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...rather interesting. See this lovely road in the Partry Mountains, in Co. Mayo, Ireland? It leads to a valley...where I could neither get my car up the hill on the other side, or, having turned around, returned the way I came. At present my car is still down in that valley... I walked back up and over the hill to meet a friend I'd called for a rescue. You know how some of us are called "advanced amateurs?" I am what you should call a "retarded amateur" for going out today.
rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me ;-)
John Cleese
HPPT! Science Matters! Resist!!
japanese camellia, sarah p duke gardens, duke university, durham, north carolina
Rather than adopt its usual stance around the lake margin, this Indian pond heron (ardeola grayii) decided to perch atop a hedge and look out at the lake from that vantage point. Photographed in Phetchaburi, Thailand.
“I'd far rather be happy than right any day."
"And are you?"
"No. That's where it all falls down, of course."
"Pity", said Arthur. "It sounded like rather a good lifestyle otherwise.” (Douglas Adams)
rather than intellectual and ideological. :-)
Roy DeCarava
Happy Caturday!!
our rescue cat, Emma, rapidly approaching her 7th birthday, cary, north carolina
This rather small Admiral butterfly stay around for most of the afternoon, going from Dandelion to Dandelion getting much needed food. A great site to see and the first butterfly I've seen this year. I think we may have turned a corner here
A rather rare sighting here in my area of West Virginia. We usually only see them in Fall and Spring on migration. Even more rare is finding one in the neighborhood, which is where I shot this fellow. I was driving up my street slowly along the river (the first two blocks of my street run along the West Fork River) when I noticed him across it, slowly wading and hunting. I sat and strained my eyes a moment to make sure it wasn’t a Great Blue Heron, that I was seeing it correctly. (Probably should get glasses.) I drove home, unloaded the Outback of groceries, put my Nikon and 200-500 mm lens on, drove back down . . . and he was gone. I drove up and down my street a couple of times and finally spotted him, close to where he was when I first saw him, across the river behind a daycare facility. He had just turned around and was heading back up. I parked in front of the daycare, walked behind, let the shutter go at it. This is the best of the bunch, and I have a few more to post down the road.
I took a couple photos of a bird yesterday I just cannot ID. I’ll post them maybe later tonight. I don’t want them to get in the way of my regular posts.
This one is a must-see in Lightbox, mostly because of the way I cropped it (I usually crop to size). Thanks for Viewing.
Your choice of colors, rather pastel, encourages fantasy to dream ... I find your style very beautiful ... There is sweetness, tenderness, love ... You have a real gift for to feel all this at once.
Or rather what its left of the once imposing gate to the north of the ancient Roman city of Cologne. The ruins are almost 2000 years old and in the immediate vicinity of the entrance to Cologne Cathedral. Fuji X-Pro1.
But rather difficult to keep up with keeping the rooms tidy and clean. And not to speak of costs for heating...
This weekend has been rather chilly and windy, with that wind making it feel almost cold at times! This "cold snap" in our weather has made for some great bird watching - good for us, perhaps not so much for the birds.
My biggest surprise came this morning. I glanced out the kitchen window and saw a hummingbird at the feeder! We normally don't see hummers at the feeders until June, but a few weeks ago I was told the hummingbirds were back, so I put out some fresh nectar, thinking no way were they going to show up this early.
Knowing the nectar was now old, as soon as the hummer left I put out fresh nectar, and a female showed up within the hour. So, I grabbed my camera and waited patiently, hoping one would show back up again... and it finally did!
*** Checking my archives, this is the earliest we've ever seen a hummingbird at the feeder! I'm sure the chilly weather had something to do with it. And, even better, today is Easter, so this is officially my Easter Hummer!
A rather pretty woolly white moth. My best guess is Family Lymantriidae, but could not find an exact match.
According to my records, she turned up in October 2014 either in the house or garden.
Canberra
Australia.
The rather peculiar skyline of the former island of Urk, The Netherlands.
The windmills are 2.5 kilometres away from the lighthouse. Their tip height is close to 200 meters. Focal compression to the max.
Small finch, rather warm brown and streaky overall with a small yellowish bill and deep red forehead patch (or "poll") and small black chin; male has bright pinkish-red blush to throat and breast. Compare with very similar Common Redpoll (identifying redpolls outside their breeding range is not always possible). Inhabits mixed and coniferous woodland and forest, especially in areas with birch trees; also found in parks and gardens, and visits seed feeders. Often in flocks, mainly in autumn–winter; feeds especially on birch catkins, also on seeds on the ground. A European species, introduced to New Zealand. (eBird)
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The only introduced bird that was a lifer for me! We'd heard redpolls calling several times but could never lay eyes on them. Eventually, we caught sight of this one being somewhat cooperative. Look carefully and you can see just a streak of red on the top of the head.
