Zooming - August 2015

I did lots of hiking with campers in August…and managed some local photography jaunts (like the Butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens). As I was creating the collages for this month, I started experimenting with a better way to upload them…so click on any collage below to see a larger version of it! Some highlights of the zoomed images this month are:

• Feather in the grass
• Butterflies and moths
• A toad
• Milkweed pods infested with ?
• Crabapples on the ground before they could mature
• Water droplets on a leaf after a rain storm
• Lichen and moss
• Empty wasp nest
• Golden rod
• Water lily
• Magnolia seed pod

 Enjoy!

 

Zooming - June 2015

The ‘zooming’ post is a little earlier than usual this month…but it was such a good month for outdoor subjects that I didn’t want to wait. Can you find:

• A wild flower?
• A garden flower?
• Dogwood?
• A wood frog?
• Rattlesnake fern?
• Garlic scapes?
• Milkweed?
• A feather?
• A goldfinch?
• Birds nest fungus?

A Story Derived from Feathers

As I neared the boat ramp near Centennial Lake I noticed a relatively large feather on the sidewalk.

I noticed other feathers caught in the grooves of the ramp

And in the grass.

Then I noticed there were a lot more feathers near the parking area.

The breeze was already separating them so I must have just barely missed the action.

What do you think happened?

The feathers are all dark and quite large. There were enough of them on the ground that it was obvious that they belonged to a bird that did not survive. The bird that attacked must have been large as well….and carried the prey away from the area.