It has been 10 weeks and 5 days since my last post. Writing this post feels a bit odd. I feel like I am returning to some regularly occurring meeting where everyone else has been attending, and dutifully marking me absent. With my return I feel like I need to offer up an explanation for my absence.
During my absence, I was giving serious thought to what my relationship should be with this blog. Should I just ignore it? If I do not ignore it, what should I do differently? What is keeping me from updating it? My thoughts varied considerably, but I have managed to consolidate things down into a nice summary.
I am too busy to maintain a blog. This was where I was just too busy with other things in my life to spend any quality time here, with no expectation that more time would become available. Some examples: the demands of my job, the holiday season and my love of college football.
I am having a hard time finding exciting content to blog about. There were points over the past 10 weeks where I was ready to spend some time on this blog, but my ideas for content were either altogether absent, or just unexciting to me. Was each winter really only going to bring yet another series of photos of Hermit Thrush and Ring-necked Duck?
To be a better photographer, I need to do some things differently. I enjoy my self-paced improvement of photographic knowledge. As I became a better photographer, I recognized that I needed to change how I did certain things. Towards that end, I made some significant changes to my "digital darkroom" - the process I use to move a photo from my camera to some end point such as a print, Flickr or this blog. This included a switch to shooting RAWs instead of JPGs, the purchase of Adobe Lightroom (and the associated self-education that comes with new software), changes to how I organize and store my photos, and a new backup philosophy (which is really still evolving). I wanted more control over certain areas within that process, and to get that control, I had to make some radical changes to other parts of the process.
I need to accept the amount of time I have for, and the priority I can give to, the hobbies that I enjoy. This was where I came to grips with the amount of time I can really commit to my hobbies. This blog represents just one final step in a series of steps that begins with me making time to go outside to take pictures. In between the trip outside and this blog is that "digital darkroom" thing I mentioned above. And interfering with all of these are the usual real-life things that you would expect. The most important of my varied hobbies is the actual time outside. The photographs and blog posts are just side-effects from that core activity.
So here I am, 10 weeks and 5 days later, ready to resurrect my blogging presence. I expect to generate a new post about once a week. Same as before, the content will be focused on the outside, with a preference for the avian.
Showing posts with label This Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This Blog. Show all posts
Exit Glacier
My habit of blogging about things I experienced several months ago leads to weird "blog time warp" situations. Case in point: my last post was a very recent picture and an abrupt departure from all the glorious Alaskan goodness that I have been sharing for several weeks now. Then, to top if off, Tammy and I took a trip to Asheville, NC this past weekend, which gave me a great excuse for not posting anything at all.
Now that we have returned from our trip (with a few pictures in tow), I am refreshed and ready to boldly resume the blogging bonanza. There are still, I think, some very interesting photos to share from the Alaska adventure, so I am going to push through those before sharing anything from this weekend's trip. And to continue through the Alaska photos means that I need to give a blogger's wave goodbye to Seward - it is time to move on to another location. And the perfect segue for that exit is a post about Exit Glacier, the location that served as the exit for the first recorded crossing of the Harding Ice Field.
As you drive out of Seward (or into Seward...there is only one road), you pass a spur that will lead you to Exit Glacier. This spur is the only road that lies within the Kenai Fjords National Park. As you drive down this spur you pass several odd signs that show nothing but four digit numbers. We later learned that those four digit numbers were years, and they marked where Exit Glacier terminated at various points in the past. I cannot remember what the exact year was on the first sign we passed, but it was somewhere in the late 1800's. Once we learned what the numbers represented, we immediately wondered how they knew where the glacier terminus was that long ago?"
Part of the answer turns out to be forest succession. As Exit Glacier recedes it leaves bare ground. Eventually, that bare ground is covered by plants, and then over time, different plants replace the previous plants. It turns out that the order in which plants cover that bare ground and replace each other is fairly predictable. By looking at what is growing at various distances from the current terminus of Exit Glacier, and how old those things are, you can estimate how many years it has been since the terminus was at that point. If my slim explanation of forest succession leaves you wanting more, you can read better explanations of forest succession here and here (PDF).
