15 July, 2018            Just pictures

That’s not entirely true – I’ll add a bit of text. But not much this week.

This week I got a “double” on Red-tails Monday, then two “double” Red-tails on Friday. None were award winning. But this was in adequate light:

Second pair of Red-tails in one day – unprecedented, at least for me

This is a pair I got on Monday:

Double Red-tail image, West End, Monday morning – note backlit spiderweb too

I first photographed a Red-tail on this blog in May of 2015. Since that time, I have no idea how many Red-tail pictures I’ve put up. Dozens and scores. But it occurred to me for the first time last week – I’m a quick study – why I only see “doubles” at certain times of the year. Like now. When there are eggs on the nest, the adults will never leave it unattended. So you’ll never get a double – one will always be on the nest. Red-tails in central Virginia are at the top of the food chain – nothing will kill a healthy adult. But when they’re still eggs or still young, they are vulnerable. Raccoons, cats, crows, all manner of animals will come after them. But this time of year the babies are either gone or are big enough to defend themselves – and the parents are flying around. Posing for pictures.

They’re wild, though. These gardenias, for the other hand, continue to perfume our home and yard with Evelyn’s constant attention. I put this one on instagram with the hashtag “omgardenia”:

#omgardenia – Courtesy of Evelyn! 

I swam with my splint on Monday morning but they took it off for good late Monday. Tuesday I took my first bike ride since May – what a treat. Swam again Wednesday – with no splint – and rode Thursday. Long hike Friday, another ride Saturday, another hike today. I’m grateful to return to unfettered movement.

Also Tuesday I went flying, my first time with my arm unencumbered since May. Thursday we flew again, this time for my first trip to Charlottesville Airport. My “home” airport (KOFP in Hanover) has a 5,000 foot runway, which is incredibly long for a Cessna 172. The Charlottesville runway is 2,000 feet longer! A really large (twin-engine) passenger jet landed while we were on the ground. Remarkable.

Here’s a picture my instructor took with my phone a few minutes before we landed. On the location it says “Barboursville” which is a few miles northeast of the airport:

A lot of glare flying west in the evening, but still fun. Thanks for the lesson and the picture John!

I’m going to close up here. First a picture of Mackey and Turner and Yuki when they let me know there were deer in the woods at Pony Pasture this morning. Mackey and Yuki letting me know, anyway; Turner is over it:

Mackey and Yuki look worthy of being called sentinels. Turner, not so much.

These pictures are embarrassingly bad, and if there were no antlers I wouldn’t bother. Here’s the first picture to get oriented:

Small herd of deer peering through the foliage. Base of antlers barely visible on left hand deer.

You can see the antlers here – but not much else:

Here you can see the antlers but not much else. So it goes with summer photography.

I’ll close with a hungry young bluebird on my feeder this afternoon:

This is every baby bird picture:

Have a great week! All best,

Jay