Update: Sigh! After finding a lifer, the taxonomy changed and the Lesser Redpoll was lumped with Common Redpoll and I lost my lifer. Oh well, I gained a few other species due to splits so not all bad ;-)
Lake McGregor, Canterbury, New Zealand. March 2024.
Roadrunner Birding Tours.
A rather nice support heavy transport aircraft in the form of a French Air Force Airbus A400m Atlas seen here on finals to land on the 05 end of the main at RAF Lossiemouth bringing support for Ex Formidable Shield 2023.
A view of Cadgwith in Cornwall where a lot of the old cottages are thatched rather than slated as, when the cottages were built, it was far easier to source straw as a roof covering rather than haul slate in from Delabole.
This is clearly a case of a shot which might have benefitted from focus stacking, or maybe just focussing on the nearmost cottage rather than the foliage, but I was set up on the narrow path which you can see running away from me, the path which serves the village from the car park, and people (curse them) were continually passing which meant I had to move my tripod repeatedly so I fired off a couple when I could and moved on.
……Rather liked these two pair of trees that have clearly been growing together for a long time. Hope you all had a good Boxing day and are staying Covid safe, Alan;-)……
For the interested I’m growing my Shutterstock catalogue regularly here, now sold 59 images :- www.shutterstock.com/g/Alan+Foster?rid=223484589&utm_...
©Alan Foster.
©Alan Foster. All rights reserved. Do not use without permission.……
This was rather funny to watch, I spotted the Beaver swimming in the general direction of the Goose. The Beaver kept swimming forward, I thought hmmm.... it looks like its heading directly toward the Goose. At that point the Goose had my same thought, like he couldn't believe the nerve of this large rodent. At the very last second the Beaver must have snapped out of his swimming trance only focused on getting his next alder twig to munch on, dived down and startled the Goose as he swam under it! lol!!
A rather pleasant winters morning, finds Canadian Pacific's local G64, rolling eastbound through Ixonia with the former Milwaukee Road 2066 leading the way down Hiawatha's trail. The local is heading for Oconomowoc where they will spot and pull Bimbo Bakery (Brownberry Ovens). After servicing the one customer left in the area, they will continue east to Nashotah, where they will run around the train and proceed back west to Watertown.
CP Train G64
CP 4007,4406
Ixonia, WI.
Winter 2021
Looking rather motley in a way Motley Crew never where, pictured is a Superb Fairy Ren beside the lake, Shepparton Victoria Australia. Every spring the male birds change from a drab colour to a brilliant blue. The male bird pictured is just starting to change colour.
If you would like to know more about the breed of bird here is a link to his and her wiki page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superb_fairywren.
and if you are to young, or to old to know, here is a link to Motley Crew's wiki description. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6tley_Cr%C3%BCe
From a small, frozen flower in Saxony, we travel in the blink of an eye to the immeasurable expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Or rather, to a small part of it, the Gulf of Thailand.
Here, on a balmy morning, we watch two fishermen laboriously maneuvering their small boat across the mudflats to bring it closer to open water.
A brief chat with the two of them just a few minutes ago showed me that, despite the strenuous work and the early hour, they are in a good mood.
We, however, are indulging in the luxury of watching the magnificent sunrise and this spectacle from a distance, with our feet in the warm, soft sand and a salty breezy in our face.
Von einer kleinen eingefrorenen Blüte in Sachsen geht es in Windeseile zu den unermesslichen Weiten des Pazifischen Ozeans. Oder besser gesagt zu einem kleinen Teil davon, dem Golf von Thailand.
Hier beobachten wir an einem lauen Morgen zwei Fischer, wie sie mühsam ihr kleines Boot über das Watt bugsieren, um es in die Nähe des offenen Wassers zu bringen.
Ein kurzer Plausch mit den beiden vor wenigen Minuten, hat mir gezeigt, dass sie trotz der anstrengenden Arbeit und der frühen Morgenstunde mit guter Laune unterwegs sind.
Wir jedoch gönnen uns den Luxus, mit den Füßen im warmen und weichen Sand und einer salzigen Brise im Gesicht, den herrlichen Sonnenaufgang und dieses Schauspiel nun aus der Entfernung zu betrachten.
After the day started a bit cold (okay, rather frosty), he put in a lot of effort the rest of the day to make me feel comfortable here in Hamburg.
Twelve hours and what feels like a 20 km walk (and at least 50 photos) later, I'm back at the Landungsbrücken and thus ending my tour.
I am going back tomorrow. I give myself the sunrise. I have enough good pictures with me to allow myself to sleep in tomorrow morning.
Nachdem der Tag etwas unterkühlt (ok eher frostig) gestartet ist, hat er sich den Rest des Tages doch ziemlich Mühe gegeben, damit ich mich hier in Hamburg wohl fühle.
Zwölf Stunden und gefühlt 20 km Fußmarsch (und mindestens 50 Fotos) später stehe ich nun wieder an den Landungsbrücken und beende damit meine Tour.