This next picture was my attempt at capturing evidence of forest succession. On the opposite ridge, you can see "lines" in the vegetation that draw a crude outline of where the edges of Exit Glacier were at some point in the past. As you follow the opposite ridge from right to left, near the left edge of the photo the height of the vegetation suddenly increases, giving a clue to where Exit Glacier previously terminated. Also, as you go up the opposite ridge the type of vegetation changes, giving a clue to the height of Exit Glacier at some point in the past. If you are not sure what I am referring to, then click the picture (or here) and it will take you to my Flickr page for this photo where I used the "note" feature of Flickr to point out these "lines".
At the end of the spur road, there is a visitor center and a couple trail heads (the National Park Service provides an interesting birds eye view map (PDF) using an aerial photograph). One trail leads you to the top of the ridge where Exit Glacier slowly oozes out of the Harding Ice Field. That sounded immensely interesting, but we did not have the time to invest for that hike. Instead we chose the very easy and quick trail to the terminus of Exit Glacier. Although they do not allow you to walk up and touch the glacier (too much risk of a chunk of ice breaking off and landing on you), you can get close enough to feel the cold of the ice.
Here are two more photos, these with the glacier at my back. The first shows a nice sized chunk of rock that was left by the glacier. The second shows the outwash plain (or sandur) of the glacier.
Now that we have returned from our trip (with a few pictures in tow), I am refreshed and ready to boldly resume the blogging bonanza. There are still, I think, some very interesting photos to share from the Alaska adventure, so I am going to push through those before sharing anything from this weekend's trip. And to continue through the Alaska photos means that I need to give a blogger's wave goodbye to Seward - it is time to move on to another location. And the perfect segue for that exit is a post about Exit Glacier, the location that served as the exit for the first recorded crossing of the Harding Ice Field.
As you drive out of Seward (or into Seward...there is only one road), you pass a spur that will lead you to Exit Glacier. This spur is the only road that lies within the Kenai Fjords National Park. As you drive down this spur you pass several odd signs that show nothing but four digit numbers. We later learned that those four digit numbers were years, and they marked where Exit Glacier terminated at various points in the past. I cannot remember what the exact year was on the first sign we passed, but it was somewhere in the late 1800's. Once we learned what the numbers represented, we immediately wondered how they knew where the glacier terminus was that long ago?"
Part of the answer turns out to be forest succession. As Exit Glacier recedes it leaves bare ground. Eventually, that bare ground is covered by plants, and then over time, different plants replace the previous plants. It turns out that the order in which plants cover that bare ground and replace each other is fairly predictable. By looking at what is growing at various distances from the current terminus of Exit Glacier, and how old those things are, you can estimate how many years it has been since the terminus was at that point. If my slim explanation of forest succession leaves you wanting more, you can read better explanations of forest succession here and here (PDF).
This next picture was my attempt at capturing evidence of forest succession. On the opposite ridge, you can see "lines" in the vegetation that draw a crude outline of where the edges of Exit Glacier were at some point in the past. As you follow the opposite ridge from right to left, near the left edge of the photo the height of the vegetation suddenly increases, giving a clue to where Exit Glacier previously terminated. Also, as you go up the opposite ridge the type of vegetation changes, giving a clue to the height of Exit Glacier at some point in the past. If you are not sure what I am referring to, then click the picture (or here) and it will take you to my Flickr page for this photo where I used the "note" feature of Flickr to point out these "lines".
At the end of the spur road, there is a visitor center and a couple trail heads (the National Park Service provides an interesting birds eye view map (PDF) using an aerial photograph). One trail leads you to the top of the ridge where Exit Glacier slowly oozes out of the Harding Ice Field. That sounded immensely interesting, but we did not have the time to invest for that hike. Instead we chose the very easy and quick trail to the terminus of Exit Glacier. Although they do not allow you to walk up and touch the glacier (too much risk of a chunk of ice breaking off and landing on you), you can get close enough to feel the cold of the ice.
Here are two more photos, these with the glacier at my back. The first shows a nice sized chunk of rock that was left by the glacier. The second shows the outwash plain (or sandur) of the glacier.
Kenai Fjords National Park
Our main purpose for visiting Seward was a boat trip. We signed up for a boat tour into Kenai Fjords National Park. This National Park was established in 1980, and most of its land is covered by the Harding Icefield. There is only one road in the park (which gets you very close to Exit Glacier). Your only other choices are visiting the park by foot or boat.
