A Heron Visits For Dinner

With a neck like this there should be no misses when catching dinner.  There are two regular visitors to the pond and this one must be younger because he does miss and has a different approach to the task.

 

 

This strike was a miss.  He's somewhat an impatient fisherman (bird).  Moves too fast and in many cases he walks along the bank so he's actually too far from his prey.

 

 

After missing several times from this location he decided to go ahead and move on along the back but in the water.  He's headed into a known feeding ground for the fish.  We can see their activity around the pond in several locations so dinner may be just ahead.

 

Rain Overhead, Sun In The Distance

Blue skies to the east and what is going on overhead now.....rain.  It is in the forecast everyday for the next week.  Okay by me, keeps things green.

Twinkle Twinkle

Star bursts in the water.  This is what you get when taking an overhead shot around noon with a very bright and cloudless day.  A polarizing filter helped a bit.  One of my personal favorite Heron photos.  Click on him.  This on is the young one that visits the pond.

Racing a Chevy Chevette....Diesel

This is the inside of a Chevy Chevette (diesel) that my daughter and her husband as well two more drivers and a few more support team members are driving in a race at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL this July.  They use to race at Gingerman in Michigan but after two miserable years of bad weather in April they moved to Illinois and July.  The race is held by www.24hoursoflemons.com/.  Rule one, the car cannot be worth more than $500 and yet must be totally safety setup just like a NASCAR car would be.  Drivers in fire suits, certified helmets etc.  Just had to show the rusty hood.

 

Oh yea, that's a big boat Bonneville in the back ground.

 

 
Lots of pine trees giving the air that magic pine smell that makes everything so fresh smelling. 

 
No, it isn't fall in Hocking Hills as it was May when the photo was taken.  Makes one anxious for fall but really, how weird is that after the long cold winter we had.

 

 
My small tribute to Ansel Adams even though I'm not a true fan. For me it's like HDR, a little bit has gone too far in most cases.  Seems like most people that show it now tone it down a bit. 

Moon over Hocking Hills KOA on Saturday night, Mothers Day weekend.  They kept saying some bad weather was headed our way but the friends we were with said it always went around that area.....sure enough, it did.  Just a small amount of rain over night.

From An Earlier Time

This is the famed Wright B Flyer that was designed and flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright of Dayton, OH.  South of Dayton is a small airstrip, known as Wright Bros. Field.  It is located in Springboro, OH and in reality it isn't that small.  Small corporate jets come and go all the time.  It beats going into Dayton International on the north side of Dayton.  At this airfield is a hanger that you can see from SR 741 and on it is the faces of Wilbur and Orville.  Periodically, when there are special events at Wright Patterson AFB this replica will fly over as it did today.  About 2 or 3 years ago one of the replicas crashed, killing both of the pilots.  It's a neat thing to see and very noisy like a helicopter when flying away from you but it sneaks up on you when coming towards you. 

Excercise Before Flight



They get up in the morning and do leg stretches.  They may fluff their feathers and even get a bit to eat but before they fly they seem to always do some wing warm-up exercises before taking flight to another pond.  Perhaps to visit a buddy or to just see something different.