Barnegat Lighthouse State Park.

Well....the temperatures were below freezing with a 15mph NE wind blowing in our faces. To say it was colder than a witches tit is an understatement. It was cold. There were not as many close birds as the majority were mostly sheltering from the wind behind the breakwater on the other side of the inlet. We made the most of it and a nice surprise was very close Ipswich Sparrow.

Brant Goose

Brant Goose

Harlequin 

Harlequin's

Harlequin's 

Harlequin's

Ipswich Sparrow

Ipswich Sparrow

Ipswich Sparrow

Purple Sandpiper and 3 Ruddy Turnstones

Red-throated Loon

Red-throated Loon

Just for a change.......

..... we went out to Barnegat Lighthouse Inlet.

Harlequin's

If you want the best seat in the house.......

....... move the damn cats!

Pumpkin, Nutkin and Bluey

in my chair!

Contented

Further to the theme of "It's a hard life being a cat" here's a picture of a very contented Willow in her favorite tree house bed on one of the cat trees. Moose relaxing after a strenuous CatNip banana licking workout. YUCK!

Willow

Moose

It's a hard life being a cat.

😼

The patch of sunlight keeps moving and it's so hard moving to keep up with it.

Heidi

Que

Longwood Gardens. From the Arctic to the Amazon. Part III.

After I had a nice Kennett Square Mushroom soup for lunch we headed back into the conservatory. Different zones in the various areas. Desert to Rose Gardens to Jungle. I wanted to photograph the Bonsai but they are protected by a glass divider unfortunately. Heres some Orchids instead.

Dunno plant

More Poinsettia's

Agave

Orchid

Orchid

Orchid

Orchid

Pitcher Plant (I think)

Orchid

Orchid

Longwood Gardens. From the Arctic to the Amazon. Part II.

After a good long walk around the meadows the warmth of the conservatory was certainly welcome. It took a good few minutes to get the cameras up to temperature due to the lenses instantly fogging up with the high humidity after being out in the frigid outdoors. I speeded up the process by finding a hot air vent and by holding the camera over it, it warmed up quickly. People thought I was nuts dangling my camera over the vent!

Green.

Nice colors.

High Humidity in here.

Green.

No presents had my name unfortunately.

Humungous decorations.

Hybrid Grapefruits. Enormous!

Poinsettia.

Poinsettia

Coins in the fountain.

Longwood Gardens. From the Arctic to the Amazon. Part I

A cold frosty morning at Longwood made an excellent post New Year trip out. It started out way below freezing but warmed up to a balmy 43f by the time we left. It started in Arctic like conditions with a hoar frost and ended in steamy jungle like temperatures in the huge Longwood Conservatory. When we arrived there was hardly a soul to be found as we walked around the far meadows and when we left the crowds were piling in to see the Christmas lights before they remove them for the end of the Christmas season. here's a few of the photos I've processed so far.

Main Walkway

Nice Light

Leaning Tree

Shadows

Hoar Frost

Canada Geese Bums

Grasses