Several boat tours operate out of Seward. We elected to go with the aptly named Kenai Fjords Tours. They offered an 8.5 hour excursion with the chance to see lots of wildlife and several glaciers, and provided a couple of meals. They delivered on all counts, and I have no complaints. The target glacier for the trip was Aialik Glacier. My home-grown Google map shows where that is relative to Seward.
Neither Tammy and I have much experience on boats. I had previously taken a pelagic trip while in Maine for the 2006 ABA Convention. And Tammy had taken some type of boat trip into the ocean off of the coast of North Carolina at some point before we met. But that was about it. We are landlubbers. So we were just a tad nervous about this particular boat trip.
We knew we needed to dress for cold and wind and possible rain, and we were successful on that point. There were others on the boat that stayed on the inside, where it was warm and dry, because they did not come prepared. I am sure their experience was just fine, but I am glad that we had prepared such that we could stay outside the entire time (even when there was a light rain).
Also, neither of us were sure we would not get seasick. We fretted a bit over what to eat in the morning, and we even took a non-drowsy Dramamine before we got on the boat (if you take them after you feel ill, it is too late). We ended up being fine and did not feel ill. In hindsight, we probably did not even need the Dramamine.
My next several posts will share pictures from this boat trip. For this post, I wanted to share a picture of the boat we were on, but I did not take any pictures of it. Sheesh. Apparently, all my photos were of things away from the boat. I did, however, find this photo of Aialik Glacier that I took as the boat approached. You can kind of see the side of the boat, but one of our fellow tourists is there too. I needed a nice warm hat. He seemed to be fine with just the hair. Hmmm...maybe I should have cropped this photo...
But never mind him! check out that glacier!
Several boat tours operate out of Seward. We elected to go with the aptly named Kenai Fjords Tours. They offered an 8.5 hour excursion with the chance to see lots of wildlife and several glaciers, and provided a couple of meals. They delivered on all counts, and I have no complaints. The target glacier for the trip was Aialik Glacier. My home-grown Google map shows where that is relative to Seward.
Neither Tammy and I have much experience on boats. I had previously taken a pelagic trip while in Maine for the 2006 ABA Convention. And Tammy had taken some type of boat trip into the ocean off of the coast of North Carolina at some point before we met. But that was about it. We are landlubbers. So we were just a tad nervous about this particular boat trip.
We knew we needed to dress for cold and wind and possible rain, and we were successful on that point. There were others on the boat that stayed on the inside, where it was warm and dry, because they did not come prepared. I am sure their experience was just fine, but I am glad that we had prepared such that we could stay outside the entire time (even when there was a light rain).
Also, neither of us were sure we would not get seasick. We fretted a bit over what to eat in the morning, and we even took a non-drowsy Dramamine before we got on the boat (if you take them after you feel ill, it is too late). We ended up being fine and did not feel ill. In hindsight, we probably did not even need the Dramamine.
My next several posts will share pictures from this boat trip. For this post, I wanted to share a picture of the boat we were on, but I did not take any pictures of it. Sheesh. Apparently, all my photos were of things away from the boat. I did, however, find this photo of Aialik Glacier that I took as the boat approached. You can kind of see the side of the boat, but one of our fellow tourists is there too. I needed a nice warm hat. He seemed to be fine with just the hair. Hmmm...maybe I should have cropped this photo...
But never mind him! check out that glacier!
And We're Back!
It has been just over two weeks since my last blog post. That is quite a while, even for my tepid blogginess. A perfect storm of sorts came together and resulted in the need for a break from blogging: my recent return from vacation, the corresponding resumption of the normal daily grind at work, and the effort to complete the transition from Phanfare to Flickr. Combine all three of those, simmer them in the summer heat, and voilà! No blogging for two weeks!
Credit this guy for reminding me that while no one else may be complaining, he was within days of breaking into my house to steal my computer...since I was obviously not using it. Or, I could start blogging again. My choice.
Why I didn't use the same tactic against him somewhere between January and July of this year is beyond me. I hear he has a nice computer, no rakes, and an easily distracted attack beagle. Sorry...inside joke.
Let the blogging resume :-)
Credit this guy for reminding me that while no one else may be complaining, he was within days of breaking into my house to steal my computer...since I was obviously not using it. Or, I could start blogging again. My choice.
Why I didn't use the same tactic against him somewhere between January and July of this year is beyond me. I hear he has a nice computer, no rakes, and an easily distracted attack beagle. Sorry...inside joke.