Morgen gehts wieder zurück. Den Sonnenaufgang schenke ich mir. Ich hab ausreichend gute Bilder dabei um morgen früh ausschlafen zu dürfen.
more of this on my website at: www.shoot-to-catch.de
On a rather unremarkable sunset, with an unusually high temperature for this time of year, 66°F or 19°C at 6:20 pm (today´s highest was around 75ºF or 24ºC in the capital), this is the view of the Five Towers from the northern part of Madrid.
A gradual decrease in temperatures is expected over the next few days, reaching more typical values for the second half of autumn.
How's your autumn going? How's your spring going?
I wish all those who have the opportunity to enjoy this magical spectacle a happy aurora borealis viewing.
Press "L" to enlarge the image if you wish.
_______________________________
Las Cinco Torres en el anochecer del miércoles, Madrid, España
En un atardecer no demasiado vistoso, con una temperatura anormalmente elevada para la fecha, de 19ºC a las 6:20 pm (la máxima hoy en la capital fue del alrededor de 24ºC), en uno de los primeros atardeceres antes de las 6:00 pm, esta es la vista de las Cinco Torres desde la zona norte de Madrid.
Los próximos días se espera un descenso paulatino de las temperaturas hasta llegar a valores más normales para la segunda mitad del Otoño.
¿Cómo va vuestro Otoño? ¿Cómo va vuestra Primavera?
Os deseo un feliz avistamiento de auroras boreales a todos aquellos que tengáis la oportunidad de disfrutar de tan mágico espectáculo.
Pulsa "L" para ampliar la imagen si deseas.
The geese and ducks are gathering to spend the night at the mouth of the harbour entrance. These must be the silly one that decided to spent the winter here rather than fly yo warmer climates.
Jeeeweee is a professional landscape photographer and make photos from The Highlands, mudflats, first and last hour scenery where the sun is striking the ground ...
Alle foto's zijn exclusief eigendom van Jan Wedema / Jeeeweee en zijn hierdoor automatisch auteursrechtelijk beschermd.
Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission.
Contact me by mail if you want to buy or use my photographs
Pads has rather a big dog park to roam .. if he's very lucky on his travels he might see another four legged friend in the far distance! Quieter than usual on the fells because of corovid , think we saw 4 people plus a Labrador in total. Nice tour across Grey Knotts, Brandreth and now moving onto Green Gable, Great Gable the big one at the back, traversing it's skyline then away to the right up Kirk Fell returning along Moses Trod .. Elk, bless, was a bit tired after this, Paddy on the other hand was a keen as mustard for his evening walkies too .. I think the more they get, the more they expect … and that could go on and on!
"For me, I'd rather be the inventive one,
and if something doesn't work,
I'll go back to the workshop,
put it on the bench,
and pound on it for awhile.
~ Janet Fitch ~
Below is a close-up of the still life created after a brief walk on the beach, collecting a few stones, some driftwood
and a lone pine cone!
Boldly patterned, rather chunky sparrow of humid evergreen forest and edge in tropical lowlands. Usually on or near the ground in shady understory and thickets; often in pairs. Bright orange bill virtually glows in the dark; also note the bold black-and-white head pattern and black chest setting off the white throat. No similar species in its lowland range.
Tico Rainforest B&B Horquetas de Sarapiqui, Costa REica
This is a rather rare occurrence on the busy ECMT! Everything is normally hauled by a single DL, so any double headers, let alone triple headers are extremely uncommon.
This is another attempt at a pan shot. I think it is not too bad, the front of the train is quite sharp, but not perfect. The clouds also looked rather cool, but they lose their form a bit with the blur.
I only realized after my shots had been taken that the pan blur would have made the train numbers unreadable. So I missed them completely :( At least you can see the front one...
I rather like this one, we were so luck to have some fantastic light River Gwash Ospreys, with the season coming to an end we need to make the most of these amazing birds
This rather fierce creature was acting as a sort of spiritual guardian , at a pavilion in the Forbidden City , Beijing. With such sharp fangs & claws ,I`m sure he must have scared away any evil spirits .
Click on image to enlarge.
Rather lucky to see a murmuration of starlings on Tuesday evening. I expect there were several thousand birds who started forming into smaller groups soon to become one big group circling around the Bromfield area just after the sun dipped behind the distant hills of South Shropshire. The whole display must have lasted almost half an hour.
The display didn't quite tie in with the Premier service passing me, so this is a merge of two images taken 36 seconds apart.
67017 working 1W63 1653 Cardiff Central to Manchester Piccadilly past Bromfield, Tuesday 18.3.25
Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both
parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard
Humanity i love you because
when you’re hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you’re flush pride keeps
you from the pawn shop and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house
Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it’s there and sitting down
on it
and because you are
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity
i hate you
(E.E.Cummings)
murale by S. Ligama