaid collection, I have:
Ursula x1
Ariel x4
Eric x1
Flounder x2
Edit: I forgot about the pins! I'll have pictures of those sometime soon, along with the rest of my Disney Pin collection.
Guardate le stelle e non i vostri piedi. Provate a dare un senso a ciò che vedete, e chiedervi perché l’universo esiste. Siate curiosi.
(Stephen Hawking)
Happy New Year, everyone!
Some years, the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the town of Nanton is held late in December. Other years, it ends up being held early January, sometimes delayed because of really bad weather. The Count for 2016 was held on 30 December.
We drove through such beautiful scenery when we were covering the SW quadrant of the Christmas Bird Count circle that centered on the town of Nanton. A landscape over which the occasional Golden Eagle soars and in which, some years, numerous Sharp-tailed Grouse wander on the ground or perch in trees.
Last year, the highlight for me was seeing Pine Grosbeaks nice and close. This Count, I think the highlights were the stunning winter scenery, and a Great Horned Owl.
I absolutely love this area SW of Nanton! Some of these backroads are extremely steep and almost look vertical when seen from a distance. Some years, the whole area is white, covered in deep snow, so that you can't tell where the roadside ends and the ditch begins. This Count, it wasn't too bad, thank goodness, though I might have felt differently if I had been one of the two drivers for our group!
After driving (being driven, for me, which is always pure luxury) the backroads from about 8:00 a.m. till around 3:30 p.m., we returned to the wonderful home of the Truch family. Not only do Bill and Leah Truch and their son, Mike, always welcome everyone with open arms, they also provide a much-appreciated breakfast snack for us and then, at the end of the day, a delicious supper. Have to say that I love travelling these scenic backroads (though I've never driven them myself), but I also really enjoy getting together with everyone afterwards. This is one of my favourite Bird Counts, and perhaps the most favourite.
Thanks so much for doing all the driving, Tony and Andrew, and thanks, Leah, Bill and Mike for all the effort and time you put into your wonderfully warm welcome! It was another well-organized Count, Mike, as usual - thank you!
I will add Andrew Hart's eBird report for this trip, in a comment box below.
They are a bit slow coming, hoping they all arrive on mass for the UK's Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count 14th July-6th August. You can show your support by signing up to their Thunderclap using link www.thunderclap.it/projects/59178-big-butterfly-count-2017
I think this little beauty is a Large Skipper. Photo copyright Pat Adams
One picture for every month in 2015.
1. A Forest, 2. Donnersberg | Mont Tonnerre | 8. Februar 2015, 3. 18.03.2015 | Karlstal, 4. 12.04.2015 14:36:09, 5. 18.5.2015 | Standing Stone Otterberg, 6. 15.06.2015, Mehlingen, 7. 10.07.2015 | Japanischer Garten, 8. Moon 3, 9. 26.09.2015 18:35:32, 10. 17.10.2015 10:20:03 | hiker's trap, 11. Warps, 12. IP226 | Eve Of Destruction
It was difficult as always. I could have done a winter count with September only (because: kittens).
This years Winter count is heavily cropped: 4 of the pictures are panoramas. Ony one is a phone picture. 7 are not digital. 2 are taken with a box camera. Only 1 is an UTATA IP picture, 1 is from UTATA's Big Project.
Other unexpected facts: More than expected are with my daughter, and no celtic tumuli.
Body Count on 04.06.2015 at Rock In Vienna
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I bet his Mom doesn't tell him to count sheep when he can't sleep because sheep are apart of his nightmares now. No one was hurt. The ewe dumped the little guy, then jumped over him, obviously, to avoid trampling him :)
Opera singer, bariton Laimonas Pautienius posing for portrait.
This portrait is an allusion to the Count di Luna from one of Verdi's most dramatic masterpieces - "Troubadour"
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Wet Plate Collodion. Tintype
18x24, lens I-37
Epson V600
Named for the nearby Pripyat River, Pripyat was founded on 4 February 1970, the ninth nuclear city in the Soviet Union, for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979, and had grown to a population of 49,360 before being evacuated a few days after the 26 April 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Though Pripyat is located within the administrative district of Ivankiv Raion, the abandoned city now has a special status within the larger Kiev Oblast (province), being administered directly from Kiev. Pripyat is also supervised by Ukraine's Ministry of Emergencies, which manages activities for the entire Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Access to Pripyat, unlike cities of military importance, was not restricted before the disaster as nuclear power stations were seen by the Soviet Union as safer than other types of power plants. Nuclear power stations were presented as being an achievement of Soviet engineering, where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful projects. The slogan "peaceful atom" (Russian: ?????? ????, mirnyj atom) was popular during those times. The original plan had been to build the plant only 25 km (16 mi) from Kiev, but the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, among other bodies, expressed concern about it being too close to the city. As a result, the power station and Pripyat were built at their current locations, about 100 km (62 mi) from Kiev. After the disaster the city of Pripyat was evacuated in two days.
A 35 man (plus guides) trip to the Ukraine exploring Chernobyl, the village, Duga 3, Pripyat and Kiev including Maidan (Independence Square) and observing the peaceful protests underway.
Some new faces, some old, made new friends and generally we were in our elements.
Rhetorical question but did we have a blast? You bet!
Amazing group, top guys. Till the next time!
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timster1973.wordpress.com
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A satisfying moment in Trafalgar Square: Go Ahead LT441 on Route 12 lines up next to London Sovereign VH3 on Route 13
We first met Shepherd McKnight Dreamer during the Summer Joust. As you can see, even if he cares about sheep, he still dreams to be a knight.