Let the blogging resume :-)
Whew!
Way back in December of last year I announced that I was moving all of my photos from Phanfare to Flickr. Getting all of my photographs uploaded to Flickr was fairly easy, since it was very automated (e.g. dump a bunch of photos into an uploader tool, click go, come back in a couple hours, rinse, repeat). The real challenge was this blog. All of the photos in this blog were pulled in from links to Phanfare, so I had to manually update each and every one of those links to point to the same picture in Flickr. Even better, if the photo that appeared in my blog was a cropped image, I had to find the original and re-crop it using tools within Flickr. I "fixed" over 300 blog posts, many with multiple pictures within them, most of them cropped from the original. That long process started in January and, as of today, has finally come to an end.
Whew!
I will be sending the folks at Phanfare my official departure email either today or tomorrow, which will close my account with them, and, I think, cause them to mail me a DVD of all the photos I had uploaded to them. I should add that I hold no ill will towards Phanfare. They are a fine company. Their focus, however, shifted to a model of photo sharing that was not aligned with what I wanted from a photo hosting web site. That reason, and not poor customer service or inconsistent website uptime, was the reason I moved to Flickr.
Whew!
I will be sending the folks at Phanfare my official departure email either today or tomorrow, which will close my account with them, and, I think, cause them to mail me a DVD of all the photos I had uploaded to them. I should add that I hold no ill will towards Phanfare. They are a fine company. Their focus, however, shifted to a model of photo sharing that was not aligned with what I wanted from a photo hosting web site. That reason, and not poor customer service or inconsistent website uptime, was the reason I moved to Flickr.
Birds fly. So does the time.
In my last post, I lamented about how time outdoors was sparse for me these days. I was not really sure if I would get another post in before this upcoming weekend. But then Hannibal, who writes a blog called Hannibal's Animals, tagged me with the latest nature blog meme. I was not familiar with her blog, so I took a few minutes to read, check out her pictures (I like the owl!) and add her to my list of blogs to watch.
Anyhow, back to this meme thing. This is actually my first ever invite to a meme. When I recognized the magnitude of this event, I pondered for a moment whether I would, some years from now, fondly think back to my first ever meme. I wonder if all future memes will be measured against this meme, and be judged lacking.
Or maybe this is some blogger's idea of self-realization. Start a meme and watch with glee as it ripples across the blogosphere. Nah...that would be the cynical side of me coming out.
Of course, if you really have no clue what a meme is, or what a blogosphere looks like, then this is all probably a bit confusing, and highly boring to you. If you fall into this category, then you can click those last two links and read about each of them, or just quickly scroll down and look at the pretty picture of the Black Skimmer :-)
Here are the rules for this particular meme:
1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4. Tag five more blogs with links
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!
My six word memoir is the title of this post. Perhaps it is just a bit boring, but I felt like it captured my mood at the moment: not enough time to watch the birds do what they do. The picture below was one I took many moons ago at Chincoteague NWR. It is one of the few photos where I managed to get a decent photo of a flying bird, which seems to fit my memoir.
Update: I tagged these other blogs: Nature At My Doorstep, Arkansas Birding, Confessions of a Backdoor Biologist, the Northwest Nature Nut, and The Flying Mullet. Hopefully they will rejoice at the wonderful meme goodness I have shared with them. Why did I pick these five? I liked their photos, or the word mullet, or the pictures. Just sort of random. And remember...I am powerless against the meme. Do not taunt the meme. :-)
Anyhow, back to this meme thing. This is actually my first ever invite to a meme. When I recognized the magnitude of this event, I pondered for a moment whether I would, some years from now, fondly think back to my first ever meme. I wonder if all future memes will be measured against this meme, and be judged lacking.
Or maybe this is some blogger's idea of self-realization. Start a meme and watch with glee as it ripples across the blogosphere. Nah...that would be the cynical side of me coming out.
Of course, if you really have no clue what a meme is, or what a blogosphere looks like, then this is all probably a bit confusing, and highly boring to you. If you fall into this category, then you can click those last two links and read about each of them, or just quickly scroll down and look at the pretty picture of the Black Skimmer :-)
Here are the rules for this particular meme:
1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4. Tag five more blogs with links
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!
My six word memoir is the title of this post. Perhaps it is just a bit boring, but I felt like it captured my mood at the moment: not enough time to watch the birds do what they do. The picture below was one I took many moons ago at Chincoteague NWR. It is one of the few photos where I managed to get a decent photo of a flying bird, which seems to fit my memoir.
