Friday Night Photos - Cold and Wet edition....

Guests approacheth, so this will be short.

Rotten weather over the last week. Took perhaps one shot..... maybe.

Anyway, a couple of Salisbury Cathedral and the attached cloister:

We're promised sunshine tomorrow. Yeah, sure.........

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It was there that I saw the best preserved Magna Carta in existence.
The German lawyer standing next to me cried uncontrollably. I admit to a lump in my throat, perhaps "something" got in my eyes.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

janis b's picture

@on the cusp

a regret for the failure to achieve such lofty ideals, and the hope that those sentiments succeed.

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snoopydawg's picture

We've been having lots of wind, hail and rain. The winds were so bad that it broke my screen door and I've gotten 9 piles of broken branches to find somewhere to take them.

Twilight at Yosemite
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Hey look. The two Russians are in your photo if you look close enough.

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Socialprogressive's picture

@snoopydawg
I haven't been to Yosemite since 1977. I really need to go again.

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When I offer to wash your back in the shower, all you have to say is yes or no.
Not all this "who are you, and how did you get in here?" nonsense.

snoopydawg's picture

@Socialprogressive
I'm glad that I got to go there before it got so crowded. People are having to buy lottery tickets to get into the park now.

Have you spoken to your brother that lives in Morgan recently? A huge conglomerate has bought the land at the base of the mountains across the canyon from snow basin and they are going to put in a private ski resort, golf course and 750 homes. This is horrible news for this area. This looks like a done deal and only the details need to be figured out.

It's the mountains on the left. This is the only photo of them I can find. I just went through the valley and love looking at this area because it's so peaceful.

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

I like the harmony between the mountains and the trees.

Would the city pick the piles up for you?

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snoopydawg's picture

@janis b

It exudes peace and solitude to me.

The branches are in the backyard and would have to be drugged to the curb. That's if the city is even doing pickups anymore. Guess I'll chop them up somehow

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boriscleto's picture

So I apologize if the comments are a bit photo heavy...

Montezuma NWR in April
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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

snoopydawg's picture

@boriscleto

Love the depth of field in the first two. It's good to see you posting again.

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boriscleto's picture

Delphi Falls
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Tinker Falls
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Some Deep Dreams
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boriscleto's picture

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boriscleto's picture

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boriscleto's picture

This was my first time using my new lens. (HD Pentax D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6 ED DC AW)

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boriscleto's picture

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

janis b's picture

@boriscleto

the sweet sparrow ecstatic on the head of grain, the majestic great blue heron in reeds or mangroves(?), and the sequence of changing moments at the two falls. Thank you.

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boriscleto's picture

@janis b Of the female Red-winged Blackbird and the Song Sparrow is the Common Reed...Phragmites australis, an invasive species. It tends to displace native species such as wild rice, cattails, and native wetland orchids...

Phragmites monocultures dominate most wetland areas in NY, those that aren't dominated by purple loosestrife anyway, and make bird watching almost impossible as it grows so dense and tall...It has been proposed to use goats to control the species...

In Louisiana Phragmites is considered a noxious weed, but it has become critical to the stability of shorelines of wetland areas and the Mississippi delta. Since 2017 there has been a major die off of the reed beds caused by an invasive insect called Phragmites scale insect or the more recently-coined name, roseau cane mealybug. Now they are investigating importing parasitic wasps to control them...

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janis b's picture

@boriscleto

The red winged blackbird looks like it is perched on what I thought was cattail, but didn't know or remember that reeds/cattails produced grain like seed heads.

How often does importing foreign pests to control an invader work, I wonder?

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dystopian's picture

@janis b yes Janis you are correct, that is a cattail the Red-wing is on.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

boriscleto's picture

@janis b The very first photo is a female Red-tailed on a reed, the second is the Song sparrow.

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boriscleto's picture

@janis b @janis b Unless you were talking about this last post in which case the first photo is a Marsh wren on a cattail and then a Red-winged on a cattail. Then later there is a Song sparrow on a cattail...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

magiamma's picture

Thanks for the Friday POT.

Sunny today finally. But more rain coming. Went outside and listened to Spring. Birds are so happy for the sun.

Saw this family of Canadian Geese on the river the other day. More and more are breeding here.
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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

janis b's picture

@magiamma

Thank you for checking in as always, especially because of how involved you are with promoting the good of the environment.

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janis b's picture

Thanks for posting.

You do justice to the majesty of the cathedral. It looks inviting to be cloistered ; ).

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Daenerys's picture

This year started off very slow for birds, but things have really been busy the past few weeks. We've had a perfect storm for migrants, keeping many of them here much longer than normal it seems: scarlet tanagers everywhere, tons of warblers, and lots of orioles in peoples' yards. I got a whopping seven lifers last week, which puts me at 197 species that I've seen in person! I've taken many photos, but to save time I'll just share the lifers for now:

Eastern towhee

Tennessee warbler

Cape May warbler

Wilson's warbler

magnolia warbler

bay-breasted warbler

(this was the best photo I could get of him)

And finally, a blackburnian warbler landed on the ground right in front of me as I was walking from the barn to the house the other day, but I didn't have any camera on me at the time so I didn't get a photo of him. Pity, I think they are my favorite of the warblers; but I will keep trying to get a photo of one.

Cheers all!

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This shit is bananas.

janis b's picture

@Daenerys

Your photo of the cape may warbler is stunning.

