Dear Santa

Dear Santa,
    I sure thank you for all the gifts. And after I thought it over I decided to thank you for all the snow. Please don't get mad at me because I decided to eat some of it. It looked like there was plenty to go around.
Good night.
Merry Christmas.
Kira

Grand Baby!

"If I had known a grandchild would be this much fun I would have had him first."

- Author Unknown

    Jacob has just gone home after an overnight visit. Wow! Being a grandparent is like being a parent all over again. Only different.

    When my daughter was born I read voraciously to prepare for her arrival. This time I thought I didn't need to. WRONG! Everything has changed. And the stuff that hasn't changed I have forgotten.

    Cloth diapers have changed. That's okay. I forgot how to change them anyway.

    The soaps we used to wash the baby in? Gone. 

    The soaps we used to wash the baby's clothes in? Replaced. 

    Babies make you late anytime you want to go anywhere. I forgot. 

    Babies constantly need something. They need to eat, they need to be changed, they need to be held, then they need to eat again, then changed......in an endless cycle. I forgot.

   Grandbabies are totally cool and can do no wrong. I never knew.

    

    

    

    

    

Life

Jacob

    

    So if this blog is based on the events preceding a photo where do I begin describing a photo of my first grandson?

    Do I begin with the birth of my only daughter in 1988 and the moment my heart was filled with a fierce love I previously had not known existed?

    Or do I skip ahead to the time she was a toddler and I told her I had eyes in the back of my head? She believed me.

    How about the time she asked if there was really a Santa Claus and cautioned me that she wanted the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So I told her and she cried, "Momma, why did you tell me?"

    Then there is the fond memory of buying her a Beagle puppy and putting it in the bed with her early on the morning of her birthday. She woke up to puppy kisses and we loved that dog for almost sixteen years.

    Close behind that comes the memory of the time I held her in my lap and told her that her pony had a broken leg and needed to be put to sleep. I don't know which one of us cried the hardest that day. She cried for the pony. I cried for the pony and for her broken heart.

    I could fast forward to the present and describe the wonderful grown up she has become. Isn't it funny how quickly the tables are turned? Recently she comforted  me as we put my horse to sleep. 

    On a lighter note, she is patient with me and acts as if she doesn't mind explaining to her old mom how to download podcasts or start a Facebook page. 

    Then there is today. She was  brave and determined throughout her fourteen hour labor. As soon as she saw her baby her love for him was apparent in her eyes. I said goodbye for the night and left her with no worries in my heart. She is going to be a fine mom.

    Now let's see what kind of grandmom I can be.

    

    

  

You Might be a Redneck if.............

My Girl

My Girl

    

    I recently heard a talk show host encourage his listeners to forgive Michael Vick for his crimes. Up until now I could count on one hand the number of times I have been moved to write a letter to a public servant, a newspaper, or a talk show host.  This is one of those times. As relaxing as it is to watch Kira sleeping after a hard day of playing I knew I could not sleep until I wrote the following.

Clark,

I am a veterinarian who read Jim Gorant's book "The Lost Dogs". I read it not because I wanted to, but because I felt it was my duty.

I would like to share some things from the book with you.

One dog that was hanged did not die. "As that dog lay on the ground fighting for air, Quantis Phillips grabbed it by its front legs and Michael Vick grabbed its hind legs. They swung the dog over their head like a jump rope then slammed it to the ground. The first impact didn't kill it. So Phillips and Vick slammed it again. The two men kept at it, alternating back and forth, pounding the creature against the ground, until at last, the little red dog was dead." (page 93)

On the day Michael Vick turned himself in at the county jail to begin serving his sentence he "….had woken up that morning and bought a $99,000 Mercedes and paid $23,000 to a PR firm…." (page 151)

Go home tonight. Pet your dog and look into her beautiful brown eyes and remember. That's what I do.

Thank you for allowing me to comment.

Dr. Liz Cotton

Fuquay Varina, NC

    

Eat Mor Chikin

    In my area there are numerous chicken farms and chicken processing plants. Occasionally while traveling from one location to the other a chicken escapes from the truck and drops to the road. This must be universally fatal for the chickens as I have never seen one walking along the roadside.

    This Turkey Vulture has discovered a dead chicken and is enjoying a meal. He was very persistent and would only leave his lunch if a vehicle got a little too close for comfort. While I was watching the passing vehicles were very considerate of him and gave him extra room.

    Turkey Vultures use their eyesight to find dead animals. They also use their sense of smell. When dead animals decay they produce a gas called mercaptan. Turkey Vultures have a very well developed area of their brain that is responsible for detecting this odor.