Update: I tagged these other blogs: Nature At My Doorstep, Arkansas Birding, Confessions of a Backdoor Biologist, the Northwest Nature Nut, and The Flying Mullet. Hopefully they will rejoice at the wonderful meme goodness I have shared with them. Why did I pick these five? I liked their photos, or the word mullet, or the pictures. Just sort of random. And remember...I am powerless against the meme. Do not taunt the meme. :-)
Anhinga
When in Florida, you are almost certain to see an Anhinga at some point. When traveling on Anhinga Trail within the Everglades, your odds get even better. Often you will see Anhinga perched in a bush or tree, or even on something like a light pole, with their black and silvery wings spread out, as if someone had hung them out to dry on an invisible clothesline. Ironically, that is not very far from the truth.
Anhinga do not have waterproofed feathers (unlike ducks). This allows them to swim under water in search for food. But when they do exit the water, they need to dry their feathers to make flying easier (or possible).
Here are a couple of photos of an Anhinga taken from Anhinga Trail. The first shows the typical drying pose. The second is a close-up of the face that highlights the greenish color of the facial skin that males acquire during breeding.
You may notice that these photos are smaller than the photos that have previously appeared in this blog. This is simply a factor of the time required to manage my photos and post entries to this blog. My previous photo hosting choice (Phanfare) automatically gave me pictures that were resized to be 700 pixels on the long side. My new photo hosting choice (Flickr) automatically gives me pictures that are resized to be 500 pixels on the long side. I have been telling myself that I will continue to manually create resized pictures in Flickr that are my usual 700 pixels on the long side, but this appears to be taking more time that I would like, and it has the side-effect of creating clutter within my photo collection at Flickr. So, for now, I will be putting my blogged pictures on a diet, and linking in the 500 pixel version. If you click on a picture, you will be redirected to that photo within my collection at Flickr, where you can see lots of other sizes of the photo (all constructed automatically by Flickr), look at other photos from me, leave comments on specific pictures, and all kinds of other Flickr goodness.
Anhinga do not have waterproofed feathers (unlike ducks). This allows them to swim under water in search for food. But when they do exit the water, they need to dry their feathers to make flying easier (or possible).
Here are a couple of photos of an Anhinga taken from Anhinga Trail. The first shows the typical drying pose. The second is a close-up of the face that highlights the greenish color of the facial skin that males acquire during breeding.
You may notice that these photos are smaller than the photos that have previously appeared in this blog. This is simply a factor of the time required to manage my photos and post entries to this blog. My previous photo hosting choice (Phanfare) automatically gave me pictures that were resized to be 700 pixels on the long side. My new photo hosting choice (Flickr) automatically gives me pictures that are resized to be 500 pixels on the long side. I have been telling myself that I will continue to manually create resized pictures in Flickr that are my usual 700 pixels on the long side, but this appears to be taking more time that I would like, and it has the side-effect of creating clutter within my photo collection at Flickr. So, for now, I will be putting my blogged pictures on a diet, and linking in the 500 pixel version. If you click on a picture, you will be redirected to that photo within my collection at Flickr, where you can see lots of other sizes of the photo (all constructed automatically by Flickr), look at other photos from me, leave comments on specific pictures, and all kinds of other Flickr goodness.
Fall Foliage
Back in November, on a Sunday after a home football game at Virginia Tech, Tammy and I made our way back home via the Blue Ridge Parkway, heading north from Roanoke. The fall colors were still vivid, and this drive gave me the opportunity for several photos.
The pictures almost did not happen, however, since the morning started with my camera giving me fits (the "dreaded" Canon error 99). A couple quick emails later with Rich, and he had provided me with a nice set of troubleshooting steps that eventually got my camera back in working order.
Speaking of pictures. In my last post I mentioned that a change at my current photo hosting company has led to the decision to switch to Flickr. I have begun the massive effort of moving all my photos to Flickr. As I write this post, I have uploaded 7900 pictures to Flickr (spanning from 2005 through the Rapidan Loop hike from July of this year). I still have the remainder of the photos from this year to get uploaded before I begin to convert the posts in this blog to reference Flickr hosted photos. My goal is to have all my pictures uploaded to Flickr before my next trip (flying to Miami on New Year's Day...next Tuesday!) so that whatever pictures I take on that trip go straight to Flickr. I have no idea how long it will take me to convert this blog :-/
Anyhow, this blog post is about fall foliage. Here are a few photos of the leaves.