Of course I had to look up the blackburnian warbler. What a treat it must be to see a little flash or orange flitting around.

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janis b's picture

Fading tulips and spider webs ...

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dystopian's picture

@janis b Janis I love the spider webs. Great photo. I had not had any of the issues SD had prior, but this week on the above post, the first photo is not loading for me. Never had it happen before.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

janis b's picture

@dystopian

It’s a conundrum to me, but that’s not unusual when it come to these sort of technical matters. My guess is that it has something to do with how I register my photos on flickr. I’ll try to sort it out in the near future with my daughter, or some other 20 something year old person. Cheers!

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dystopian's picture

Hey, B.R. beautiful cathedral photos. I heard at city center there is a little shop a couple Russians run called Spies R Us, said to have the freshest Novichok anywhere.

B.C, great to see some of your bird photos again! Wonderful work! Great pix! Love yer warblers, the Prairie and Blue-winged especially. When I lived in the NE corner of Jersey we had Blue-wings feeding fledging young on the porch banister. Back in '78 there was a Prairie that summered in eastern California. I found it feeding baby Lesser Goldfinches in their nest, the parents didn't mind.
*edit: added missing 'g' in fledging'

D, you too, great bird photos, always a treat to see. That maggie is a beaut, so are Cape May and Bay-breast. The two warblers I hear most cited as 'favorites' are Blackburnian and
Townsend's. Those burns are really something. Nice to see you got a Wilson's pic.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

snoopydawg's picture

I can see the last photo. But I don't know what it is? It's haunting though.

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg
you can't see the more recent photos I take from my flickr library, but can see ones from my DKos library. I couldn't get the spider web photo from my flickr library to post, so I put it in DKos to post, and that works for you?

Help Johnny!

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Love the Close. Stay at Sarem College. Special place.

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dystopian's picture

Looks like birds are very well covered this week, so...

Shining Flea Beetle - about a quarter inch long. The femur on the hindleg (red part) is way oversized and these jump 2-3 feet faster than your eye can follow.
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Cypress tree roots
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Scarlet Clematis - aka Vaseflower and Leatherflower. A purple one is widespread, this one is endemic to the Edwards Plateau of central Texas.
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Square-bud Primrose
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Venus' Looking Glass
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Thanks to everyone all over the site for all the great posts, threads, thoughts and ideas.

We are not alone.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

janis b's picture

@dystopian

just look around!

Where is that cypress tree, I'd like to visit it ; ).

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dystopian's picture

@janis b Sabinal is spanish for Cypress. If you ever head to central Texas... message me... I am about 75 mi. W. of San Antonio. There are are number of world class sized Cypress here. One near me is 27' around at chest height. Most of the rivers on the Edwards Plateau are lined with Bald Cypress. 99% are second-growth, only a few original trees remain, about a thousand years old they say. The originals were all cut for shingles in the 1860's. Only the crooked at the base trees were left as they could not mill them. The ones lining the rivers are impressive but only 150+ years old. Save the odd few true rare granddaddys, mostly on private property.

Here are some in fall out the trucklet window as I cross the bridge headed to town.
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And that goes for anyone here... if you are heading thisaway, let me know... world class birding, bugging, nature nerding, cold beer and better. Smile 20 mi. N. of Hwy. 90.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

janis b's picture

@dystopian

I'd love to be guided by you on a tour of ancient bald cypress, or really any other delight of nature.

One of my most memorable walks was through Cypress Swamp Sanctuary in Florida. I went back twice. I'll post an old b&w photo some time.

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edg's picture

Distance shot of a saguaro forest on the slope of a nearby mountain peak. The little green vertical splotches are cacti. There are several hundred on this slope.

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Zooming in to about 1/3rd of the forest brings a bit more definition to the cacti.

Saguaro Forest Mid Zoom.jpg

Zooming in to an area about 120 feet by 90 feet shows individual cacti. Most of these cacti are 15 to 20 feet tall.

Saguaro Forest Zoom.jpg

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janis b's picture

@edg

Oh, cactus are not trees. But most plants also have leaves, no? Cactus are an enigma to me in their foreignness. Thanks for sharing them.

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edg's picture

@janis b

Most cactus morphologists have concluded that cactus spines are either modified leaves or modified bud scales (the difference is inconsequential because bud scales themselves are modified leaves).

Source: The evolutionary conversion of leaves to spines in cacti

So cactus do have leaves but they're more advanced evolutionarily. Smile

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janis b's picture

@edg

must toughen up!

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dystopian's picture

@edg neat shots edg. What a great ecosystem they are an apex species of. Now THATS a cactus! Organ Pipes are pretty nice too. I spent a few months worth of time wandering around SE AZ, mostly in my youth in the 60's and 70's. When all the birding hotspots were fairly unknown but by an 'in' (weird) crowd. Been back several times since in 80's and 90's, last in 04 though. Hoping within a year or two to see it again. Maybe my favorite is Cave Creek in the Chiricahuas, and Rustler Pk. up top there, though I heard it burned a couple years ago. But the Huachucas and Madera Cyn in the Sta. Ritas are right there with it.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

janis b's picture

Please let me know.

I’ll try to sort it out before too long.

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travelerxxx's picture

@janis b

I can't see the first pic in this post, Janis. All the rest are fine for me.

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janis b's picture

@travelerxxx

I'm working on it.

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Dawn's Meta's picture

@janis b

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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janis b's picture

@Dawn's Meta

I'm working on it.

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