    In spite of their size and unpleasant appearance Turkey Vultures are not aggressive if approached. If you frighten one by approaching too closely he may spit up a little of his foul smelling meal in your direction. If you come close to a nesting vulture it may pretend to be dead.

    Groups of vultures circling in the air aren't always over a dead animal. This is especially true of the Turkey Vulture because they usually hunt alone. The circling group may be playing or they may be circling in order to gain higher altitude before a long trip (Disney World, perhaps?)  I thought it amusing that a group circling in the air is called a "kettle."

See Saw

    Two weeks ago I visited a collection of items from old country stores. These four saws were hanging high on the back wall. In the early half of this century two men would grab each end of the saw and cut a large tree. Notice how the teeth are a little different on each saw. 

    When I commented that it took a strong man to use those saws the owner of the collection told me that he and his brother had used one last year to cut a log in two, just to see if they could. It was then that I noticed that even though he was an older man his arms were quite muscular.

    In another area of the "store" I found an 1880 almanac. It had a checklist for modest women who might have trouble discussing feminine problems with their doctors. There was also an advertisement directed at men who might be suffering from decreased sexual energy. I would have loved to have spent more time reading each page but I was scared to handle something so fragile.

    Below is an almanac and a ledger book from 1935 in which we read that Mr. Hooks bought two cans of salmon for thirty cents and two gallons of gas for forty cents.

    In next week's blog I'll leave the past for a new take on fast food. 

Hi Ho Silver

    The drive to the barn where my daughter used to keep her horse was a long pleasant one through the country side. This building would often catch my eye as it obviously was not an actual store, but some sort of hobby or collection.

   Last week I put Crazy Kira (our puppy) in the car and drove over to ask permission to take photos. It turns out that we were more than welcome!

    The owner is a very nice retired farmer in his seventies who was happy to unlock his "store" and show me around. I told him that I imagined he had bought one sign and then just couldn't stop. He laughed and said, "That's just about right!"

    Inside were hundreds of items from country stores of the past. The owner has spent years going to auctions and especially loves it when an old country store closes and its merchandise goes on the auction block. 

    One thing that caught my eye was an old radio that appeared to be from the nineteen-forties. I commented, "I bet a family gathered around that every night to hear news of the war." He replied, "My parents had one just like that. Every night The Lone Ranger came on at 7:00 pm. My brother and I would rush to finish our chores so that we could get home in time to listen to it."

    Be sure to tune in next week to my blog for the exciting episode, "See-Saw."

Just Dew It

    Everybody with a camera eventually takes a picture of a spider web. So forgive me for being trite. But I like the way the dew at the upper left looks like a string of pearls. 
    Since I have made a reference to Mountain Dew in my title, "Just Dew It" I thought you might like the following web site. It tells how much of your favorite caffeinated drink it would take to kill you. For instance it would take 104 cups of my favorite, Starbucks Tall Caffe Mocha, to kill me. Click on the link and let me know how much of your favorite you would have to drink in order to experience "Death by Caffeine."


http://www.linkydinky.com/dewkiller.shtml

Do Dogs Laugh?

     The results of Kira's DNA testing are in. She is part Labrador Retriever and part Bloodhound. Also part Boston Terrier.
    The Lab heritage didn't surprise me. Nor did the Bloodhound DNA. The Boston Terrier did astonish me.
    "The Boston Terrier can trace its history back to 1865 in Boston, Massachusetts. Early in the breed's history, coachmen for the wealthy residents of Boston cross-bred many of their employers' dogs for pit fighting purposes." This is from the company who did the blood test, Mars Veterinary.
    So I'll bet that there is a lot of Boston Terrier DNA out there in the population and that many mixed breed dogs will have a Boston in their family.
    One neat thing about photography is that it allows us to freeze motion and see things that we can't see with the naked eye. This photo was taken at 1/2000 second and was one of a group of 6 photos that were all taken within a single second.
    All of this technology just to prove that Kira laughs when she runs.

NIMBY

  
    There is someone new in my back yard. A puppy named Kira.
    Before Kira came along I used to pour a glass of wine and wander around the yard looking at the same old trees and the same old bushes. Now I see my yard in a new way.
    Crickets are fascinating. Low flying helicopters are terrifying. There are holes to be dug, sticks to be chewed, vines to be tugged on, thrown objects to be fetched, and Outdoor Kitty needs to be chased.
    When Kira is exhausted from teaching me all these lessons she doesn't lie down. She hurls herself to the ground so that it sounds like someone has dropped a pair of tennis shoes.
    If she is frightened she races across the yard, barrels up the steps, and hits me like a linebacker.
    Kira is bright, and like Little Kitty, she can be taught almost anything with cheese as a treat. But don't expect to see any photos of Kira leaping up onto our cabinet tops.
    To see her running in excited little circles in our yard and rolling on her back in the grass is very gratifying. At her previous home she was tied to a tree. One more lesson learned. Resilience.