The pictures almost did not happen, however, since the morning started with my camera giving me fits (the "dreaded" Canon error 99). A couple quick emails later with Rich, and he had provided me with a nice set of troubleshooting steps that eventually got my camera back in working order.
Speaking of pictures. In my last post I mentioned that a change at my current photo hosting company has led to the decision to switch to Flickr. I have begun the massive effort of moving all my photos to Flickr. As I write this post, I have uploaded 7900 pictures to Flickr (spanning from 2005 through the Rapidan Loop hike from July of this year). I still have the remainder of the photos from this year to get uploaded before I begin to convert the posts in this blog to reference Flickr hosted photos. My goal is to have all my pictures uploaded to Flickr before my next trip (flying to Miami on New Year's Day...next Tuesday!) so that whatever pictures I take on that trip go straight to Flickr. I have no idea how long it will take me to convert this blog :-/
Anyhow, this blog post is about fall foliage. Here are a few photos of the leaves.
White Ibis (juvenile)
One interesting find in Chincoteague NWR, although definitely not an incredible find, was a small group of juvenile White Ibis. This species breeds in the southeast corner of the United States, but not as far north as Virginia. Their winter range still includes extreme southeast United States, but also the Caribbean, both Mexican coasts and a few bits of South America. In other words, range maps for the White Ibis never really show them occurring as far north as Virginia.
But they do. You can usually find them along the coast in late summer and early fall. I think the first year birds wander a bit after they leave their parents, and can end up in places like Chincoteague. These were roosting in a stand of trees by the road to the beach within Chincoteague NWR.
On an unrelated note, I will be changing the service that I use to provide online hosting and backup for all of the pictures I take. My current service (Phanfare) has announced some changes to its service that demonstrates to me that I am not part of their target demographic (photo sharing for friends and family...not photo hosting for someone who does not care who has access to their photos). Six months from now, all the links I have in this blog that point back to a picture hosted by Phanfare will break. Grrrrr! So, in addition to adding new blog content as I collect more photos (I am heading to Miami next...Go Hokies!), I will also be converting all my previous blog content (over 300 posts going back to 2005...sigh) to point to pictures that will eventually be hosted on Flickr.
[edit: it took me a day to figure out that the word "Caribbean" has one r and two b's, instead of the other way around :-) ]
But they do. You can usually find them along the coast in late summer and early fall. I think the first year birds wander a bit after they leave their parents, and can end up in places like Chincoteague. These were roosting in a stand of trees by the road to the beach within Chincoteague NWR.
On an unrelated note, I will be changing the service that I use to provide online hosting and backup for all of the pictures I take. My current service (Phanfare) has announced some changes to its service that demonstrates to me that I am not part of their target demographic (photo sharing for friends and family...not photo hosting for someone who does not care who has access to their photos). Six months from now, all the links I have in this blog that point back to a picture hosted by Phanfare will break. Grrrrr! So, in addition to adding new blog content as I collect more photos (I am heading to Miami next...Go Hokies!), I will also be converting all my previous blog content (over 300 posts going back to 2005...sigh) to point to pictures that will eventually be hosted on Flickr.
[edit: it took me a day to figure out that the word "Caribbean" has one r and two b's, instead of the other way around :-) ]
Today is Blog Action Day
I am participating in Blog Action Day today. What that means is that today's post should be on a topic that is related to the environment. The focus of this blog is already about the outdoors, so relating today's post to the environment is no stretch.
I typically do not use this blog as a platform for preaching, or attempt to beat readers over the head with how I think they should live their lives. Today is a little different. I am sharing five photos (taken during my recent vacation to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park) of what I consider to be beautiful examples of our environment. Examples that exist not because of humanity, but despite it. Our environment will not be preserved automatically. We must take steps to preserve it, or places like the ones I picture below will only exist in our art and in our memories.
I typically do not use this blog as a platform for preaching, or attempt to beat readers over the head with how I think they should live their lives. Today is a little different. I am sharing five photos (taken during my recent vacation to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park) of what I consider to be beautiful examples of our environment. Examples that exist not because of humanity, but despite it. Our environment will not be preserved automatically. We must take steps to preserve it, or places like the ones I picture below will only exist in our art and in our memories.
