One Step Closer

I'll jump in if you get any closer.

An Early Morning Visitor

The face of authority as is the eagle and falcon.

I got several shots of this hawk sitting on the deck railing.  The problem was that I didn't want to spook it by raising the blinds so all that could be done was to twist them open.  I didn't even know it was out there until my wife told me so I hurriedly retrieved the camera.  I edited it in PS to hide the lines from the blinds.  I love their faces.  A little HDR effect as well.  Possibly a Red Tail.  The two below are of a Coopers Hawk.  Much bigger bird.

This one was on the neighbors deck a couple of years ago.

This was last year.  A Robins nest was in the tree above it.  You can see one of the babies on the ground.  It became part of the noon day meal for this magnificent bird along with its two siblings.

Early Fall?

The weather this year has been just plain weird.  Lots of rain giving this area a bumper crop in soy beans and corn.  The farmer markets have some really nice produce.  Last year we were begging for rain.

We've only had one week of temps in the 90's.  Most of the summer has seen daily temps in the mid to low 80's.  But this week we have ventured into what one would call FALL temps.  Today it barely climbed to the upper 70's and tomorrow is forecast to be 69 at noon and 71 at 4 PM. Tonight is forecast to be 49 degrees.  Whoaaaaa, only 17 more at we're at the freezing mark.

Great opportunity for some fantastic sky shots.


A morning ground fog shot with sun beam coming through the pines.