Pixar Bug

    In May I took this little guy's picture. I loved his shiny red and black colors. He seemed unsure exactly how to use his long antennae with the yellow tips. And the way he moved around clumsily on his long legs reminded me of a newborn foal.

    My daughter and I agreed that he should be a character in a Pixar film. He would be the innocent young fellow with a heart of gold who always tried to do the right thing. 

    I never identified him, I just filed him away as "Pixar Bug."

    Imagine my shock and disappointment when I found out that he grew up to be this guy!

    While I was waiting to identify this insect I called him "Ugly Bug." His true name is Wheel Bug, for the odd structure on his back. No one knows the purpose of that wheel, unless it is to help other Wheel Bugs recognize him. No other bug in North America has a wheel.

    See the long fang? If you are foolish enough to handle him he will stab you with it. His sting is said to hurt worse than a hornet's and may take weeks to heal. 

    When not stinging innocent humans he uses his fang on soft prey like caterpillars. He lumbers up to them and grabs them with his front legs, then injects a poison into them that paralyzes them and liquifies their insides. He then drinks their innards like a milkshake.

    And that cute little red and black guy? He will eat his brothers and sisters if he gets the chance.  

    Wheel Bugs also produce an unpleasant odor when threatened. 

    Is there any good news? Actually, yes. A Wheel Bug won't hurt you unless you pick him up. And he eats Japanese beetles and moths. So if you see him in your yard don't hurt him.

    If you would like to see a photo of a group of very young baby Pixars please visit my more recent blog by clicking on this link. 

    

butterfly ears

  
    I found these butterfly wings beneath a tree in my yard. You might be thinking, "This doesn't sound good for the butterfly." You are right. Predators eat the thorax of butterflies because that is where all the high protein muscle tissue is, then discard the rest.
    The wings had a bit of dirt on them. They are so delicate I could not wipe them off with my fingers without tearing them. I had to clean them with puffs of air from a bulb syringe.
    Butterfly wings are so light weight that the smallest breeze kept blowing them off the table where my camera was set up. So I would touch my finger to my tongue to get it wet, then touch the wing. The wing would stick to my finger and I could pick it up without damaging it.
    Butterfly wings are made up of thousands of colorful scales. If you handle a wing the fine dust that seems to be coming off in your hands is actually the scales. The wings also have veins that aid in breathing.
    Butterflies don't have ears. At least not the type of ears we typically think of. But in Central and South America at least one type of butterfly has been found who has a primitive ear at the base of it wings.
    Here is a portion of the photo I enlarged so that you can see the scales better.

 

What Goes Up

    Little Kitty loves to run and jump. She is quite the acrobat. One of her favorite activities is jumping up onto the tops of our cabinets. I wanted to photograph her but it is very hard to predict when she might decide to play. I needed to encourage her to jump more often.
    I used a training principle called reinforcement. This is the best way to train an animal to perform a trick. Professional trainers use reinforcement to teach animals as small as fish and as large as elephants.
    The first step was to choose a behavior Kitty already performed that I wanted to encourage. That was easy, I had already decided that I wanted her to jump on the cabinet.
    The second step was to select a treat that Little Kitty really loves. That was easy too. She loves any type of dairy product. So I bought the cubed cheese in a resealable bag.
    The third step was to wait for Little Kitty to perform her trick strictly of her own accord. As soon as she did I instantly produced the cheese. At first she thought the cheese was just a coincidence. It was interesting to watch the wheels turn in her little head. No matter how closely she followed me around the kitchen or how sweetly she meowed no cheese was produced. But as soon as she jumped on the cabinet cheese was offered. Suddenly she was in charge. She could make me give her cheese! In one week she had it down.
    All I had to do next was to set up my camera and allow her to see me getting out the cheese. She immediately began jumping up on the cabinet and looking toward me to see if I was noticing. It was a lot of fun.
    If you want to use reinforcement to increase the frequency of a behavior just make sure you pick a pleasant behavior. Rewarding your dog for "speaking" may seem like a good idea in the beginning until your dog begins barking incessantly for treats.
    Be creative. You can reward your dog for yawning, an unusual facial expression or a funny way he lays on his back. Anything he does somewhat regularly.
    I did not teach Kitty a verbal cue for her trick. If you would like to use a word as a cue you should wait until your pet is performing the trick every time you pick up the treat. Then you want to begin saying the word while the pet is doing the trick, not before he does it.
    If your pet doesn't seem to be getting the hang of things make sure you have a treat he loves and make sure you are rewarding him instantly when the behavior occurs.
    Two great books about animal training are "Clicking With Your Dog" by Tillman and "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Pryor.
     And remember, "What goes up, must come down."

