Downer EDI Rail GT46C ACe
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Checking in to all my friends on Flickr --- and hoping that all have been keeping well and happy during the pandemic
This month was cold and lots of wind but the sun going down is always a pleasure specially on the beach.
Upper Falls, Vermont
The bridge was built in 1840 by James Tasker of Claremont, New Hampshire. It is distinctive among Vermont's many surviving covered bridges for the Greek Revival elements of its gables, and for the remarkably good condition of the surviving stone abutment, which has precisely laid stonework. At the time of its National Register listing in 1973 it was not in very good condition; it underwent a complete reconstruction in 2008.
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” —Winston Churchill
CL0UD - Melting Love Glasses @ Gothcore
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CORE/140/168/3501
GENUS MORPH - Head Base Oval, LipsMorph - Wicked, NoseMorph - Beak, GENUS - Skin - Margo - Rosekiss, [hh] Ashlee Outfit, RAMA.SALON - Kim Jen, Puddles. Debbie Downer Mug.
A westbound Metra express train on the BNSF line blasts through the Downers Grove Station on a snowy February 11th, 2021.
After reading all the comments about the flowers I've been posting, I'm guessing that in some parts of North America, things are dark, cold,drab, depressing, and/or a downer. Well, not much I can do about that - especially after the week of torrential rain, plus lightening and thunder (although, after 20+ years of nothing like that, I loved every minute) - but I know that thanks toi our weather, there will be a whole new crop of flowers starting as soon as we dry out a bit. But, now I also have a backlog of birds, and today I give you one of the "rarer" birds where I live, the Downy Woodpecker. Btw, it's only rare because I've only seen four in the last 20+ years, but uit's range is most of North America.
The Downy can be confused with the Hairy and the Hairy with the Nuttall's, but I have a suffcient number of all to give you a pretty good idea. Maybe I'll have a Woodpecker Wednesday. Not a bad idea. Okay, this is the first WW.
The downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) is a species of woodpecker, the smallest in North America. Length ranges from 14 to 18 cm (5.5 to 7.1 in). Downy woodpeckers primarily live in forested areas throughout the United States and Canada, with the exception of deserts in the southwest and the northern tundra. The bird nests in tree cavities and feeds primarily on insects, although it supplements its diet with seeds and berries. The downy woodpecker is very similar in appearance to the hairy woodpecker, although they are not closely related. Why they evolved this way cannot be explained with confidence; it may be relevant that the species exploit rather different-sized foodstuffs and do not compete very much ecologically. Well, I can explain it with confidence. I'll be wrong, but I might be the only one who can obfuscate with such skill ... or use the word obfuscate more than once every five years. I can use the word, but better still, I have been known to practice obfuscation every week. I'm proud of my limited skills.
Anyway, I found all four of my Downy Woodpeckers on Mt. Dalo between 2010 and 2014. I misidentified it four times as a Nuttall's woodpecker. And then did that again with my one and only Hairy and the Nuttall's. If I could get all three on one branch, the differences would be obvious. I'll see what I can do when I post the Nuttall's and the other two opn the same Flickr page.
Did I tell you that the Downy is NA's smallest woodpecker? It is, but all measurements are given in metrics, and I feel that you should reall do some pf this work yourselves. This particular Downy was found hammering away on an old pear tree new Old Borges Ranch. One day, if I ever see a member of the Borges familll hav to ask what the bird life was 50 or 60 years ago. The downy woodpecker is mainly black on the upperparts and wings, with a white back, throat and belly and white spotting on the wings. There is one white bar above the eye, and one below. They have a black tail with white outer feathers barred with black. Adult males have a red patch on the back of the head whereas juvenile birds display a red cap.
Enjoy a little more color which I'll provide in everthing but the weather. Flowers, blue birds, and insects have already started to return, and I plan on posting more color from old and just the last two years at the Garden. The past 23 years have been the best in so many ways. Certainly, digital photography; long lenses on the SX Canon series allowing me to move from flowers to sparrows and raptors; great landscape capabilities at the other end... and, honestly Flickr (and first, Smug Mug) that gave me a platform to share as I've never had in the first 60 year of my nature photography. And, of course, so many of you and the stories you tell. Remember, the experience of taking a picture is often more memorable than the image like the time that mammoth came after me...
Nikon F3, Nikkor 50/1.8 AI-s, Y48 yellow filter, Kodak T-Max 400@320, HC-110/dil. B, 6 min. Negative digitized with Nikon D700, AF Micro-Nikkor 60/2.8 D, ES-2. CS-LITE
on our way back to the camp.
Thank you very much for your visits comments and favs - especially for the last pictures... you explored them! Thank you very much!!
It's business as usual for the 45-year-old Metra 117 as it blasts off from Downers Grove after a quick station stop. One can only wonder just how many times this hunk of metal has passed this exact spot since the late 1970s.
I found a fox den in May in the woods next to my village. First time in my life... I saw the fox cubs coming out of the den and seeing the sun for the first time in their life... I saw them growing and changing...
I gave my small fox-cubs names. This one is Bluebeard because of it’s blue eyes... now the color changed to amber, but for me it is still my small Bluebeard...
I usually would spend more then two hours waiting for them in the evening... Sometimes they would show up after sun-set... I only enjoy them playing and exploring the world...in this case... Even with my NIKON D5 pictures are just impossible as you loose at some point the speed... But sometimes they would do me a favor and come out before sun-set...with the last light of the day... and when this happens... magic moments can be captured...
NIKON D5 with Nikkor 600mm f4
@600mm f4 1/250' ISO800.
Screaming the piggys westward at Downers Grove, Illinois on the BN race track is GP40 3002 leading a UP U30C - March 5, 1978.
BNSF SD60M 1463 leads a local west past two landmarks in Downers Grove, IL, the Tivoli Theater and the Main Street Station.
Viceroy Butterfly, Hidden Lake Forest Preserve, Glen Ellyn
Nikon D5100, Tamron 18-270, ISO 250, f/6.3, 270mm, 1/800s
As the sun sets over the windy city, an eastbound Metra communter train quickly accelerates out of Fairview Avenue Station in Downers Grove. A Metra F40PH still wearing the retro blue and red livery provides the trains power as it hurries east down the BNSF Chicago Subdivision.
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BNSF Chicago Subdivision
Downers Grove, Illinois, USA
May 26, 2025
Canon EOS 60D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
This portrait of a Western Scrub Jay that uses it's bill to point the way it wants you to put the peanuts by looking down toward the ground.
The red bokeh is caused by a Bottlebrush flower.
A southbound CN SD50F passes Deval Tower back in 2007. The old zebra-stripped cowl was about to pound UP's Harvard Sub on a dreary day in wire-infested Des Plaines.
The SD50F fleet is long gone from CN and of course Deval Tower was torn down a few years later.