Acadia NP

Thinking about sitting on a pile of rocks somewhere by the ocean and photographing waves. Acadia NP is in the extreme NE, thinking about Olympic NP in the extreme NW. Wishing and Hoping.

Acadia NP

Hershey Gardens Butterfly Atrium

After lunch with Kelly on Friday afternoon I popped up to the Hershey Gardens Butterfly Atrium. Seems strange seeing butterflies when it's barely above freezing outside. Now I made a couple of huge mistakes. Mistake number 1 was wearing a fleece and a thick sweatshirt in the jungle like temperatures and humidity. Mistake number 2 was taking a cold camera into said jungle like temperatures and humidity. Talk about condensation! It took about 15 minutes to get the lens demisted. I know I was sweating but the damn camera was too. Anyway, I enjoyed my butterfly fix.

Blue Morpho from South/Central America

New Guinea Birdwing

Red Postman South/Central America 

Tiger Longwing South/Central America 

A little earlier than normal.

Touch wood its been a very mild winter so far. Yes I know touching wood is superstitious nonsense but there you are. I can't rely on the weather men can I? So normally the Snow Geese are in the fields around home at the end of February not the end of January so it was a pleasant surprise to arrive home yesterday afternoon to find the sky full of Snow Geese. They were mainly in the field at the top end of the yard, I didn't disturb them as the light was failing and being trash night I had things to do. This morning the light wasn't much better but they started flying in, thousands and thousands and even more thousands of them. As I was still in my sleeping attire I popped upstairs and put on my best stalking camo gear, grabbed the Nikon and proceeded to stealthily creep up to the top of the yard. The geese were literally 5 yards from the edge of the wood so I got down in the leaf litter and crawled to a clearer area between the trees to take pictures. There was a strong West wind blowing and it was colder than a Witches Tit up there so I didn't stay long.

Hairy Little Beast

This is Mischa, she's a hairy little beast. Very affectionate little girl. I don't get many pictures of her because black cats are really difficult to get the exposure correct and even more difficult to acquire a focus lock. Heres one I did manage from yesterday. I focussed on her eyes and bounced the flash off the ceiling.

2017

Another new year to look forward to. Now where would I like to go this year? Mmmmmm. Lots of possibilities. I certainly fancy somewhere with lots of water so I can take pictures of shorebirds, I don't see enough shorebirds these days.

Black-bellied Plover

Willet