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I don't have a name for it. It's been a while in the making. I was trying to make it look like vines climbing up the tree in the foreground but I don't think I did very well at that. Anyway . . . it is what it is
Given my latest run in with a wave, I took panda down to the beach as my wave spotter. He didn't do a very good job as a large wave came and washed him away.
At least it wasn't me!
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 in 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 😊
Another upload of the first log trial run from Aberystwyth earlier this year and following on from the approach shot previously uploaded.
97304 "John Tiley" and 97303 "Dave Berry" are on the sharp end with 6C55, the 19:56 Aberystwyth Run Round Loop to Chirk Kronospan, skirting the River Dovey and nearing Dovey Junction in low light, Friday 29/4/22.
There was a trial running logs from Aberystwyth back in 2005, but strangely, it was top and tailed by MPV's, lets hope this latest trial develops into a regular working, at least the traction is better this time around!
1Z10 - Cat 3
Latest snowfall forced me to seek warmth in my photos from my India trip towards end of 2017. Though trip like this is always more a social visit, in the last two trips I made sure that I left some time to look for old world birds. This photo was taken while riding a dinghy around an Oxbow lake formed by river Ganges. Winter is definitely the best time to see many variety of migratory bird around the lake. Purbasthali, West Bengal, India
Meg is the latest addition to the house, a 1710 piece Lego construction that Joseph gave to me as a present and helped to put together last night.
She's seen here being checked out by Yan who got a Dreamies treat as his reward.
The latest variety of daffodils to bloom in my garden. For the first time I can remember, my earliest daffodils are still looking great. In past years, shortly after they would bloom, we would get very hot Santa Ana winds that would just decimate the flowers. This year, some of us are complaining that it's cold, but not the daffodils.
It's that time of the year again. Hiawatha #336 arrives Chicago behind the class Amtrak B32-8WH which is subbing for a Charger that shit out a few days prior. The searchlight installations at the east end of Morgan Street were installed in the early 1980s.
Real estate development has exploded in the West Loop over the past decade. The Fulton Labs on the right were completed last year, and 345 N. Morgan on the left was completed a few months ago (still under construction when this picture was taken). The latter was built by Sterling Bay which is also overseeing the redevelopment of the former ADM flour mill. What you see here is only a fraction of what's to come to the West Loop in the next few years.
this cute guy will hang out on the screened in porch for the season - looks nice from the front yard
Colourful scooters - Alicante, Spain
As many of you may already know:
Mods and rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early/mid 1960s to early 1970s. Media coverage of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youth, and the two groups became widely perceived as violent, unruly troublemakers.
The rocker subculture was centred on motorcycling, and their appearance reflected that. Rockers generally wore protective clothing such as black leather jackets and motorcycle boots.
The mod subculture was centred on fashion and music, and many mods rode scooters. Mods wore suits and other cleancut outfits, and preferred 1960s music genres such as soul, rhythm and blues, ska, beat music, and British blues-rooted bands like The Who, The Yardbirds, and Small Faces.
[Wikipedia]
Starting the year in random mode starting with my favorite wildlife subject. As you might guess, I'll be doing another moose safari this year. Not often do I get a photo op of a moose in water. This is the latest one, taken over two years ago. I'm due in '25.
It's a hard job but someone has got to do it ofcorse with the latest state of the art space age automation hover tractor technology from Khandobotics PVT.
Hey guys, we re proud to announce our latest release for Mens Dept.
"The Puff Parka" Its availabe right now at our Mainstore
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The Puff Parka comes with 24 Colors and 6 Costumizable faces.
7 Handmade Exclusive's for FATPACK.
Fitted for LEGACY (M) only.
Materials Enabled and Copy Perms
we really hope u guys like it!
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:::: Click here for a portfolio slideshow....have a coffee... and relax!
:::: Monday afternoon grazing......a moment of beauty and tranquillity at the pasture!, St-Norbert, Québec, Canada
Copyright © 2009 Gaëtan Bourque. All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal.
© Zoë Murdoch. All Rights Reserved. Use without permission is illegal!
Latest face, so effortless
Your great arrival at my eyes,
No one standing near could guess
Your beauty had no home till then;
Precious vagrant, recognise
My look, and do not turn again.
Admirer and admired embrace
on a useless level, where
I contain your current grace,
You my judgement; yet to move
Into real untidy air
Brings no lasting tribute -
Bargains, suffering, and love,
Not this always-planned salute.
Lies grow dark around us: will
The statue of your beauty walk?
Must I wade behind it, till
Something's found - or is not found -
Far too late for turning back?
Or, if I will not shift my ground,
Is your power actual - can
Denial of you duck and run,
Stay out of sight and double round,
Leap from the sun with mask and brand
And murder and not understand?
~ Philip Larkin.
💥 OLYMPIAN x GIVEAWAY ⚡️
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SLURL: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/DreamDay%20Event/129/221/2002
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SCT intermodal 3MB9 works around Goondah curve with CSR016 and CF4430 hauling dead attached C’s 502/503/508.
SCT transferred the C class from Western Australia after a period on hire with Watco, they would be detached at Goulburn before being forward to SSR’s Cootamundra depot.
Southern Shorthaul Railroad has added the former Railfirst C’s to their ever growing locomotive fleet.
🌟✨ Over the weekend, we immersed ourselves in the luxurious escape of Empire Omerta! 🏰✨ In my latest review, I explore newly unveiled Maverick Suite and Entertainment Area.
The Maverick Suite, at 1450L per night, boasts two bedrooms, a living area, and bathroom 💖 Full marks for offering inclusive (FF and MM as well as MF) anims, an area some resorts still fall short in.
The Entertainment Area, adopting a Freemium Model, offers exclusive group-gated spaces like Sushi and Tease, Members Spa, The Pregnant Mermaid cabaret, Movie Room, and The Wager Room for intimate performances. 🎭🍣
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