I thought I might get a little closer to these cormorant guys to get a closer shot, being that my little camera doesn’t have much of a zoom capability. Lately I’ve been getting more and more frustrated with the fact that I have limited ZOOM…because all my favorite subjects are too fast, and I’d like to get them close up. I can’t sneak up on them, that’s for sure…because by the time I got down to where I would have gotten a better shot all of these guys had flown away.

And it didn’t happen just today, either.

Man this shot would have been awesome if I’d had more ZOOM.

I pass this little place where there are numerous herons and egrets, every day - sometimes TWICE a day. What I’ve been able to tell from far away and the pictures that I’ve taken so far, is that there are great blue herons, there are white or snowy egrets, and then there is some big brown bird that appears to be some kind of a brown egret. It showed up really well the other day when I tried to sneak up and it started to fly away.

Eventually you’ll see shots that have a lot more detail; when I get the new camera.

There are quite a few other picture adventures I’ve been on lately; one of them was to go and see the tiny little castle in nearby Elgin, Illinois, called “Pratt’s” castle. I tripped out there one day when it was raining because my curiosity had gotten the better of me. I wanted to know if it was difficult to get to, as someone had written that it was hidden very well. It is on the fox river, but I was surprised at how nearby it is.

I wanted to get a look at it from the river side, but I guess the only way I’m going to be able to do that, is to go out on a boat.

I didn’t want to disturb the guy who owns the place, I was just very intrigued that such a building could go for so long without someone trying to upgrade it or live in it. It apparently had no running water or electricity, and at one point had a moat and a drawbridge.

The tower is 50 feet tall, and it’s nestled between some unassuming houses.

Years and years ago, apparently, somewhere in the 30’s, a fellow named “Pratt” here in Elgin, brought it over from Scotland or some such place. I found an article on the web about it, which said it is a Dutch “Hold”. But the neighbor that I spoke with said it was brought here by Pratt from Scotland. Regardless, it is a fascinating and romantic looking structure.

It really was beautiful through the mist that day.

I couldn’t help but wonder what it’s like on the inside. To the left and slightly behind the tower, almost completely covered by shrubbery, is another door. This little place is a part of the history of the area, but the structure is difficult to find and not very well-known.

I am not here today. So don’t demand that I answer you; or complain that the ‘cat has my tongue’.

I have a life outside this blog and the internet!

If your comments don’t immediately publish, they are held in moderation until I get back so I can approve them. That’s the way comment moderation USUALLY works.

I’ve been driving myself crazy in terms of taking pictures, and although my little handy elph is great for some things, I want more functionality and the ability to take wildlife photographs - and take great detailed pictures from a distance. Theoretically, this would bring me into the realm I’ve always dreamed of: taking pictures, and turning the subjects into paintings.

With technology and digital cameras advancing so quickly, it is now possible to get the kind of magnification you would get with a $5,000 telephoto lens - with a digital camera.

I’m looking forward to entering that universe.

White egrets and a heron, fishing.

I can only imagine what kind of shots I could have taken of these birds, given the opportunity to take closer shots without physically having to move.

Which reminds me…I will also get the opportunity of getting some close ups of my favorite red-tailed hawks, and numerous others.

Around here, because of the large populations of geese and how they leave droppings in parking lots and in grass, and basically interfere with your walking down the sidewalk, some places that have fountains and water have elected to rent nesting swans.

Swans are natural enemies of geese, and that is why when you see swans with their little ones, you won’t see geese around; the swans chase the geese off. Plus, I don’t think the geese want to be around swans because they’re bigger and nastier.

During the nesting season, when they’re raising their young, they are extremely defensive and territorial.

Just like geese, that will go after small children and animals, swans will do the same thing if you venture too close to them when the little families are doing their thing.

There is a man in the area, and I will have to find out if he has a website, who has a border collie. They work all day long chasing geese from businesses. I have even seen this dog jump in the water to get the geese out of the water.

