Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Strip pit sunset

Please enlarge these for better viewing!
I have a ga-zillion sunset pictures from the strip pit area but I think these are my favorites. And they are exactly how it looked. Usually my pictures are not quite the way it looked...but they usually are different in a way that is almost better than the how it really was. Can you make sense out of that last sentence?
Anyway, these are not altered in any way....except to add my copyright/name. They are exactly as they came out of the camera.

New sighting....

These pictures leave a lot to be desired...again. Yet I was so glad to get even these. The top photo is not enhanced. It was actually as dark as the picture seems....very hard to distinguish the features.
It is a barred owl that Roger spotted on my side of the road on the way home from the strip pit area. I used fill flash to lighten the photos till we can see the the features a little bit better.
I checked the pictures on the desktop computer and they were so dark I couldn't distinguish anything so I am trying to lighten them more. Hope it helps.

We didn't see much on our run through tonight...we heard a few pheasant but not near as many as normal. We did not see a single one. No Northern Harriers. No Short-eared owls. The owl above was after we left what we call the strip pit are.

We did see a beautiful sunset....I will post a couple pictures of that in a day or two.
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I have to tell about babysitting Lorelei yesterday. She was asleep when we got there...didn't wake up till a while after Sarah and Jeremy left. She was her usual cheerful self for a short while. Then she started getting fussy. Before I could get her bottle warm, she was crying so hard. And did not want anything to do with that bottle...I tell you, she just broke our heart. You could tell she wanted her mommy.

I finally got her settled down and thought maybe she would then take the bottle. Wrong! She set in with the crying again. Big old tears. I get teary eyed just thinking about her little face.

Well, we had noticed that Sarah had had one of her own shirts spread out under Lorelei in the crib, so Roger got it and says 'let's try something.' He brought it over to drape over my shoulder like a burp cloth and she stopped almost the minute she seen it. She snuggled in and took most of her bottle.

She needed a diaper change...I took Sarah's shirt off my shoulder. And when we got done I took her in the living room and was going to see if she wanted the rest of the bottle. She started crying again. Roger went and got Sarah's shirt, and again she quieted down and took the rest of the bottle.

About the time she was starting to entertain us, her mommy and daddy got home. So that was the end of that little adventure.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Introducing the Bobolink

Please click to enlarge these and get a better view!
The other day when we took the detour through the strip pit area, we saw this new bird. I had no idea what it was.
I don't remember how I found out what it was, I just know it was easier than normal for us to figure out.
It was so dark and dreary, and no time that day to even try to capture one, but last night we decided a quick drive through out there was in order. Let me tell you, there was not much happening. We did see pheasant, and heard lots more, and the usual red0-winged blackbirds were abundant. I really would hate to have to try to count them. It would be an impossible task.

I thought at first we were not going to see any sign of the bobolink, but came across 5 or 6 of them in some cattails. I got out of the Rav4 and was slowly walking up closer to them as they sang their little hearts out. It was such a joyous singing...you would just have to hear them to fully appreciate it. You can go here and scroll down about half way and there is a sound clip of their song.

Anyway, I am not overly impressed with these, yet happy to have at least caught these. They are images that have been cropped. I would have gotten closer if a truck had not came from the other direction and scared them away. As it passed they flew away...I seen one other one one more time, but no more.

We did see one other un-recognized bird last night...it was long-skinny necked out in the grassy area. The neck wasn't as long as a crane though. It was too far to see good, and the one flew...and I seen another poke its head up one time, but we watched and watched and did not see it again.