Some Odds and The End of Gulfapalooza 2011

 All good things must come to an end, and here's the last of our Gulfapalooza 2011 lighthouse-hunting trip.  The odds and ends and um, The End.  Above, a mushroom cloud (oh, if ONLY) rises above Houston and a southbound intermodal train.

 I don't know.  Palms and sky.  Pretty.

 Swampy grass near Lake Pontchartrain.  Sawgrass?  Sugar cane?  Whatever - it's neat!

 Tourist trap!  Tourist trap at Port Isabel!  Hide your wallet!

 This is what Texas looks like.  Okay, that's not fair.  This is what Texas looks like when it's about to rain.

The Orion nebula is the birthplace of stars and worlds.  This part of Texas gives birth to oil rigs.

 Train!  Well, a semi-restored museum piece, but still.  A nice example of an old SW1 switcher.

 ...and an even better caboose.

 Pensacola Light Station's only pelican.  He's very disciplined, though - stood still until completely painted!

We finished shooting lighthouses with a couple of days to spare, but we were nowhere near ready to go home, so we made haste to Kill Devil Hills, and our favorite beach-side balcony.  Best.  Trip.  Ever.

Thanks for visiting.  With any luck, we'll have more pictures to post soon.

Of A Feather: Revisiting Some Of My Favorite Birds

By request (sort of), here are some of my favorite bird pictures. I love birds, and although they are truly obnoxious to photograph, I will definitely keep trying to capture more of these animals on film/digital media/whatever. Above - Pelicans (and the requisite sea gull cleanup guy) in Key West, FL in 2002.

Goldfinch! Lancaster, VA - 2010.

Gull pacing the ferry in North Carolina's Middle Banks, 2007.

Snoozing on the beach at Kill Devil Hills, NC - 2009.

Sparrow in dogwood tree - Rockville, MD - 1987ish.

Dinner time! My most-almost-perfectest pelican action shot. Almost. Key West - 2002.

Dinner time for hummingbird - Lancaster, VA - 2001.

"Whot?" Fort De Soto Park, St. Petersburg, FL - 1999.

Pelicans and a few cormorants - Naples, FL - 1999.

Egrets - Fort De Soto Park - St. Petersburg, FL - 1999.

Emu (not Phillips) - Central Pennsylvania - 1998. Scary birds, Emus.

We'll leave off this time with [Maris]'s favorite - a snowy egret at Naples, FL in 1999.

New stuff coming. Thanks for stopping by!

Gone Fishin' At Olde Towne Beache, KW

Key West's pelicans are as laid-back as its people, but they have to eat. So, they fish. Key West's seagulls are not laid-back (no seagulls are), and they have to eat, too. In the shot above, there's a gull floating between the fifth and sixth pelicans. This is a common sight, as there is at least one seagull assigned to tag along with each group of pelicans. They follow the big guys around and scavenge for whatever bits of fish fall out of their beaks after each dive. It's the circle of life!

"We've been floating for 30 seconds, guys. Don't you think it's time we got up and did some fishing?"

Key West's cats, many of whom are descended from Hemingway's famous six-toed feline, are pretty laid-back, but they have to eat, too. This cat is thinking about going after one of those plump pelicans. Ha ha ha - no he's not. You should see what he did 12 seconds after this frame was shot.

Seagull pretending to be laid-back.

Frigate Birds are probably laid-back, too. I just can't get close enough to one to know for sure.

Glide, glide, glide...

"I see a fish!"

((SPLOOSH SPLOOSH, GOBBLE GOBBLE))

Three stages of a pelican dive in one frame. What could be better? ("Oh, and we totally see you, gull. Little freeloader.")

How about SIX stages of pelican flight/diving? This group was showing off a little bit, I think. Possibly just to taunt the cat on the beach.

Thanks for looking. See you again soon...

Pelicans With No Egrets!

What can I say - I really like pelicans. They've been around for over 40 million years, which beats most critters on this planet. Also, for a plump, awkward-looking bird on land, they are astonishing fliers, divers and swimmers. Clearly, this is a species that really knows what it's doing. The sleeping bird above is at the beach in Naples, FL in 1999.

There are actually a few cormorants in this shot, but it's mostly pelicans, captured in just about every conceivable pelican pose. Naples, FL 1999.

They're faster than they look, and despite the back-lighting here on the beach at La Mer in Key West, FL in 2002, I still like this shot.

Two frames of Pelicans in flight - Naples, FL 1999.

This youngster is airing out his wings before heading back into the water. Naples, FL 1999.

One pelican, two shots. This is on the fishing pier in Ft. De Soto Park, St. Petersburg, FL 1999.

Marathon, FL 1991.

Tough noontime exposure on the sand at La Mer in Key West in early December, 2002.

Thanks for looking. More birds to come - even a few egrets!

A Day On The OBX

We managed to escape to Kill Devil Hills, NC for a quick 3-day recharging of our sadly depleted solar batteries, a couple of weekends ago. The photos were simply fun targets of opportunity gathered during a long beach walk. It was therapeutic to just shoot birds, waves and sky, as I started doing back in 1985. The banner above is a flock of southbound pelicans. Stay tuned for a future post or two devoted entirely to these magnificent birds.

(No, that is not an east side gang sign [Maris] is flashing; just a harmless little shadow puppet.)

Rough surf-fishing, today. All the fish that were caught had bruises.

Two more pelicans, floating on a strong southerly breeze of at least 20-25 knots.

These guys were very excited to show each other their necks. Sparring? I dunno.

My kind of seagull!

We could have watched waves like this all day. Oh wait - we did watch waves like this all day.

Sooooooooo hard to leave...

But, real life and Fall awaited us back in Maryland. Plenty more to come, but please bear with me - we are experiencing some major technical difficulties.