Snakes of Camp Hoover
You may remember me writing a few weeks back about the Rapidan Loop hike that I took in July. I have finally worked through the pictures that I took earlier in the summer and have "caught up" to the photos from the Rapidan hike. As mentioned in that earlier post, my friend Rich accompanied Tammy and I, and he also wrote about this hike. Even better, while we were enjoying the views from Hazeltop, he took a picture of me taking a picture. Then, when he got home he turned that photo of me into a banner for my blog. I liked it so much that I promptly incorporated it into my blog template.
The first third of this hike takes you down from Skyline Drive to Camp Hoover, where you can explore the history of the presidential retreat used by Herbert Hoover. A park ranger is resident in the camp, and he gives tours that describe the history of the camp, the various buildings that remain, and what they were used for. He also pointed out a couple of snakes that regularly sunned themselves on a rock in the camp.
Unfortunately, the snakes were halfway inside a shady crevice in the rock. We did not get great looks at the snakes. One was a Timber Rattlesnake, one of three poisonous snakes in Virginia, so we did not attempt to get very close.
In the first photo, you can barely see two snakes. The one of the left is a Northern Watersnake (the camp is right next to where Mill Prong and Laurel Prong come together to form the Rapidan River). The one on the far right is the Timber Rattlesnake. In the second picture, I was able to crop a photo to provide a closer view of the rattlesnake's head. He looks mean.
The first third of this hike takes you down from Skyline Drive to Camp Hoover, where you can explore the history of the presidential retreat used by Herbert Hoover. A park ranger is resident in the camp, and he gives tours that describe the history of the camp, the various buildings that remain, and what they were used for. He also pointed out a couple of snakes that regularly sunned themselves on a rock in the camp.
Unfortunately, the snakes were halfway inside a shady crevice in the rock. We did not get great looks at the snakes. One was a Timber Rattlesnake, one of three poisonous snakes in Virginia, so we did not attempt to get very close.
In the first photo, you can barely see two snakes. The one of the left is a Northern Watersnake (the camp is right next to where Mill Prong and Laurel Prong come together to form the Rapidan River). The one on the far right is the Timber Rattlesnake. In the second picture, I was able to crop a photo to provide a closer view of the rattlesnake's head. He looks mean.
Transition Day
Yesterday's post with pictures of Scarlet Tanager was my last post from the recent visit to South River Falls Trail. That trip was three weekends ago, so I am a bit behind. Two weekends ago (Mother's Day weekend) I was in Tazewell County Virginia with Tammy, visiting her parents. This past weekend I stayed local and visited DGCA.
Tomorrow I will begin posting a few pictures that I took while in Tazewell County. Even though I was there with Tammy, we did do a small bit of bird watching, and also managed a short hike on the Virginia Creeper Trail. I have a couple of pictures from those activities. And then I will switch to the pictures I got a DGCA.
I have noticed that if I keep up the rate of trips and photography, combined with one post a day on this blog, I will always have something to post and generally always be playing catch up. Hopefully the posts here will not be related to activities that are more than a month old.
Tomorrow I will begin posting a few pictures that I took while in Tazewell County. Even though I was there with Tammy, we did do a small bit of bird watching, and also managed a short hike on the Virginia Creeper Trail. I have a couple of pictures from those activities. And then I will switch to the pictures I got a DGCA.
I have noticed that if I keep up the rate of trips and photography, combined with one post a day on this blog, I will always have something to post and generally always be playing catch up. Hopefully the posts here will not be related to activities that are more than a month old.
Time Machine
"Tonight" as I was posting pictures that I took on Tuesday while in and around Newport, I got all confused. My PC still thinks I am on the east coast, so the post I made about sunset on Tuesday showed up in my blog under Thursday because I wrote the post very late Wednesday night west coast time.
I woke up "tomorrow" morning thinking about this and ultimately decided that I wanted my pictures to show up on the day that I actually took the photo. So I turned on the "time machine".
When you post a new entry to your blog, the Blogger system will automatically assign it the current date and time. But the "time machine" feature lets you set the date and time of your post to anything you want. I went back to all of the posts I have entered so far on this trip and changed the date and time so that they would appear in the blog on the day that the picture was taken. None of the posts that were there have disappeared, and other than this one there are no new ones as a result of the "time machine".
