Super Sunday, Volume Seven

And the birds just keep coming. Here's a wood stork. These have to be one of the ugliest birds out there. I've seen buzzards I thought were more attractive than these fellows.

Super Sunday, Volume Six

I'm guessing some little kid had a little help from his dad on this one...

Super Sunday, Volume Five

There's just something about birds that fascinates me. Here's an ibis. No, I didn't go to Egypt, this ibis comes from Ft. Desoto, south of St. Pete. Same place as the pelican just below.

Super Sunday, Volume Four

Notice how this pelican has a dark head? That means it's a juvenile. As he gets older, it'll turn white. I'm getting much better at taking pictures of birds on the wing, don't you think? It's taken long enough.

Super Sunday, Volume Three

It may not be a hawk on the wing like I got up in Ohio, but I think the composition on this one is pretty impressive. Yep, that's the moon you see behind this red-shouldered hawk. He was sitting in a dead tree up at Ft. Desoto near St. Pete today. You'll see this same tree again later tonight, if I don't get bored with posting early.

Super Sunday, Volume Two

It's February, but it's Florida, so the trees are starting to bloom. Hard to believe, but true.

I've been looking at these trees for years, and I think today is the first time I've noticed the yellow centers on these blossoms. The flowers always look beatup for some reason, not sure why. I'm also not sure of the name. I know I used to know it, but I seem to be drawing a blank right now. I spot this at the credit union this morning. Gotta love flowers at the bank. Later in the year they get yellow flowers, too.

Super Sunday, Volume One

"Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry"-The Beatles.

(I've been waiting forever to use that quote. I had to find just the right picture.) This was the view along the northern approach of the Sunshine Skyway this morning. I love my polarizing filter.

Cat Without Hat

Here, you haven't seen a new picture of the cat in a while. She still looks the same, though.

Beauty At The Beach

Here's another gem from last weekend. I'm trying to remember what these are called. They grow near the coast sometimes because they like dry conditions, which is what you get there. All that water, but few plants can use it. These plants have leaves that are fleshy to hold excess moisture, and they are encircled by little plantlets that fall off and create new plants. They can be quite invasive in certain areas. Kalanchoe, that's the name I'm looking for. Lots of different forms out there, but I think these are the most attractive.

That Old House

More than one of you requested a picture of the house I mentioned yesterday, so here you go. This picture is probably 4 or 5 years old, but it pretty much looks the same still. You can see the fish over there on the left. The dock appears curved due to the odd perspective I used to fit it into the frame. Well, it's actually a stitched-together panorama of 5 or 6 pictures, not a single picture using a fisheye lens. I thought for a long time that this house had a name, Land's End, but I later found out that was the name of the old subdivison it's in. You can see the sign way over on the right by the house above, or in the detail below, which I shot last weekend. This is the very northernmost tip of Longboat Key, FL, which is the only part of the island not covered in high-rise condos or golf courses. They have wild peacocks roaming around there, too, but that's a photo for another day.

A Few Days In February

Here's the other calendar page for today, this time for just the week. And didn't we just see this fish a couple of days ago? I think so... I need to start visiting more places. Anyhow, this is Longboat Pass, shot from the north end of Longboat Key, FL. The hammock you see to the right is at the end of a long dock that belongs to a small beach cottage that is probably my favorite house on the whole island. If it ever comes on the market, I may have to sell one of my kidneys to try and buy it. I'll have to post a picture of it someday. It's not big, or beautiful, and it certainly wouldn't be the place you'd want to go in the event of a hurricane (at most, it's 3 feet above sea level), but the view can't be beat. I suspect the fish belongs to the owners of the house and the dock, but I'm not sure.

February

First day of the month, so you get two calendar pages today. This first one is for the whole month. You're looking at the Everett Road covered bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. I shot this last August, and I revisited the bridge during my visit last month. The exact spot where I shot this photo was under a foot or more of water on the most recent visit. For the sticklers out there, this is not the original bridge. I believe the original was destroyed by a flood sometime in the 70s, and the one you see here was built about a decade later. It's closed to vehicular traffic, but you often see horses & their riders trekking across it. (Well, often is a relative thing. I've been there twice and seen it happen once. Is 50% of the time considered often?)

Once again, I seem to be repeating myself in this blog...

A Little Bit More January

Whoops! I've waited until Tuesday again to post my weekly picture. And there's two more for tomorrow, since it's the first day of the new month. You guys and gals need to do a better job of reminding me about these things.

Anyhoo, what we have here is sunset over Lake Erie. The small lighthouse on the left marks the entrance to the Cuyahoga River. This was shot during my trip to Ohio last year, not the trip a couple of weeks ago. I think I remarked a few days ago that I lived in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. Well, that's still true, but I also believe that every spot has some beauty in it. Even wherever you're at.

Spider Guy (Not)

First off, I'm scared silly of spiders. So I don't know why I'm throwing this picture up of a crab spider. He's very small, probably less than half an inch across, and now that I look at him up close, he looks more like a tick that a spider. These guys make their webs across trails quite often, so I walk right into them a lot, and I always worry about where exactly that spider ended up. Is it just me or does that look like some sort of creepy smiley face on his back?

Fishy Fishy

I've always been fascinated by this fish. I don't know why. It's just so incongruous. There he sits, up on a pole, out in the water. No advertising, no message about Jesus, no nothing. Just a fish for the sake of fishness, I suppose. Somehow, that's refreshing.

Jonathan Livingston

Seagulls are usually dirty, nasty pests. But they are really pretty when they're in the air.

Fun With Flipper

I see dolphins fairly often while I am out and about, but I almost never get pictures of them. Today I got lucky, and this marine mammal swam across my viewfinder. He was swimming slowly and not diving very deep. so I was able to squeeze off a few shots. He swam under a bridge as I was watching him, so I ran to the other side, but he didn't come up on the far side. I continued walking along the bridge, when suddenly I start hearing voices. It turned out to be the drawbridge tender on his loudspeaker, telling me that there were dolphins on his side of the bridge! It was a little spooky... I didn't get anymore pictures of them, though.

More White Stuff

There's nothing like a week in cold, frozen Ohio to make you appreciate the beauty of your own backyard. It's the end of January, but the winter weather is far away from Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island here in Florida. And this white stuff is sugar sand, not snow. I think I must live in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet!

Doe, A Deer (A Female Deer)

On the very last day of my recent adventures in Ohio, while in the van on the way to the airport, I finally spotted a deer. I saw three, actually, way off the road behind a thick stand of trees. Not the best situation for a picture, as you can see. It didn't help matters any that there was a well lit clearing behind the animals, making it that much harder to get a shot. But this is what I got. The other ladies were sitting on the ground, and I couldn't get them in the shot. At least I didn't strike out completely this trip.

The Next Week In January

This week's picture is a group of white pelicans on Lake Morton in Lakeland, FL. These guys migrate down to the area in the winter, so I don't see them around too much. And they seem to prefer freshwater to saltwater, but I have occasionally seen them in the Gulf of Mexico.