14 August, 2016            Found a few $$$ in the park

When I say “a few $$$” I of course mean a few bucks, this guy being the biggest (so far): 

Handsome young six point whitetail buck in Pony Pasture

This youngster was hanging out with him:

Possibly a younger sibling; I took this in the same “session.”

The bigger of the two (top picture) was waiting by the side of the trail for his family (possibly friends) to come out and join him:

Family crossing the trail; the larger buck is in the bushes on the right, looking back.

In the decades I’ve hiked at Pony Pasture, in the thousands of hikes I’ve taken, in the thousands of pictures I’ve taken, before 2016 I have photographed precisely one (1) buck. I took this picture in 2013. I suspect this is the father of these youngsters:

Picture taken 2013. I’m guessing this is the father of most deer in Pony Pasture.

I’ve mismanaged my time (yet again) and it’s late and I have to be up ultra-early tomorrow so I’m going to cut this post short (yet again). A few pictures then I’ll sign off – it’s late! 

Earlier this evening I got – by surprise – my first Red-tail of the week, just across the street, but I was in a hurry and I’ll spare you the junky image. I won’t spare you this image of an osprey I took near Fulton Bank off Chippenham Parkway Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday (unlike today) was not sweltering. I believe this bird was calling; this is an unusual pose. It wasn’t panting. There were multiple birds on that nest still, but I’m only including this solo:

This was a noisy osprey:

I park at West End Assembly of God (WEAG) and walk down the side of Parham Road to photograph another osprey nest. There were birds there but the images I got were sub-marginal so, again, I’ll spare you. As I walked I looked down and there was a variety of ground cover I’d never seen (and I’ve seen a lot of ground cover) creeping from under the guard rail. I should have put something there for scale; this was a large flower, larger than a fifty-cent piece. Graceful and the color is pleasing:

Isn’t this an attractive flower? Very modest and demure. And graceful.

I took Mackey and Turner and Yuki for a walk at Pony Pasture this morning; it was so hot. Yuki and Mackey swam enthusiastically; Turner doesn’t care as much for water. I did take a few flying insect pictures. The first is an obvious butterfly; the second is either a butterfly or a moth. If any faithful readers care to enlighten me, I will enlighten others by way of this blog. Katie and Kim, you’re my most reliable identifiers; don’t be shy. But anyone else who knows, please chime in. The first is a conventional butterfly:

Pretty butterfly today:

And the second I am eager to learn what it is. I believe it’s not uncommon; I see a lot of these:

Attractive insect.

That’s it for this week – one of these weeks I’ll put up a blog post with substance.

Until next week, all best,

Jay

===========

I have a friend who, reliably, week in and week out, thanks me for the nature photography I share on my blog. I appreciate that, and I’m glad people get to see this. But the reason I put this up (my purpose) is not so much to educate people about nature. This is the internet; if you want to educate yourself about nature, there are unlimited great ways to learn about nature. My intention is more to say “Look what’s out there! This stuff is so cool, and it’s all around us, all the time! Go take a look!” Because it’s neat to see it on here. And I am here to tell you, seeing this stuff with the A/C cranking is awesome. But I hope seeing this stuff arouses people’s curiosity and interest enough they’ll go out and see for themselves. Because the breeze and the sun and the mosquitoes and the flowers and the heat and the deer and the poison ivy and the leaves and the sky and the running water – looking at this stuff on a computer is not real life. Going out there and seeing it for yourself – that’s real life. At some point in your life, maybe the best you’ll be able to do is see this stuff on a computer. But if you can get out there now and walk through a spiderweb or two, by all means do it. And have a terrific week!

===========