No Floatees for this Bird

 

Let me tell you, swans are very confident swimmers! As you can see, this one had some serious wake going on behind him...  I couldn't believe just how fast he swam by me: I only got 4 pictures of him before he was gone.  I also saw him flying earlier in the morning.  It apparently takes a lot of effort to get in the air because I could hear his wings hitting the water for a really long time before seeing him fly overhead.

Location: Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary - Norfolk, MA

Date: 11/2/2013

Stony Brook Wildlife Refuge

Took this while walking around and waiting for some friends to meet me at Stony Brook Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary this past weekend.  Had a complete blast there.  Hopefully I'll be sharing more pics from that visit :)  Click here to go to the Stony Brook website.

Shells by the sea shore

So, we were originally planning to go to the beach today.  Yeah, with hurricane Irene looming.... not so much.  Instead we have been taking things off our patio and moving potted plants to keep the wind from getting to the too much.  Keeping with the spirit of going to the beach (I can still daydream right?) I rooted through all my pictures and found this one that I took at a beach down at the Cape earlier in the year. 

Is it deer week or something?

So, I'm seeing a trend here... I have seen no fewer than 8 deer in the past week.  I'm starting to think they are looking for me rather then the other way around!  First, I saw a doe and three fawns in my apartment complex.  Then this weekend I was taking a walk down the driveway at our place in Maine and I scared the heck out of this, what I'm guessing, is an adolescent deer.  Actually I didn't even see him for the longest time.  All I heard was a sudden galloping of hooves through the leaves off in the woods next to the driveway.  I looked in carefully but couldn't see anything, so I started to walk back to the house.  I just happened to look into the woods one last time before giving up and I saw him.  Cool huh?  That was probably around 11am on Saturday.  Later on that day, when hubbie and I were driving back to the house after going on a wonderful schooner cruise (pics to come), we drove by a field near the house and saw at least three more deer munching away on the tall grass.  One ran off right away and two lingered just long enough for me to get my camera, get out of the car and walk about two steps.  I swear one of them jumped about 4 feet straight in the air as it bounded off into the woods.  It was really REALLY cool to see so much wildlife in one weekend!  Too bad I didn't get any pictures of the last set.  They just moved way too fast for my camera without some prior planning to adjust shutter speed.  Oh well, I'm pretty happy we even saw them at all!

Bravest Frog Ever

I took a walk through Heritage Park in Sudbury, MA on my way home from work this week.  It is pretty small as far as parks go, but contained a small pond where I saw a this great example of one of my favorite animals, the frog.  Considering just how many frogs I scared into jumping back into the water before even seeing them, this one must have nerves of steel.  He sat resolutely while I kept creeping closer and closer to get a good photo.  It's actually quite funny if you see all the shots leading up to this one.  It's like I was the frog paparazzi!  The series of pictures is below if you are interested:

Fuzzilla!

Saw this cutie pie baby alpaca when I was up in Maine earlier this summer at the Fiber Frolic in Windsor, ME.  Had a ton of fun there and saw many vendors local to my home in MA, which was a happy surprise.  This little guy must have been so happy to be without his heavy fleece.  I can't imagine how hot things get for them in the summer.

An Early Morning Stroll Through the Neighborhood

Seeing this doe and her three fawns last week completely made my morning.  I was slowly navigating my way through our plethora of speed bumps on my way to work when I caught some movement off to my left.  These four beauties were hanging our right in the middle of the complex and my driving by (albeit slowly) scared them off.  They weren't too frightened of me though since I was able to fumble for my camera and take three pictures before they wandered over the hill and back into the woods. 

This picture was the best of the three, which isn't saying much, but at least the fawns are in focus unlike anything else I took of them.  Of course, I took the one good picture of them when they were behind a tree... typical me.  What's really funny is that one of my friends was asking me about the wildlife I had seen recently and I had told her that we really don't get deer where I live... it's too busy.  Well, guess I've been proved wrong, lol.

Bumble Bumble....

Yet another picture from the Elm Bank show.  There are so many great things to take pictures of there.  Cars, plants, insects and people abound!

These Turtles Have the Right Idea

So, yeah.... this isn't a picture that was taken today or even this week.  There is no way it could have been because there HASN'T BEEN ANY SUN this week.  So, in the interest of cheering everybody up and returning  my own sanity I decided to post this picture from two weeks ago when my mom and I went to Garden in the Woods.  It was actually nice out then.  I wanna sun myself like the turtles are.... wah :(

Good butterfly.... now stay very, very still....

Is it bad that I wished he were glues to the butterfly bush he was perched on?  Ummmm..... well... yeah.  But he was so pretty and flew off so soon :(  I think I'm going to have to take a trip to the butterfly place in Westford again sometime soon.  I saw this beauty when I was down at the Cape last week.  Obviously hurricane Earl really did a number on the plant and animal population.  Ok, my snark is now over.

Somebody didn't have a good morning

I found this in the driveway going around the building on my way in to work this morning.  Hopefully this bird survived....

My Frog Prince!

Just kidding!  My frog prince and I met in college and now live happily ever after... bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha!  Actually if anyone was the frog I was, not my hubbie.

6/19/2010 - Why Hello There!

I found this beauty when I was looking at all the pretty hydrangeas in my parents yard today.  Were you caught in between the glass and screen of our slider last year?  You look surprisingly similar to that one...

6/14/2010 - I needs my caffiene!

I went outside tonight to take some pictures of some fiber and projects that were long overdue and I found this guy clinging onto this coke bottle for dear life.  I can't imagine being so close to a caffeinated beverage without actually being able to get some.  Poor guy!

5/14/2010 - Fuzzy Grill Visitor

We found this guy sunning himself on the grill cover when I got home.  These guys actually skeeve me out a bit, plus they eat trees.  Bad caterpiller!  I blame you for the leaved of our jurassic sized hosta having holes in them.

5/7/10 - Brave Birdee

Found this stalwart defender when I was at my folks house the other day.  Apparently this is one bird the cat has not chased off the property.

2/16/2010 - 2 Minutes of Kitten

Our cat is never interested in my yarn.  Ok, apparently there was a 2 minute exception today.

2/10/2010 - The Floor's Point of View

If one's cat were to, say.... peer over the edge of the bed and glare at it for no apparent reason.

2/9/2010 - Stark Surveillance

I found this guy and a bunch of his friends taking in the scene near the post office today.

1/10/10 - If only I could sleep so soundly

Our cat absolutely adores our bed and was so fast asleep that I took 5-10 shots of her without her even noticing.