  
 

European Hornet

    These are European Hornets. I was scared of them at first because of their size (1 1/2 in long) and their unsettling habit of hurling their bodies against my window at night.
    Now that I know more about them I am much more comfortable with them. They are actually quite approachable just as long as none of the approaching is done around their nest. Every source I read describes them as ferocious in guarding their home. 
    When they are out and about I can get quite close if I move slowly. Move too fast and they just fly away.  Of course I wouldn't consider touching one!
    Their sting is very painful but not nearly so poisonous as a bee's. You are less likely to have an allergic reaction to a hornet sting.
    These three are removing the bark from a tree. They use bark as nest building material and they collect the sweet sap from beneath to take back to the nest to feed the young. The young also eat crickets, grasshoppers, flies, and caterpillars.
    European Hornets can damage fruit trees by girdling the limbs and they can destroy the fruit while still on the tree. In spite of this in Germany it is illegal to kill a one or destroy the nest.  In Germany one must have special permission to remove them. Failure to get permission can result in a fine.
    In between photos I watched these communicate with each other by touching their faces to one another and making a high pitched humming sound.


      

"Will you walk into my parlour?"

  
    The first line of Mary Howitt's 1829 poem "The Spider and the Fly" was often recited to me as a warning when I was young.  The poem tells of a spider whose flattery lures a fly into his "parlour." The poem ends with disastrous results for the fly.
    Grass Spiders build their webs low to the ground in grass or low shrubs. The web is shaped like a hammock with a few threads over the top. Those threads are there to confuse and trap flying insects. At the very back is a funnel where she sits quietly and waits for her supper to drop in. When a bug strikes her web she feels the vibration and  rushes up at break-neck speed to catch her prey.
    This is a female Grass Spider. I am pretty sure it's a female because the males have large round endings at the tip of their pedipalps. Also, the males do not build webs. They just wander around looking for a mate and then they die. Silly males.
    See the things that look like short legs or antennae right next to her face? Those are pedipalps. She uses them as feelers. She may also use them in web building and in catching and eating insects.
    In between the pedipalps are two big black shiny things. Those are her chelicera. Chelicera are like jaws. Hers open from side to side, not up and down like our jaws.
    Grass Spiders have poison in their chelicera to paralyze prey. Once her insect prey is helpless she carries it to her lair and eats it.
    The Grass Spider differs from most spiders in that she does not build a web that is sticky. She relies totally on her speed to catch insects. I saw this one catch a bug and believe me, she is startlingly fast!
    Click here if you would like to read  "The Spider and the Fly".
  

A Star is Done

    I found an Eastern Box Turtle in the woods on Sunday. In fact I almost stepped on him.
    I know it was a male because they have very red eyes as this one's were.
    You can estimate a turtle's age by counting the rings on his shell. That is not as easy as it sounds. Do you count only the rings on the main body of his shell? What about the rings on the flared edges  that encircle the bottom of his shell like a bumper? And what do you do when you get up towards the top and the rings become less distinct?
    Some sources on the web discuss turning Mr. Turtle over and counting the rings underneath. I chose not to disrespect him in this way.
    Instead I took the conservative route. I ignored his bumper and only counted the clearly raised rings on his hood. I counted 16 rings. So he was born in 1994. That's the year O. J. Simpson was arrested for the murder of his wife and Forrest Gump was a big hit.
    You will read on the internet that these guys can live to be 100 years old. But if you study more carefully you will see that the oldest reliably documented age is 50 years.
    Box Turtles will eat almost anything and they love mushrooms. I had recently noticed some nearby mushrooms that had been nibbled on and assumed they were eaten by squirrels. In retrospect I bet it was a turtle. Oddly enough they aren't known to eat green plants.
    When he moved through the woods occasionally he would come upon an obstacle that I was sure would be too much for him. But he conquered hurdles without interruption. Like some sort of prehistoric ATV.
    Male turtles face an unusual risk. When a male mates with a female he has to stand upright against her back. He may fall backwards after mating and if he can't right himself he will starve to death. No kidding. I read this on the Smithsonian's web site. So now I have to run around in the woods rescuing poor male turtles who are stuck on their backs.
    And get this. After mating the female may lay eggs for four years afterwards!
    When he felt that the photo shoot was over our star just walked off. No muss. No fuss.
    I think his legs and tail look very much like those of an elephant!

