The Lake was beautiful in the "tourist/park" areas (away from the industrial places). The Gazebo was nicely placed offering a distant view of the Cleveland skyline and I just could not resist transforming the original photo into a "stained glass" iteration.
I felt so bad for that poor monkey. Some jerk just threw him on my wife’s head and grabbed my phone from my hand and started taking photos, then yanked the poor thing off of her and threw it on me for more photos. The whole time I’m giving him a look that clearly said you’re not getting paid for this. The poor thing looked so sad the whole time and when it put its head down the jerk would smack it on the chin to look up. Then this jerk informs me that I now owed him $20 for each of us, which we laughed at. I pulled out a $5 and said take it if you want it, otherwise it goes back in my pocket as we walk away. He reluctantly took the $5 as if I just ripped him off. What an ass.
It was in St. Kitts in the Caribbean as we were getting back on board a cruise ship that was getting ready to depart. That’s where these guys hang out.
This is fantastic, our resident bald eagles hatched two eggs this year, and here is either the mom or dad teaching the fledgling to fly. Later both fledglings were airborne with the parents but we could not get a photo of them.
This is a favorite painting of mine. It's by James Bama and entitled ''Winter on Trout Creek''. Bama took a photo of a buffalo on his neighbor's ranch in Wyoming in the midst of a heavy winter storm in 1985. Bama said that it reminded him of what it was like seeing the buffalo in mid-winter 100 years ago.
Arvo jbb...yes hard to beat walking in the bush at times, but the sea still wins my heart...
Speaking of which just heading down to the beach for a walk along the sand now..I have been a bit crook lately caught a gastro bug which flattened me for a few days...so need to go and get some fresh salty air... can't beat it..🌊🌊
Morels are rare and valuable. Bronx Park is an ancient floodplain containing many rare species. Most mushrooms are inedible and many are quite poisonous. The brighter the colors the more likely to be lethal. The Bronx River has really turned around over the last twenty years. The return of the eels and even dolphins are very encouraging.
"The falling leaves drift by the window, the Autumn leaves of red and gold...." LINK ->
A screen will come on that stops the music - just X it out and click the arrow at the bottom right. I don't know why bilibili has started to screw things up this way.
Morning Dig..the only trees that change colour are introduced species..the gum trees are green all year round so compared to Canada and the USA Autumn is not that colourful here.
I live in Victoria the Southern state and as I live on the coast we miss alot of the heat...if anything the summers where I am are cooler now than when I was a kid...and the heat when we get it barely lasts 12 hours. Further north cop the heat.
I do like a decent summer though when we get it so I can go swimming in the sea etc as the water is rather cold..but suits sharks..😁
When it comes to sharks, I don't know how anyone can swim in the sea. I know shark attacks are rare compared to the number of people in the water every year, but still.
I'm loving it, except that we live right next to the fire area and we are having brush clearance on our property tomorrow. We get a notice every year from the Fire Department, and it has to be done by May 1st. Good-bye to the wildflowers.
It is a shame and it's too soon to see them go, but the hills around here will still be green for a while. Those wildflowers are on the south slope on our property. I might try to take a few more photos this afternoon, but it's not a very accessible area. We also have native lupines growing on our back hill which is on the east side of our property, but they are almost out of camera range even using the zoom feature.
We might go to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve during the week to see the superbloom. It is part of the California State Park system and it's about an hour to hour and a half drive from where I live. That should be amazing. I've seen a lot of recent photos from there, including some colorful satellite photos.
In the spring of 1973, after a very rainy winter, I went camping with some of my friends at one of our favorite places, Joshua Tree National Park, or Joshua Tree National Monument, as it was called back then. As the weekend progressed, so did the bloom. It was like nothing any of us had ever seen before. The entire desert floor was blanketed with flowers, and many of the cactus were blooming as were the Joshua trees. We were there for three days, and it just kept getting better and better. We could not believe what we were seeing. It was awesome. Back then no one used the term "superbloom", but that is definitely what we experienced. It doesn't happen every year.
The detailed craftmanship on that roof is astounding. The curving slopes on that one and the other ones you've posted are amazing. I bet those curves are a nightmare to build.
The curving rooflines are pretty well consistent on older buildings throughout China, but here is some craftsmanship that amazed me. This is carved wood located under the eaves of an official's building in Kaifeng.
Over the past months I have posted some amazing examples of Chinese craftsmanship as articles on this group in between the weekend articles.