My dog likes to ‘herd them’, and seems very satisfied when he rushes flocks of geese when they’re grazing, and they fly away. We haven’t let him loose on the gawky adolescents or the parents while they’re raising their young; because it would probably turn into a fight, being that the young ones are too young to fly yet.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

Swans and their young. Beautiful from a distance.

I enjoyed watching this one couple so much….they were adorable. I love latin music and dancing….

There were a couple of handsome hispanic guys on the ship who were navy - from the Great Lakes Naval training center. His hair cut, and his muscular build led me to believe he was one of them. She was such a girlie girl and he struck me as such a man’s man…. They were adorable together. I tried to take more of the other people dancing so it didn’t appear as though I was STARING AT THEM; which I WAS.

Too bad the movie I took doesn’t show their moves as I remember them…they were very good dancers.

The couple at the end of my table were just sitting there like a couple of duds. My husband and I started laughing about it at the end. They just stared blankly at each other every once in a while after they watched people dance. They didn’t get up once.

The majority of what I write about here on the blog is my politics. But recently I’ve been blessed with some new toys; a macbook, which has introduced me to imovie and a number of other fun tools, and a new Canon elph camera, which has propelled me back into taking pictures –something I started doing with an older digital camera about 5 years ago. The elph, though, has brought me into the modern world with digital imaging, and reintroduced me to my love of nature; and in particular, birds.

(I tried uploading them and they’re too large, so allow me some time to figure out here on the mac - how to make them smaller.)

This is a relatively large contingent of cormorants, and I can’t figure out if it’s a number of bachelors hanging together, as one might often see with adolescent mallard ducks, or if this is an extended family. The only other place I’ve observed cormorants is at the Palatine Nature Center - but when I’ve seen them there, it’s only been a solitary bird; not a group of cormorants, like this. In this particular area (which you can see off the Elgin O’hare), there is marshland, so one is prone to see white egrets, or herons there, too.

Notice the white egret in the upper left hand portion of this photo, taken from my side (or what I like to term the condo side) across from the peninsula. We have a number of redwinged blackbirds around who don’t like the presence of egrets or herons and harrass the hell out of them until they go away. I’ve never quite been able to understand quite why redwinged blackbirds are so irritated by egrets or herons, since it seems obvious both egrets and herons are interested in underwater prey; but perhaps egrets or herons would be interested in blackbird eggs or nestlings if they weren’t bombarded by heckling from those annoying little redwinged blackbirds.

Egrets and herons like to hunt close to the edges of our peninsula across the way from my condo; and we see a lot of nesting geese swimming in the water here, also, as in these photos. (Redwinged blackbirds seem misplaced here, since there are no reeds, rushes or cattails.) Right now, the goslings are still showing a slight bit of their short-lived yellow down. I don’t see any geese over where the cormorants are. I wonder if the water moves too much for them, or just exactly why the area isn’t conducive to nesting geese. Where the cormorants were standing appeared to be a shallow area where they could simply stand instead of tread water.

When I was on the shore there, they jumped in the water and made a beeline straight for me. They must have been under the mistaken impression that I was there for the purpose of feeding them.

When they realized I had no bread to give them, they turned and swam away.

These birds grow so rapidly that it won’t belong before they are ugly light grey gawky looking creatures with short wing buds that look like deformed mutant replicas of their parents.

Eventually, they grow out of that awkward stage, but much beyond this stage, the young birds remain ugly until their adult plumage starts to grow in.

I didn’t even know we had birds like this here in Illinois until I moved out to Streamwood, which was largely farmland at that time–20 years or so ago, now. I grew up in Park Ridge, and when I was counting birds there in my little notebook, I would count sparrows, starlings, robins, and assorted songbirds, an occasional bluebird or goldfinch (on rare occasions during the summertime, hummingbirds), grosbeaks and cardinals, an occasional indigo bunting and pigeons down by the railroad tracks, which built nests under the viaduct. Pigeons seemed to not appreciate our backyards, which was lucky for us.

We did have a neighbor once, who raised pigeons. Why someone would do that is beyond me. I’d rather raise any number of other types of birds if I were to take it up as a hobby; something like fancy cockatiels or English parakeets; most definitely with an indoor aviary.

