Picture-A-Week 2021 - Week 04

[pierces]

Pictures taken between Monday, January 18 and Sunday, January 24.

 

 

Rules: See above

That's it. This isn't a contest.

All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising).

Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize.

The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays.

Post one. Post many. Up to you.

Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

[Docker123]

Monday afternoon walk to Newport Lakes. Unusually large amount of bird noise as I walked from the car (no, they weren’t pleased to see me).

 

Seems they are not very fond of having a collared sparrowhawk sitting in one of their trees eyeing off the menu.

 

 

 

[zackiedawg]

Great looking hawk.  And I know that noise - I hear it in my backyard often when all the jays and grackles scream and yell all at once, I know the cooper's hawk must be back there somewhere.

 

I had a rare chance to join one of the weekly picture threads DURING the week it's posted (usually I shoot on Saturday and Sunday, so I'm always posting to the previous week thread)...I went out for a short few hours on Monday, MLK holiday, to the local wetlands:

 

A tricolor heron looking lovely against the trees as it flies by:

 

A red-shouldered hawk attempting to hide in a pond apple tree, which was a little too small to really hide it:

 

A close-up hello from a palm warbler:

 

A sneaky sora, down by the water and hiding from me behind the reeds...but I found a hole in the reeds where I could sneak a shot:

 

A pied-billed grebe floating along, stretching out the back feet underwater:

 

Least bittern with a fish lunch:

[pierces]

This week's photo doesn't really have much of a story other than the fact that it was taken while on a walk that itself walked a fine line between allowed exercise and actual enjoyment, which is not allowed. The day started out cold and foggy and when it warmed up somewhat unexpectedly, we went out and walked a couple of miles through the neighborhood enjoying the sunshine, cool weather and a little bit more contentment than we are technically allowed under the rules imposed by the Powers That Be in the People’s Republic of California. Since we aren’t elected officials, relatives of elected officials or insanely wealthy, we follow the rules. We do, however, still do what we can to enjoy the living in the greatest country on earth. 

 

The Watcher

 

 

 

 

Dave

Edited January 25, 2021 by pierces

[zackiedawg]

I already posted some shots for this week's thread, from the rare Monday holiday - but of course I still went out to the wetlands on Saturday for some more shooting, so have a few additional shots to share.  This time, for something different and fun, I had an extended session with some very playful and silly river otters.  I was the only person in the wetlands, and the otters were playing up on the levee when I first approached.  I stayed hidden behind some pushes and shot through the leaves, until they finally noticed me and plunged into the water.  I then followed them for several hundred yards along the bank as they dove around snatching crawfish from the bottom, popping up to eat, and of course watching me.  They played around a bit in the water (there were 3 of them) and finally swam off too far to follow.

 

You can tell I'm staying hidden behind the bushes, shooting through the leaves:

 

Once in the water, they'd dive down under, and come up with a crawfish (you can see the claw sticking out of the otter's mouth):

 

Happy looking otter:

 

Keeping an occasional eye on me:

 

Here are the three of them, playing around and kissing:

 

Swimming farther away from me - they'd disappear under the duckweed, then suddenly a head would pop up and look back my way:

[boeckli]

Had a very quiet week

 

[Oviedo32765]

I ventured over to Lake Eola in Orlando Sunday to get some sunset photos. The sunset wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped, but I stayed until dusk to get some fountain shots with the city lights.