Piperbarb's 2013 Project 365

[piperbarb]

7-2-13:

After all the rain we have been having, I took a look at the creek right nearby that floods often, no matter how much the town tries to widen the creek bed. Here are a couple of images after yesterday's 2+ inches of rain in the afternoon and early evening.

After the Rain


Creekside

 

[Whiskeyman]

Actually, I have seen videos of this guy before. If you notice, when he turns around, he has a rectangular pouch in the back. He also has tubes going up the outside of each drone. When he gives the bag a quick squeeze a certain way, he opens up the gas jets. I would never do that with my pipes, but it is very, very cool.

​Thanks for posting it.

Barb, My younger daughter and son, 16 and 13 years old, play the bagpipes and belong to the local pipe and drum group. They are having a great time. My son has been able to be much more involved with the group and is more advanced in his playing. The both have their own pipes now; Dunbars and McCallums. Anyway, my son is learning to play Thunderstruck, as well. He is inspired by these pipers: Red Hot Chilli Pipers Smoke On The Water and Thunderstruck - YouTube

Cheers.
WM

 

[piperbarb]

7-3-13:

We have a young buck wandering the neighborhood looking for a harem of does to collect. This morning, I saw him munching on a neighbor's rhododendron. Late this afternoon, I saw him chowing down on another neighbor's plantings. I was driving home from the grocery store and saw him, got out of the car, and took this series of photos. If anyone has seen the episode of Nova on PBS, "The Private Life of Deer," this is just one of those examples they talked about.

Afternoon Snacking


Oops... Caught


Time to Go


Now, If I Can Only Sneak Off


Going...


...Going...


...About Gone

 

[piperbarb]

7-4-13:

Desperate days call for desperate photos. Here's my contribution for today. Yes, an icky, nasty wasp. I took this while I was out with the dog this afternoon. It was just a little too hot and humid to do much of anything else.

Wasp



​Yes, I know, such an original title.

 

[piperbarb]

7-5-13:

With all the rain we have had lately, fungus is having a field day! Actually the fungus below has been growing on this tree for quite a while.

Shelf Life

 

[grandpaw]

7-5-13:

With all the rain we have had lately, fungus is having a field day! Actually the fungus below has been growing on this tree for quite a while.

Shelf Life
View attachment 42894

At first glance, that looks like a fancy jewelry box.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I like my fungus on a pizza

 

[piperbarb]

I like my fungus on a pizza

I don't think this particular species of fungus would be very tasty.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I don't think this particular species of fungus would be very tasty.

I like baby bellas.

 

[piperbarb]

I like baby bellas.

Now that's good fungus!

 

[piperbarb]

7-6-13:

Went for a walk today and came across a variety of subjects.

This butterfly is a called Aphrodite Fritillary (Speyeria aphrodite). These guys are usually found in the Adirondacks, but have also been found in other areas of New York State. I guess we are one of those areas. The only photo that came out in focus was this one. This guy kept opening and closing his/her wings rather quickly so I had a hard time getting a good photo. I was not able to get a sharp photo of it with its wings open. I'll take this one, though.

In For a Landing



We have catbirds all around us. This guy was singing away (if you can call catbird calls singing). It took me a few minutes to find exactly where it was. They do blend in very well.

Catbird Seat



The deer have eaten most of my day lily buds before they have had a chance to flower. This day lily was on the sloping bank of a pond. Why should the deer bother with this one when they can get the ones in my garden without any effort? I didn't realize how bug-covered this lily was until I was looking at the images I took. Lots, and lots of icky bugs....

Pretty But Buggy



I just liked the way the sun was coming through the leaves and the contrast of the red leaves against the blue sky.

Against the Sky

 

[piperbarb]

7-7-13:

Today is a flora day. I think it was too hot for most critters to be out, including insects. Plants, fungus, and lichen do not have that luxury, so to speak.

I really feel that cattails are completely under represented, and way under appreciated. I thought this was interesting because it shows both last year's leftovers and the current year's crop in progress.

Generations



I just love the way the sunlight hit the petals of this purple cornflower and made some of them almost translucent.

Sun-Kissed



Being the good science teacher that I am, one cannot look at flora and not consider all those happy decomposers, mushrooms and lichen.

What intrigued me about this particular one was all the detritus littering the top of this mushroom. Also, this image is almost monochromatic with so many shades of brown in it.

Detritus on Decomposer


More of the fungus among us. Yes, I realize lichen live symbiotically with algae but the main part is still a fungus. Shelf lichen is just amazing, as lichens go.

Stair Steps



Yup, more of the same type of lichen. If you look closely at this image, just above the upper left part of the lichen itself, you should see a daddy long legs crawling on the tree bark. I didn't realize it was there until I uploaded today's photos to my computer. That little critter blends in so well with the tree bark.

Shelf Life

 

[piperbarb]

7-8-13:

While it was raining outside this afternoon, I thought I would get some photos of a succulent that was given to me as a gift earlier this year and send the gift giver a photo of it, proving that I had not killed the plant. As soon as I started taking some photos, the nosy ones had to come around, thus the opportunistic feline photos.

Alex (the tiger striped cat) and Creature (the "other"one ) were doing a thorough inspection of this poor plant.

The Inspectors



Creature has a very short attention span sometimes. She heard something on the television (out of the photo) that piqued her interest momentarily...

Ooooo... What's That?



After the rain stopped, I decided to take a short walk around. Lately, we have been getting a lot of catbirds in our yard. Here's one of them.

Rail Bird

 

[piperbarb]

7-9-13:

There was a short window between getting home from work and the sky opening up with the 40% chance of precipitation. The following flower photos were flowers in a hanging planter of red flowers I purchased a few weeks ago.

Geraniums


I have no idea what these flowers are, but they are in the same planter as the geraniums.

Red & Yellow Flowers



I saw these grass seeds along the side of the road and thought they were just interesting.

Threesome

 

[piperbarb]

7-10-13:

While driving home from work this afternoon, I saw this doe on the side of the road, just foraging around. I stopped the car and snapped a few before she walked off into the woods. She turned around and watched me for a moment before she went back to foraging the ferns.

Human Watching


Fern Forage


Uh Oh, I Think She Saw Me

 

[Roy1961]

cool shots barbara

 

[piperbarb]

cool shots barbara

Roy, thanks. For some reason, we definitely have more deer eating along the roadsides this year more than in previous years.

On my sojourns to work and back, I almost always have my D3000 with the 55-200mm lens on it. It's much lighter and smaller than my D7000, which makes it a good carry-along everywhere camera.
​

 

[piperbarb]

7-11-13:

I saw this guy just laying in the grass on a lazy afternoon. After I took this photo, he hopped off into the bushes.



A few minutes later, he was just sitting there on the lawn in the backyard. I took a slew of photos but loved this one because it just looks like he is eying me and wondering what I am going to do next.




After the rabbit hopped off, I was walking back to the house and this bluebird came flying out of our forsythia bush. I snapped this one and then it was gone. I do wish it had been sharper.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

Nice rabbit shot. Rabbit stew for supper?

 

[piperbarb]

Nice rabbit shot. Rabbit stew for supper?

Not quite.