    

Spider Woman

    During the daylight hours, if you walk out onto my back porch you will see no sign of a spider or a spider web.
    Walk out onto the porch at night and you will see a different scene.   
    Every night at sundown this Barn Spider comes out of hiding to build a web on my back porch. She spends over an hour to weave her complex net and it spans an opening that is six feet high. At the end of her project she moves directly to the center and sits motionless, quietly waiting for her dinner.
    She does not mind the camera flash at all. But let something touch her web and she is on high alert. A touch to her web could mean supper has arrived.
    In the morning when light first touches the sky she suddenly becomes mobile again. She cuts her web down with two or three well placed snips and goes straight back to her hiding place under the eaves. She probably eats some of her web because it contains a lot of protein and it benefits her to reuse that.
    The spider in the children's book "Charlotte's Web" was a Barn Spider. Like Charlotte, this spider will disappear when cold weather arrives. I hope next year one of her daughters will take her place to eat the mosquitoes that are so fond of my porch.
    Click on this link if you would like to see a video of a spider spinning her web.

Twins

    I have resolved once again to carry my camera in the car with me each day. Okay. Most days. 

    I tried it for a while and it was a lot of trouble. Carrying my camera to work was like having a toddler in the car. If I stop at the grocery store do I take the camera in or leave it unattended? What if it gets too hot in the car or someone steals it?  So I stopped.

    Soon afterward I was driving to work early one morning and I saw a cougar. That is so unusual in my area that I was afraid no one would believe me. Every time I told someone their first words were, "Did you have your camera with you?" You can guess my answer since you haven't seen a photo of a cougar here.

    I don't expect to ever see a cougar again as that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But today I was lucky enough to see the twins. You can't see their mom as she is a little deeper in the woods and to the left.
    Remember to take your camera with you tomorrow.

    

    

Black and White

    This old building stands in the yard of a nearby church. It once served as a school for African American children. I was lucky enough to meet a 73-year-old man who had attended school here.  He would have begun first grade in 1943.
    He said that the building used to be twice as big. It was cut in half when it was moved to make room for the new brick church built in 1960. It used to have four rooms and was heated by a wood stove. Considering how sparsely populated our rural county was back then a four room school house seems pretty big.
    Imagine children walking here from great distances, the younger ones watched over by their older siblings. All of the children would have carried their lunches from home.
    Their teacher probably would have been educated at one of our state's black colleges. She would have owned a home nearby or  boarded with a local family.
    Students finished school when they reached the ninth grade. They were needed to help support the family and would have begun working on the farm or elsewhere.

Starry Starry Night

    My daughter recommended an article on National Geographic's web site to me. The article said  cameras aboard a satellite on Sunday  photographed an eruption on the sun's surface that caused tons of plasma to  speed toward earth. This plasma was due to reach earth on Tuesday night around midnight or later.

     It all sounds like the intro to a science fiction movie. In the next scene a farmer goes outside to check on his barking dog and bumps smack into a visitor from outer space.  Quickly drawing his cell phone from its holster the farmer calls 911 and asks, "Would I get in any trouble if I shot and killed this beast, this animal or whatever it is?"

     But the real point of the article was that when the plasma entered our atmosphere  we  would have a chance of seeing auroras.  Auroras  usually occur in the arctic regions but National Geographic quoted an astrophysicist who said we had a 50-50 chance of seeing them here.
     It was a perfect night to be outdoors. After setting up the camera I stretched out on the ground in front of our house with my head on a pillow to wait for the light show to begin. It was not too hot and a gentle breeze was blowing. The crickets were chirping, I heard a far off coyote, and through the brick wall of our house I could hear Darling gently snoring.

     After  two hours outside all I saw were two falling stars and a raccoon. I guess we all know which half of that 50-50 I got.

     That's when I decided to try my hand at photographing star trails. Stars don't actually have trails of course. The illusion is caused by the earth spinning on its axis. As the earth spins the stars appear to rotate around us and the camera. 

     If the camera is aimed directly at the North Star the other stars will appear to be whirling around in a circle like a celestial Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Just the thought of it makes me feel a bit nauseous. I think I'll stick with the photo I have.

     I was amazed to see that in this photo there appear to be millions of stars.  While I was outside looking at them there did not appear to be many.The camera was able to record so many more than my eyes. The stars also appeared to be similar in color to me, and yet the stars in the photo have many different colors. I have since read that the camera sensor can pick up colors produced by gases in the starlight that our eyes are just not designed to see.
    This photo was made by leaving the camera shutter open for ten minutes. It is interesting to see how far the stars "moved" in that short period of time.
    You don't have to have a telescope or an expensive camera to enjoy looking at the stars. A friend taught me that a pair of binoculars works very well. Go outside tonight and look at the sky without binoculars. Then put the  binoculars up to your eyes. I bet you will gasp when you see how many  stars show up. The moon is especially fun to look at this way.
    Just think, if it wasn't for my lovely daughter I would have missed all this fun.