So, as of this post, I am a day behind. There are no posts yet for the stuff that we did "today".
I woke up "tomorrow" morning thinking about this and ultimately decided that I wanted my pictures to show up on the day that I actually took the photo. So I turned on the "time machine".
When you post a new entry to your blog, the Blogger system will automatically assign it the current date and time. But the "time machine" feature lets you set the date and time of your post to anything you want. I went back to all of the posts I have entered so far on this trip and changed the date and time so that they would appear in the blog on the day that the picture was taken. None of the posts that were there have disappeared, and other than this one there are no new ones as a result of the "time machine".
So, as of this post, I am a day behind. There are no posts yet for the stuff that we did "today".
Not Enough Time
I am too busy taking pictures to be able to post blog entries for the ones I think are interesting. Today was a busy picture taking day. I still have pictures from Yaquina Head Lighthouse (despite the fog and wind), Agate Beach, Yaquina Bay State Park and sunset from the hotel window. There are probably another six or seven blog posts from those, but it is getting late. I will have to post them tomorrow at some point.
Speaking of tomorrow...Tammy and I leave Newport tomorrow morning and head east across the state. Actually, we will head south towards big sand dunes, and then east towards Eugene where we will spend the night. This will be the first half of our move across the state to Bend, where we will spend a couple nights.
Goodnight for now. More pictures from today will be coming tomorrow. At this rate, I will be posting pictures from this trip after I get back home. But all the thumbnail versions of pictures I have taken are online at the moment (the full sized images are not...still 486 of those to upload). You can find the thumbnails for the Orgeon trip here.
Speaking of tomorrow...Tammy and I leave Newport tomorrow morning and head east across the state. Actually, we will head south towards big sand dunes, and then east towards Eugene where we will spend the night. This will be the first half of our move across the state to Bend, where we will spend a couple nights.
Goodnight for now. More pictures from today will be coming tomorrow. At this rate, I will be posting pictures from this trip after I get back home. But all the thumbnail versions of pictures I have taken are online at the moment (the full sized images are not...still 486 of those to upload). You can find the thumbnails for the Orgeon trip here.
Sleepy
I have a few more posts in mind based on today's (Monday's) adventures, but I am too sleepy to post them now. I am thinking a couple pictures of birds, and a couple pictures of whales. Yes, whales. They are not astounding pictures, but they are definitely of whales. I will try to post them tomorrow sometime.
Hmmm...
My previous post used the word "dragonflys". How illiterate of me to think that the plural of "dragonfly" was not actually something more normal like "dragonflies". I think this is a sign that I need to donate money to the education system (because surely this is not my fault)!
Behind By One Day
Tonight I posted a bunch of pictures that I took on Thursday during the boat trip. I set the date of those Thursday pictures so that they show up under Thursday instead of Friday. I found more pictures worth posting than I expected, so it took a lot longer to post them. Now I am behind by a day.
Today I went out west towards Greenville. I took a lot fewer pictures today (it was rainy), but I will not be able to post them until tomorrow.
Tomorrow I am on another field trip (dry land). The destination is much closer to Bangor than the previous field trips, so the start time is later. I do not have to get up until 4:30am tomorrow morning :-)
It is nearly 11pm now, so I will be tired tomorrow morning. But, after the boat trip yesterday I grabbed a fast-food dinner (last night was the one night where the convention did not feed you), came back to my room and was asleep by 7:30pm. I slept until 5am this morning, so that caught me up a bit.
Today I went out west towards Greenville. I took a lot fewer pictures today (it was rainy), but I will not be able to post them until tomorrow.
Tomorrow I am on another field trip (dry land). The destination is much closer to Bangor than the previous field trips, so the start time is later. I do not have to get up until 4:30am tomorrow morning :-)
It is nearly 11pm now, so I will be tired tomorrow morning. But, after the boat trip yesterday I grabbed a fast-food dinner (last night was the one night where the convention did not feed you), came back to my room and was asleep by 7:30pm. I slept until 5am this morning, so that caught me up a bit.
Enough
I have posted enough for today. I have a bunch of other pictures from today that I decided were not blog-worthy. I must get ready for tomorrow. It is nearly 10pm at the moment, and I must be getting out of bed at 3am tomorrow morning for a field trip. That is correct: 3am!!! Egad.
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