Oh Deer!

Last Saturday I decided it was high time to give my new wide angle lens a try over at the daffodil field at Mill Creek Park.  But contrary to my initial plans, using the new lens was not the most exciting part of this photo adventure.







After I gave up trying to fight the bright beaming late afternoon sun and all the shadows that come with it, I put my workhorse 28mm-300mm zoom lens back on my D90 and decided to just enjoy the regular walking path.  While stopped looking at the trail head bulletin board a couple walking by stopped and told us they had just seen a few deer on the path about a quarter mile down.  Of course I practically took off at a sprint.....but after speed walking and scanning the forest along the creek I spied no deer.

 But the creek looked sparkling and gorgeous as it ambled through the carpet of green grass and I saw a worn down footpath off the paved walkway so I clambered down the embankment picking up speed as I did...pausing and shouting back to my #1 assistant who was following me.  As I turned to look back, my trusty assistant grabs my shoulder and turns me almost face to face with four deer!!!  Of course they were beginning to move away as my bull in a china shop behavior is in no way conducive to sneaking up to wild subjects.  But their tails were down, and they were moving slow enough that we could follow.....so we trailed them along their beaten down path. 

How many deer do you see?  Hope you said three!

  




I didn't get the awesome perfect photo that I would have wanted....but it was my own fault!!  However tracking those deer through the picture perfect setting as people shouting and strolled at the top of the embankment on the main walkway was still thrilling, fun, and oddly soothing.

Tracks of my Deers

 Another fun highlight after the deer got too far away, on the way back I heard some quacking and looked to find a lovely mallard drake cruising along the creek.  He swam along quacking intermittently and then hopped up onto a rock near a spillway and to preen after a few quick dunks in the water!  Fun to see that happen in the wild for real instead of in a city park next to a football field.

All in all a nice kick off to the spring photo season.  I hope to have more posts as I get out there enjoying the great outdoors!

Deer path

If I was a deer I would want to live here!

Squirreling Away

  The last two weekends I decided to get out and about with my camera in town because I knew I would miss peak fall tree colors if I kept delaying photo excursions, waiting to go to some big park or destination. Plus one thing our town has going for it are the HUGE old trees!  Firestone Cemetery is one of the best places for big old trees.  So on my way home from work Friday I decided to hop out of the car and snap some pictures.  

 

One thing I didn't expect to find, and should have anticipated, was the cemetery was a squirrel playground!  All those old trees means food a plenty, and with these little critters working over time to store food for winter, it was rather amusing to watch them.

 We all see these little guys pick up the pace when the leaves start to turn, hopping all over, running to and fro.  A common sight, so most of us don't really think about the provision God has made for these little creatures.  For months they will have to rely on caches of nuts to survive winter.  We all know God provides them with the acorns and nuts off the trees...but did you know God gave these little guys amazing brain power....better than me and you?!!

"These squirrels are not putting any flag there, they are not smelling the nuts, they are really remembering the exact location of their nuts," said neuroscience researcher Pierre Lavenex. "They use information from the environment, such as the relative position of trees and buildings, and they triangulate, relying on the angles and distances between these distant landmarks and their caches."

Such a feat would not be possible for humans, said Lavenex. "People can do this for a few sites, maybe six or seven, but not for nearly as many as squirrels do," he said.

 Squirrels do this for hundreds of caches!  But they store more than they can eat, so many are buried and never retrieved to be eaten....so another aspect of God's Providence is for the trees!  Their seeds and nuts get neatly buried in the ground to grow more beautiful trees that will later feed other squirrels!  Seems like God designed that harmony of continuing provision perfectly!!

This guy was going from headstone to headstone trying to keep his eye on me, while getting around me to go store his food.  At first he came running at me on the paved path like he owned the place but he lost that game of chicken....barely.  ;-)

This vigilant fellow scurried up the tree as I was approaching.  He was clearly concerned I wanted his acorn.  I read that these guys will fake out predators or potential thieves by burrowing around in the ground like they buried their nut, but instead hiding it in their cheek and burying it somewhere else instead.  Smart thinking fella....but I prefer my nuts dipped in chocolate with a hard candy shell.  I am territorial too...I like a big 'M' stamped on them, which stands for "MINE"!

 

This is still an Eastern Gray Squirrel.  But it is a different type that is all black.  Frankly they look alot creepier to me and this camo nonsense on the tree didn't make me feel any better!  Needless to say I snapped the pic and didn't waste time getting in my car and getting out of there!!

Stay behind the lens everyone...but only as long as it takes to snap the picture...then  use those getaway sticks!

Sunday Drive

 Yesterday was another perfect summer day.  Eighty degrees with sunshine and cotton candy clouds.  But for some reason I was in the house most of the day, so after dinner I thought  a nice drive out in the evening air would hit the spot.

As more clouds rolled in, I could tell the sunset had potential to be a great....or a total bust.  As it turns out it was a little of both.

The sunbeams were breaking through the clouds and could be seen perfectly from a freshly threshed (say that ten times fast!!) straw field.  After inadvertently disturbing a lovely doe from her leisurely graze in the field, I snapped some photos of the early setting sun.

It was a pretty nice set up for a roadside photo op, and just behind me out of view is a little pond at the bottom of another hill.  Gotta love those rolling hills of farmland!  

After exhausting all possible viewpoints at this location, it was time to get back in the car and head down the road to find another potential spot to see the sunset.

Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in thicker, and there was no commanding view to be found facing the west on the country road we were cruising on.  Finally we reached the big local fairgrounds and decided to stretch our legs....and those photos will make up tomorrow's post!

Until then enjoy a Sunday sunset from behind the lens.

 

By Horatius Bonar:  

Excerpts from“His Sun”

"He maketh his sun to rise."—Matthew 5:45

 

He keeps it burning. It is not allowed to burn low or to go out. He supplies it with all that is needful, and says to it, Burn on, burn on. He leads it up each morning, and over the arch of noon, and down into the west. All this rising and setting, this daily shining and shading, this coming and departing, are his. It is his sun emphatically. Were it not for Him it would go out in obscure darkness.

 

It fructifies It makes all living things to grow and bring forth fruit. No sunshine, no life; no growth, no fruit. For man and beast, for herb and tree, for flower and leaf, sunshine brings growth and fruitfulness. Such is God's love in sunshine. Ah, yes, it is his sun! It does his work.

Old barns a plenty around our town.  Couldn't tell from this photo but this one sits on one of the busiest state routes in the region!