An Apple a Day

This little doe comes to our yard at least once each day to eat apples from our tree. We believe it is the same doe each time because she is always alone and because she is more tolerant of humans than most deer. 

A friend named Heidi is licensed by the state to take in injured or orphan fawns and care for them until they are old enough to be returned to the wild. Heidi only lives a few miles away from us. We have wondered if this could be one of her fawns because that would explain why this deer is so comfortable around people.

Deer are herd animals. Their herd is populated by deer who share the same mother. If this deer was brought here from another part of the state and then released that would explain why she does not have a herd.

She has become quite a connoisseur of apples. If she does not see one on the ground that is to her liking she will stand on her hind legs and pick one from the tree. Not only that, but I have watched her as she chased other deer away from "her" apples.

We began receiving our lonely visitor last summer. Hopefully within the next few weeks she will bring her fawn out of the woods to eat apples with her. With her fawn she can begin building a herd of her very own.

Backstroke

Don't you think this guy looks like he is doing the backstroke?

Authors of photography books and magazine articles teach the rules of composition. They teach us that animals should be on the left side of the photo facing toward the right because most of the world reads from left to right. They recommend that there should be space on the right for the animal to gaze into so that he doesn't look crowded. Somewhere in each book or article they always include a statement that it is okay to bend the rules once in a while.

I think this is one of those times.

Photos of Hummingbirds are harder to get than you might think. Oh sure. "They move quickly and might turn out as a blur." you are thinking. That's only part of the story.

Imagine that you take the cardboard tube out of the center of a roll of paper towels. Now imagine that you are watching Forrest Gump compete with the All-American Ping Pong team. You place your eye to the tube and your vision is instantly narrowed so that you can see only one small part of the scene at a time. This is similar to the way the world looks through a camera viewfinder and it is the only method you have to follow that speeding ping pong ball as it flies back and forth between the contestants. Kinda hard isn't it?

Now you know why some of your Hummingbird photos will have no Hummingbirds in them at all.

Not only that, but is is hot. Really hot. And humid. Ninety four degrees with forty six percent humidity. Before you take your camera outside you will need to place it in a plastic bag. Set it on your porch for a few minutes and let it warm up. The plastic bag prevents it from fogging up like a bathroom mirror during a hot shower.

Plan on wiping off the view finder of your camera with your tee shirt occasionally as every time you put your eye up to it you will cause it to steam up.

And boy are you going to sweat. Oh, sorry. Women don't sweat, they perspire. You are going to perspire a lot. Perspiration is going to run down your face and the small of your back.

Next your arms will begin aching from holding a heavy camera and zoom lens steady for several minutes while you try to get just the shot you want.

But when you are done one of these guys will be frozen in time and you will see him jamming on brakes to avoid a bumble bee, or sticking his tongue out, or with a drop of sugar water from your feeder on the tip of his beak. Suddenly it all seems well worth the effort.

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Work of Art

This gray fox is a true work of art. Look at the white color lining the inside of the back legs and the black around the eyes. The fur on the muzzle and the neck is beautiful too. As a matter of fact, it is hard to decide what part of him is most beautiful.

Have you heard people say that you should not see foxes out and about in the daytime? Don't believe them. This one was trotting along at 9:45 am and he is not the first one I have seen at this time of day.

He was probably hunting for food to feed the family as both male and female foxes share in that responsibility.

Foxes aren't picky about what they eat either. They will eat small mammals, birds, eggs, insects, vegetables or fruit. Their food pyramid must look pretty odd.

This fox stood still for about a minute and a half. It is very unusual to get to see one for that long as they are very wary and have lightning fast reflexes. A fox once spun around and raced away so fast that I heard his feet hitting the road. If you weighed 8 lbs and were running in your bare feet how fast might you have to run for someone to hear your feet strike the ground?

Soon a little breeze came along, his nose quivered once and he was gone. If I am ever in this situation again I am going to mew like a little lost baby mammal and see if he can be lured a little closer.

Foxes live about five years. It would be cool if this is the same fox I photographed with my first camera in 2006.

Darling

I have mentioned Darling in two previous posts and so I thought you might like to see a photo of him.

Here he is with Little Kitty.

Like a lot of guys Darling has very firm ideas about what is manly and what is not. He will not wear pink and he will not drink fruity little cocktails. He likes dogs and horses. Manly animals, those are.