Stone Creek is becoming known as ''Monarch City'' with the number of people planting milkweed for them and some folks in here raising them to be turned loose as this one in the photo is.
Blue Jay and oak catkins, the pollen things that come out right before the leaves.
The Bluebirds are still tending their nest and chasing other birds away. No chicks yet, as far as I know, but I imagine there are eggs in there now.
I made yet another bird house. I call this one a 'wren cube', being 5 1/2 inches square on each side except for the roof, which has extra length to overhang air vents on the front and back. Super simple to make, with a flat roof and no angle cuts. I hung it in a crab apple tree and a wren claimed it the same day.
Cedar Waxwings have been hanging out in the apple tree up by the garden. Lovely birds.
I guess they eat the petals from the apple blossoms. I didn't know that until I saw them doing it.
A few irises have started to bloom.
A crisp spring day with blue sky, white clouds, and oaks that are finally starting to leaf out. The snowball bush behind the bird baths in the lower right is about to bloom, but it's not quite there yet.
Thanks, Kav. Can you believe it's supposed to freeze tonight? I'm stressing out about flowers and young plants, even some peas in the garden. They can take a frost, but a freeze is worse. Hopefully it'll be the last one.
Oops, I almost forgot to post this. Here's a short clip of a House Wren working on a nest and singing yesterday. Don't turn the sound up very loud or you might regret it, especially if you use headphones. The volume that comes out of these little birds is almost unbelievable, lol.
Eurasian Collared-Doves made their way to North America via the Bahamas, where several birds escaped from a pet shop during a mid-1970s burglary; the shop owner then released the rest of the flock of approximately 50 doves. Others were set free on the island of Guadeloupe when a volcano threatened eruption. From these two sites the birds likely spread to Florida, and now occur over most of North America.
People have helped make the Eurasian Collared-Dove at home in North America. Bird feeders and trees planted in urban and suburban areas are cited as two of the main factors in the species’ colonization of the continent.
The Eurasian Collared-Dove’s species name, decaocto, comes from Greek mythology. Decaocto was a servant girl transformed into a dove by the gods to escape her unhappy treatment; the dove’s mournful cry recalls her former life.
While most birds meet their chicks’ protein needs with insects, doves feed their newly hatched chicks a fat- and protein-rich “crop milk.” This whitish fluid comes from liquid-filled cells that slough off the lining of the crop, a portion of the esophagus. After 5 or 10 days, the chicks switch to a diet of regurgitated seeds or fruit.
Eurasian Collared-Doves are one of very few species that can drink “head down,” submerging their bills and sucking water as though drinking through a straw. Most birds must scoop water and tip the head back to let it run down into the throat.
The oldest recorded Eurasian Collared-Dove from the wild was at least 13 years, 8 months old.
Here's a shot of the same bird with a Mourning Dove nearby for comparison.
Talk about a rapid spread, spanning most of North America in just a few decades! Fortunately they aren't cavity nesters, so they don't compete with native birds for nesting sites like House Sparrows and European Starlings do.
I like them. They're nice looking birds. Has anyone noticed them before?
The Lake was beautiful in the "tourist/park" areas (away from the industrial places). The Gazebo was nicely placed offering a distant view of the Cleveland skyline and I just could not resist transforming the original photo into a "stained glass" iteration.
good job. my grandfather had a troop of sea scouts out of erie back in the 30's.
Fantastic job, too. That looks great.
Love the sky in the gazebo pic.
Some random artwork I made from my most recent vacation photos.
Very creative - LUV the monkey.
I felt so bad for that poor monkey. Some jerk just threw him on my wife’s head and grabbed my phone from my hand and started taking photos, then yanked the poor thing off of her and threw it on me for more photos. The whole time I’m giving him a look that clearly said you’re not getting paid for this. The poor thing looked so sad the whole time and when it put its head down the jerk would smack it on the chin to look up. Then this jerk informs me that I now owed him $20 for each of us, which we laughed at. I pulled out a $5 and said take it if you want it, otherwise it goes back in my pocket as we walk away. He reluctantly took the $5 as if I just ripped him off. What an ass.
You tolerated that behaviour? I would have called the cops on him.
It was in St. Kitts in the Caribbean as we were getting back on board a cruise ship that was getting ready to depart. That’s where these guys hang out.
Cool photo edits, and I agree with you about feeling sorry for the monkey.