I don't know if his dream will come true but maybe he's gonna get more sheep to heard, thanks to the incredible BrickNerd judges! :)
Count Magnus Stenbock (1665-1717) was a Swedish field marshal and Royal Councillor.
The statue was inaugurated in 1901. It is one of very few non-royal equestrian statues in Sweden. The statue was created by sculptors John Börjeson and Carl Johan Nilsson.
©Jane Brown2015 All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without explicit written permission.
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Here's the 4th comic strip featuring a new character called Blood Count. (Get it? Wakka wakka!) My goal will be for him to die at the end of each comic strip, but I'm open to the idea of him living as long as he's miserable.
I couldn't decide whether to call him Blood Count or Vlad the Imp. I liked both equally.
kwmonster.blogspot.com/
It was a horrible year. But I had to do my annual Winter Count anyway so here it is. A January view from home, part of my 100 Days of Darkness project. February is a good month for enjoying a Semla. The horror of 2020 in one March photo. The usual suspects had a few nice BBQs during this very unusual year. When the warm weather came back I was back in the saddle most every day. Here bird spotting in a Canola field. It was one of the warmest days of the year when I went for a walk around Långholmen in Stockholm. One of my Summer hobbies when it comes to Summer photography is panning shots. I had to visit the Graffiti Heaven that is Lövsättra before it was demolished. I visited the new nature reserve Klövberget in Tyresö together with one of the usual Suspects in September. An October outing to Nynäshamn took me and two of the usual suspectds to the top of the Vinsberget hill. I spent quite a lot of tim at the Häringe/Hammersta nature reserve and made four visits in four month to the Lookout Point at Häringenäs. I had to add at least one photo of the old tree so here is one from December.
All three photos posted today were taken yesterday, 29 May 2015, on a trip way down in southern Alberta. A small group of us spent the day at the Whaleback, climbing the ridges, doing a species count. We had such a great day, finding all sorts of things of interest - plants, mosses, lichens - and in my case, insects, animals and birds, too : ) In fact, anything and everything, lol.
The weather was good for walking, not too warm and, up till the last part, dry. We were so lucky that the rain stayed away for most of the day. When I went on this outing in May 2013, it rained all day, though I still managed to get plenty of photos. Yesterday was overcast with low cloud, making scenic shots rather unpleasant.
Just before taking the turn for the road leading to a place to park, we stopped at a spot down by the river and did a search there. I was thrilled to bits to find three or four Tent Caterpillars on a plant next to a large rock and thought what a way to start the day. After taking a few photos, I walked to the other side of the rock and noticed what almost looked like a circular patch of lichen growing on the rock surface. A closer look revealed a mass of dozens of these caterpillars, with several others climbing up in single file to join the rest. Still makes me itch all over, just thinking about it, lol! Did I take a photo? Yes, of course I did, and I will post one in the next day or two. Suddenly realized that I was being watched by a young Richardson's Ground Squirrel, which was so tiny and so cute. One of the youngest ones I had seen in several years.
Another highlight of the day for me was when I happened to notice a tiny spot of bright red deep inside a distant Early Yellow Locoweed flower. I zoomed in for a photo and thought it looked like it might be a Ladybug. Couldn't count the spots properly, so I very gently parted the petals to get a better look. Unfortunately, it crawled on to my hand and wouldn't return to a petal until after I had taken two or three shots, and then it immediately moved out of sight. I was so happy to find that it was a different kind of Ladybug, though I had seen one a few years ago - still have to check the ID, but I believe it was a Convergent Ladybug.
Part way through the day, I stayed behind while the rest of the group climbed to higher ground, and I explored the lower ground. It was a place where I knew I wouldn't get lost - but I did have to wait till at least some of the others returned a few hours (?) later, as others were needed to create an opening to climb through the barbed-wire fence again : ) I found plenty to photograph and it was quite a feeling to be so high up with such an amazing view all around, and to be alone up there. While I sat to eat lunch on a rocky outcrop with a couple of trees, a tiny Sparrow (of some kind) came to visit a couple of times and sing for me. Also, there were maybe half a dozen Brewer's Blackbirds that stayed around the area for much of the time, flying or perched on low bushes. A truly magical time.
The rest of the group had a great time, too, and saw Parry's Townsendia flowers and lots of Balsamroot in bloom. Fortunately, I had seen the Townsendia before on a brutal hike to Picklejar Lakes several years ago. Two years ago, I had also seen hillsides at the Whaleback covered in the bright yellow Balsamroot flowers. I did manage to find several plants huddled together lower down, so was happy to get a few photos of these bright and cheery flowers.
Back down by the parked cars, two of my friends were looking at the very tiny lichen (seen in this photo) - it looked more like a pale green smear on a fence post until seen close-up. I didn't want to add a macro lens because it was pouring with rain, so this is just a telemacro shot. I didn't notice the very tiny moth at first, but I thought it was quite attractive and a kind that I had not seen before.
Altogether, a wonderful day in an incredibly beautiful place with great company! Many thanks, Robin and Cedric, for giving me a ride there and back - appreciated it SO much! And Sandy, if you happen to read this, I guess I have to thank you for not letting me know that you wouldn't be going, lol!
More No Counts from Japan
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from left:
1.Japanese Green Pheasant - Fujikawaguchiko, Tokyo
2.Willow Tit - Kushiro, Hokkaido.
3.Japanese Wagtail - Fujikawaguchiko, Tokyo.