So who would have guessed that he would LOVE this cat? When I was a kid growing up in the south real men did not eat quiche and they most certainly did not like cats.

I have known Darling for eight years now. I never knew until this year that he liked cats. He likes this one so much that when our daughter moved out with the Labrador he said that he didn't want another dog because it might make Little Kitty nervous.

And the feeling is mutual. Little Kitty loves him. We are talking about a cat that is so shy that I worry if she ever gets outside I won't be able to retrieve her. She is so timid our pet sitter has only laid eyes on her once. She is so elusive that I have to trap her in the laundry room to put her flea preventive on her. But here she is with her "hands" all over Darling.

And one more weird thing. Darling cooks very spicy food. Little Kitty loves his cooking.

fawn surprise

One afternoon I saw a doe resting under an apple tree in my front yard. I thought to myself, "This would be a good weekend to get a wildlife photo."

So early Sunday morning I crawled out of bed before sunup. After gulping down a cup of coffee, showering in unscented soap and donning camouflage clothing I headed out with my camera hoping to photograph some wildlife. After spending a long time seated under a tree I was hungry. I dug an energy bar out of my pocket and started eating. While eating I happened to glance over my shoulder and there about thirty-five feet away was a little fawn standing up to stretch her legs! I had to put the zoom lens to my eye in order to convince myself that I wasn't seeing things. She had been lying there at the base of a tree all along and would have remained quite invisible had she not stood up. In my haste to photograph her I let the energy bar drop to the ground. This sent the local ant population into fits of joy.

The fawn may have sensed that she was not alone because she stood watching and listening with those oversized ears for quite some time before she lay back down. Lucky for me she was looking in the wrong direction.

She may have remained in her hiding place until her mother came to retrieve her but a truck drove by. I thought it was interesting that she jumped up and ran across the road after the truck passed. She probably ran a very short way and lay down again to hide.

hidden fawn

Can you see the fawn? She is lying at the base of the tree. Her large ear is pointing up toward your right and looks very red with the sun shining through it, she is looking away from you, and her body extends along the ground further to the right behind some leaves.

The biggest threats to fawns come from coyotes, dogs, bears, and bobcats. We know through research that these animals don't see strictly in black and white, but they also don't see colors nearly as well as we do. Imagine the difficulty her enemies might have seeing her without the aid of color vision.

Now suppose that you are watching her without the magnification of a zoom lens. She would be almost impossible to see, wouldn't she?

Squirrelly

Don't you hate it when you lose stuff? It makes me nuts!

I lost my spare camera battery last week. I don't know how it happened. I charged it fully. I returned the charger to its proper place. The little plastic cover that protects the battery's metal contacts was not on the counter. That meant that after removing the battery from the charger and putting the charger away I had replaced the plastic cover on the battery, and then put the battery.........where?

I retraced my movements over and over again in my mind. I could not for the life of me remember anything past the point where I removed the battery from the charger.

I looked everywhere. The more I looked the more it got on my nerves that I couldn't find it. I made myself late for work one day because I could not stop looking. Then I was grouchy because I couldn't find my battery and because I was running late.

I was sure it could not have left the master bed/bath area. I resolved to tear those rooms apart bit by bit until I found it.

Maybe it had fallen down amongst the clutter on the closet floor. I removed everything from the closet floor and got down on my hands and knees to look. I found some dust bunnies. But no battery.

Maybe I had swept it into a drawer. I emptied out the three most likely drawers. I found a lot of stuff that needed to be thrown away or given away. But no battery.

Honey Bunny even tried to help. He opened some drawers and rumbled around in them a bit. Instead of being appreciative I muttered things like "I already looked there," and "I wouldn't have put it there." H. B. wisely exited the bedroom.

I had recently purchased a new camera bag and I had not moved all of my meager camera gear from the old bag to the new. Maybe this was a clue. I looked in the old and the new bags. Three times. One of the times I used a flashlight to reveal every corner of the black bags. No battery.

After a week of this insanity I went into the new camera bag for a lens. I looked once more for the missing battery. Silly idea. I was obsessed with this problem.

There it was. Right there. I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to touch it before I could accept the fact of its existence.

I think this could be the work of a Leprechaun!

You Lookin' at Me Lookin' at You

Recently I rented a macro lens.

Kitty loved it.

Not because Kitty enjoys macro photography. Kitty enjoys walking slowly around the yard looking at small things. And if this lens gave me a new appreciation for this activity then Kitty was all for it.

Kitty walked with me and weaved back and forth against my legs. When I stopped moving he threw himself on the ground and rolled onto his back begging to be scratched. He peeked into the weeds helping me (he thought) search for tiny living creatures.