You know spring is here when you see this:
This is fantastic, our resident bald eagles hatched two eggs this year, and here is either the mom or dad teaching the fledgling to fly. Later both fledglings were airborne with the parents but we could not get a photo of them.
Photo by the Stone Creek photo club.
Cute chicks!
Well we set a new season snow total this week! So here's to a life of rainbows...
...and unicorns!
LOL
The first one shows a really nice sky, and the unicorn seems to have lost an eye.
The eye is just lost a bit in the fur.
Off to a great start! Keep it going.
Okay, I'll change the poem.
The first one shows a really nice sky, while the unicorn's fur covers one eye.
That one gets a "WOW!
Powerful colors!
The ELK image was posted previously, but it was created as part of an intended "pair" - both from Yellowstone, Wyoming.Here's the pair.
American Elk, Yellowstone, Wyoming
© A. Mac/A.G.
American Bison, Yellowstone, Wyoming
© A. Mac/A.G.
This is a favorite painting of mine. It's by James Bama and entitled ''Winter on Trout Creek''. Bama took a photo of a buffalo on his neighbor's ranch in Wyoming in the midst of a heavy winter storm in 1985. Bama said that it reminded him of what it was like seeing the buffalo in mid-winter 100 years ago.
Morning...Autumn has arrived in the Great Southern Land..
Jusr as Spring is springing in Bronx River Park...
This was taken this morning blocks from home.
Wish I could walk that path.
Arvo jbb...yes hard to beat walking in the bush at times, but the sea still wins my heart...
Speaking of which just heading down to the beach for a walk along the sand now..I have been a bit crook lately caught a gastro bug which flattened me for a few days...so need to go and get some fresh salty air... can't beat it..🌊🌊
Can't beat a walk along the beach...
Would that I could join you on a walk along that beach.
Orchard Beach and City Island are nearby.
I like to just sit and watch the sailboats...
Evening.. looks like the perfect spot..
In The Bronx we also have our own version of Sidney's Bondi Beach at Orchard Beach, though it gets crowded on sunshiny days...
This really is gazebo day - one on the far right.
We forage for the mushrooms in Spring...
My best friend is an amateur mycologist.
My neighbour in Toronto used to do that - he used to look for morels.
Morels are rare and valuable. Bronx Park is an ancient floodplain containing many rare species. Most mushrooms are inedible and many are quite poisonous. The brighter the colors the more likely to be lethal. The Bronx River has really turned around over the last twenty years. The return of the eels and even dolphins are very encouraging.
He gave me some - it was a half a century ago so I can't remember how they tasted, but I imagine they must have been special.
"The falling leaves drift by the window, the Autumn leaves of red and gold...." LINK ->
A screen will come on that stops the music - just X it out and click the arrow at the bottom right. I don't know why bilibili has started to screw things up this way.
Awesome. I never think of fall color when I think of Australia, but then again I've never been there.
Are you looking forward to cooler days, or will you miss the heat?
Morning Dig..the only trees that change colour are introduced species..the gum trees are green all year round so compared to Canada and the USA Autumn is not that colourful here.
I live in Victoria the Southern state and as I live on the coast we miss alot of the heat...if anything the summers where I am are cooler now than when I was a kid...and the heat when we get it barely lasts 12 hours. Further north cop the heat.
I do like a decent summer though when we get it so I can go swimming in the sea etc as the water is rather cold..but suits sharks..😁
When it comes to sharks, I don't know how anyone can swim in the sea. I know shark attacks are rare compared to the number of people in the water every year, but still.
This gazebo has an attic.
Wildflowers / © G. Gam
Nice. I imagine fresh greenery after all of that rain is a wonderful change from the horrible drought you were suffering.
I'm loving it, except that we live right next to the fire area and we are having brush clearance on our property tomorrow. We get a notice every year from the Fire Department, and it has to be done by May 1st. Good-bye to the wildflowers.
Ah, that's a shame. Still you got to enjoy it for a while.
It is a shame and it's too soon to see them go, but the hills around here will still be green for a while. Those wildflowers are on the south slope on our property. I might try to take a few more photos this afternoon, but it's not a very accessible area. We also have native lupines growing on our back hill which is on the east side of our property, but they are almost out of camera range even using the zoom feature.
We might go to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve during the week to see the superbloom. It is part of the California State Park system and it's about an hour to hour and a half drive from where I live. That should be amazing. I've seen a lot of recent photos from there, including some colorful satellite photos.
I think I've heard of that superbloom before. The photos in your links are awesome. That would really be something to see.
