The Ripple Maker

This is the infamous ripple maker in the pond.  She's in a "no wake zone" so she's keeping the paddling to a slow pace.

Just Perched

I put out a couple of suet cakes in the trees and I built a platform type of feeder for loose seed that has a roof on it for the birds.  This little guy had probably just been on a cake feeder in this tree.  It's hanging on the branch that is in the middle of the trunk facing the camera.

Ripples

So even and smooth are the ripples on the pond.  The only thing disturbing the smooth glass effect was a duck that had landed.

One of these days I hope to capture the turtle that a nearby resident found in the road and put in the pond.  This rock seems to be a favorite sunning lounge.  There have been turtles here before but this one is strange in that it tends to swim on top of the water as the more traditional under the surface style.

Rain, Rain, Rain.....and more Rain!

We all know ducks like water, they live in it everyday.  When it rains they do not need or want an umbrella as the old saying goes, the water just runs off their backs.  We are getting the front edge of Tropical Storm Bob, it's rained since Tuesday on a regular basis.  Yesterday, just as we were preparing to grill out another storm blew up with 60 mph winds.  There were three ducks that decided to leave the pond for some dumb reason.  They didn't get very far, 600 yds. out before deciding to try to get back to the safety of the pond.  I've never seen a duck get so out of control as the wind whipped them around, nearly colliding in air.  One got back and found it had a problem getting onto the pond so it just folded its wings and dropped 10' to 15' into the water....plop.  Didn't see the second one get down but it did make it.  The third one was headed into the wind, ducks do fly like airplanes  by taking off and landing into the wind, however, this one couldn't get down.  Headed correctly it flapped it wings frantically all the while holding altitude but dropping ever so slightly.  Just as it looked as if it was going to be able to touch down the wind would give it more lift and put it 5' or so off the ground and I mean over hard ground.  Finally it did like the first one, it just put down the landing gear and folded the engines up and dropped to the deck....we have touch down Houston.

Now with all that during the day and the fact that the pond level tends to be relevant to our sump pump I checked the pond level late last night.  What do I find, a lone duck sitting inside the spray area of the fountain.  Sometimes directly under the falling water and sometimes closer to the fountain and lights.  Maybe it felt safe there?  Not sure what it did when the lights and fountain shut off at midnight.

In The Woods

Earlier picture of our Cherry Tree taken earlier this year then edited in OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 9.5 using textures and backgrounds.  The pines are in the program under "outside backgrounds".   The original has a house some 300 yards or so away.  That was edited over with a Tundra texture in Textures in the Layers section.  Like Lightroom, the original is always available but you have to do it more like Photoshop.

 Before and after.

Moving Out?

Well, that was what it looked like two evenings ago.  Rained for a couple of days and then a slight clearing and a forecast for sun and warmth and dryness.  Nothing like getting a shot of the golden hour on the blue hour side of the sky.  Reflections of color work great sometimes but I almost ran out of the proper lighting.  Overcast clouds are starting to move back in.  Forecast for yesterday was 71, partly sunny, no rain after 8AM, well they missed that one all over the place.  Didn't get out of the 50's again, cloudy all day and it rained or drizzled past 9AM.  Same for today but it is starting out like yesterday....only time will tell now.

Storm Clouds

One minute it was nice and I was getting ready to grill out.  The grill was lit and the meat was on, I guess that's a little more then getting ready.  When something like these clouds appear do you transfer to the oven inside, grab an umbrella and watch for lightning or put the outside umbrellas up and keep an eye on the wind.  As it was I beat the rain but only by minutes, taking the food off the grill just as it started to come down more that a drizzle.  Wind, this past month replaced March as the windy month this year so far.