Imagine my excitement when I found a Praying Mantis. I looked through my camera's viewfinder. She appeared a bit too small. I needed to move closer. I eased the tripod forward inch by inch. Mustn't frighten the Mantis, right? Carefully, cautiously..........OOPS! Kitty chose this moment to head bump me. The tripod crashed against the green plant, the mantis scooted over to a more protected area, and this is the resulting photo.

Dinner Companion

We first became aware that we had a nocturnal visitor in April. We arrived home one night to see glowing eyes reflecting in our headlights.

Our dinner guest was watching us as well. He knew that we sat on the porch each night until just after dark, then went into the house to eat supper at around 9:00.

On a few nights we would return to the porch after supper and interrupt his meal. We could not see him in the dark but we could hear the feeder creaking eerily as it swung back and forth like the porch swing in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

I set up a camera and flash in such a way that it could be operated from inside the house. After supper I reminded Sweetheart not to go out on the porch until I could trip the camera.

There was our dinner companion. Right on time at 9:28 pm. After I snapped his portrait he brazenly continued eating until we opened the back door.

With any luck this raccoon should have a long and happy life. We live quite a distance from the road and there aren't any dogs to bother him.

She's a Natural Beauty

Last summer a toad set up house in our garage. She was welcome to all the mosquitoes, flies and spiders she could eat. I thought she was amusing.

Toads need an outside source of moisture for their skin. Many mornings I would find her in Kitty's water bowl. It was just the right size for her and she could rest comfortably on the bottom of the bowl with her nose and eyes just above the surface of the water.

Kitty was not amused. He knew from experience that toads secrete a toxin that makes them taste very bad! Sure that his water was made to taste the same way, I changed it daily.

"Outdoor toads" spend the hot summer days in holes where they can stay cool and moist. When the sun came up in the mornings our garage toad would hop under furniture stored in our garage to hide and rest until night.

Toads also hibernate in the ground in winter. As fall approached and the days grew shorter I became concerned about Garage Toad. The area underneath the furniture was not sufficient for the long winter and she sure wasn't going to be digging a hole in the cement floor.

So each day I moved Kitty's water bowl closer to the garage door. And each morning I left the garage door cracked a few inches for her.

Eventually her instincts took over and she hopped off to find her winter home.

If you look closely at this toad's picture you can see the sand on her face. I took her picture just a few minutes after she hopped out of her hole that is just next to our home's foundation. I like to think this is Garage Toad.

I Have to Get in There Right Now!

Little Kitty is athletic and agile. She loves cheese, milk, and yogurt. She is very feminine and keeps her fur impeccably clean.

Little Kitty is also so shy we can't get our hands on her.

So why is it that whenever we use the guest bath she has to come in too?

The Moo

This is my daughter's dog, Moonie. Don't ask me why she named him that, I have never asked her.

Moonie is one of those once in a lifetime dogs. It is hard to put your finger on what it is about him. Maybe it is simplest just to quote one of my friends, "Everybody loves Moonie!"

We live on ten acres in a rural area. We are used to seeing Moonie in this context. Moonie is a BIG Labrador Retriever. He measures 52 inches from nose to tail. For comparison, my dining room table is only 59 inches long.

My daughter recently moved to an apartment in the city and Moo went with her. He is very happy and goes for long walks with her in the local park.

One day when I visited them I volunteered to take Moo outside for a bathroom break. All of a sudden the beautiful landscape around the apartment looked terribly small. As my daughter said, "A large area," and she held her hands with her arms wide open, "suddenly looks this big when Moo shows up!" And she held her hands so close together they almost touched.

From Zero to Sixty to 1865

Have you ever just been sitting around the house chilling and then, in the blink of an eye, everything changes?

One Sunday in March I poured my little cup of coffee and sprawled out on the recliner with the laptop to check the news.

Lo and behold, there was a civil war reenactment going on!

I jumped in the shower (mustn't show up smelly for such a social event) printed out a map, grabbed my camera, arranged a dog sitter, and took off at 60 mph to the year 1865.

In spite of all my efforts I was late. The battle had started without me. I had to boogie down to the battlefield but boy was it worth it. The bright colors, the noise, the horses, the excitement.......

I have been told, I'm not sure if it is entirely true, that here in the south they have trouble getting enough Yankees to come to the battle.

The old farm house that served as a hospital for both Yanks and Rebs is said to be haunted. Since the reenactment was on the same day of the year as the battle was actually fought I wondered if the ghosts would be especially stirred up by the rifle and cannon fire. After all, I believe in ghosts, don't you?