In the spring of 1973, after a very rainy winter, I went camping with some of my friends at one of our favorite places, Joshua Tree National Park, or Joshua Tree National Monument, as it was called back then. As the weekend progressed, so did the bloom. It was like nothing any of us had ever seen before. The entire desert floor was blanketed with flowers, and many of the cactus were blooming as were the Joshua trees. We were there for three days, and it just kept getting better and better. We could not believe what we were seeing. It was awesome. Back then no one used the term "superbloom", but that is definitely what we experienced. It doesn't happen every year.
Here is a photo of this year's super bloom'' in California.
Photo from the internet.
Beautiful picture, wish I could be there.
Beautiful.
I can't remember where this gazebo was.
The detailed craftmanship on that roof is astounding. The curving slopes on that one and the other ones you've posted are amazing. I bet those curves are a nightmare to build.
The curving rooflines are pretty well consistent on older buildings throughout China, but here is some craftsmanship that amazed me. This is carved wood located under the eaves of an official's building in Kaifeng.
Over the past months I have posted some amazing examples of Chinese craftsmanship as articles on this group in between the weekend articles.
But I DO recall where this gazebo was - on the edge of a small lake close to the school where I used to teach near Zhengzhou, Henan Province.
Great shot!
Stone Creek is becoming known as ''Monarch City'' with the number of people planting milkweed for them and some folks in here raising them to be turned loose as this one in the photo is.
Fantastic photo. If I took one like that I'd have to print and frame it.
It's sad to hear about their reducing numbers. There were so many in our garden back when I was a kid.
I don’t know who lives here, but I wish it was me.
That's beautiful, but those palm trees sure look out of place to me, lol.
I see what you mean. This was in beautiful St. Lucia, where all the tree species seemed foreign to me.
There have been a lot of problems lately for people who live on hillsides.
Rockin' Robin, posing for the camera on one foot.
Blue Jay and oak catkins, the pollen things that come out right before the leaves.
The Bluebirds are still tending their nest and chasing other birds away. No chicks yet, as far as I know, but I imagine there are eggs in there now.
I made yet another bird house. I call this one a 'wren cube', being 5 1/2 inches square on each side except for the roof, which has extra length to overhang air vents on the front and back. Super simple to make, with a flat roof and no angle cuts. I hung it in a crab apple tree and a wren claimed it the same day.
Cedar Waxwings have been hanging out in the apple tree up by the garden. Lovely birds.
I guess they eat the petals from the apple blossoms. I didn't know that until I saw them doing it.
A few irises have started to bloom.
A crisp spring day with blue sky, white clouds, and oaks that are finally starting to leaf out. The snowball bush behind the bird baths in the lower right is about to bloom, but it's not quite there yet.
Great photos, Dig.
Thanks, Kav. Can you believe it's supposed to freeze tonight? I'm stressing out about flowers and young plants, even some peas in the garden. They can take a frost, but a freeze is worse. Hopefully it'll be the last one.
Has anyone ever called you "Birdman of NT"?
Nope, but I bet A. Mac has many more bird pics than I do, lol.
Beautiful array!
Thanks, A. Mac.
Gazebo by a Lake, Nanjing
LOL. Now I have to look for some more in my picture library.
I have more, but I'm done.
Actually, so am I.
Oops, I almost forgot to post this. Here's a short clip of a House Wren working on a nest and singing yesterday. Don't turn the sound up very loud or you might regret it, especially if you use headphones. The volume that comes out of these little birds is almost unbelievable, lol.
How 'bout a fantasy image?
Alaska Moonrise Fantasy
© A. Mac/A.G.
It can make one feel like they're on another planet.
Here's something different. I've seen these several times before, so they're not exactly rare, but I don't think I've ever posted a photo of one.
It's a Eurasian Collared-Dove — bigger than a Mourning Dove, doesn't have spots on its wings, and has a black crescent on the back of its neck.
Info from All About Birds...
Here's a shot of the same bird with a Mourning Dove nearby for comparison.
Talk about a rapid spread, spanning most of North America in just a few decades! Fortunately they aren't cavity nesters, so they don't compete with native birds for nesting sites like House Sparrows and European Starlings do.
I like them. They're nice looking birds. Has anyone noticed them before?
I wouldn't have known one kind of dove from another. The doves that are missing these days are these doves:
We have a lot of the collared doves in Florida as well as morning doves and they all seem to get along fine.
© A. Mac/A.G.
Thanks to all for a great article!