But when I was young, Park Ridge was a city suburb of Chicago, and there was no farmland. By contrast, when my dad grew up there, it was primarily farmland and he was able to observe chickens being slaughtered for dinner as a kid. He still tells some of those stories as though they happened yesterday. From my point of view, it’s relatively hard to imagine how much a town can change within a mere generation. Still, I managed to still see an occasional red tailed hawk, sparrowhawk, or falcon. Birds like those used to take advantage of the many trees we had in the neighborhood, and the rodent and rabbit populations.

For a while, I was noticing beavers around Streamwood wreaking havoc and decimating some of the wooded areas. We are surrounded by woodlands here, which consists mostly of forest preserves. People who own land here are beginning to sell it off because of how property values have jumped in the last 25 years.

Now although for the past 20 years, Streamwood has been rapidly building up and ridding itself and the neighboring areas of farmland, we still have some dairy farms in Elgin, and some stables in Elgin along with other relatively close cities.

I’ll probably be taking pictures of some of those when I get the opportunity, too.

These photos are unretouched, but I’ve been playing around with retouching and will probably put some enhanced photos up as time goes on. What fun this is!

I put this together around Memorial Day when Debbie sent the link around to the video I put up earlier. The music is “If You’re Reading This”, by Tim McGraw, presented to the Gold Star Families with Debbie Lee on stage. Debbie emailed Tim’s manager and we have permission to use the music for this little video honoring Marc’s memory. God bless Debbie Lee and Marc’s family and those that loved him.

Sunday I’ll have Debbie Lee on my show on blog talk radio, talking about their Care Packages for the Troops Drive and the big event “From the Front Lines”, planned for June 26. Hopefully Melanie Morgan will show up, too!

Illinois Deserves Better: The Ironclad Case for an Ilinois Constitutional Convention (Paperback)

I’ve ordered it, and can’t wait to read it. The authors are John Bambenek and Bruno Behrend.

John has written about the Constitutional Convention on his blog before.

There are a lot of things for Illinois voters to consider regarding this; one of them is Governor Blagovich’s poor record.

Others are gerrymandering and term limits.

The practice of gerrymandering needs to be eliminated. There are disturbingly few uncompetitive races throughout the state. Democrats have their seats, Republicans have theirs and often they do not even try to compete for the other party’s turf. Politicians should not be able to choose their voters; it should be the other way around. Take a look at the map of Illinois Congressional District 4 to see how ridiculous gerrymandered maps can be.

Along with gerrymandering, it is time to consider term limits for every elected and appointed office in the state. Far too many politicians rule “for life” without any real means for the voters to make them responsive to their needs. Every elected office on all levels should be limited to a maximum of 2 terms or 8 years. Likewise, appointed officials who hold a great amount of power who are not directly accountable to the people need to have their terms of office limited as well.

Dick Durbin, for example, has completely lost sight of his constituents, having been in office for an astonishing 37 years, and never holding a private sector job.

Illinois is now facing a debt increase of a staggering $27 billion since Governor Blagojevich took office.

If this is a hint of what’s in the book, I’ll be glad to have it in a concise 68-page booklet that I can carry around with me.

Here is another post at John’s, he talks about the book, and having written a draft constitution to empower voters, which is one of the biggest complaints we have about Illinois government and politicians; they have left their constituents in the dust in favor of special interest groups and their own personal gain.

Michelle Malkin dedicates this to Michelle Obama, who said “for the first time in my adult life, I’m proud of my country”…when it appeared as though Barack had a chance at the presidential office.This amazing slideshow is set to Taylor Hicks’ “Do I Make You Proud”?

And to all you other moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

And wishing Jay and his growing family all the best, as his wife is in the early stages of labor.

“Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o Principessa, nella tua fredda stanza, guardi le stelle che tremano d’amore, e di speranza!”

(English translation: “None shall sleep! None shall sleep! Even you, o Princess, in your cold bedroom, watch the stars that tremble with love and with hope”)

“Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me; il nome mio nessun saprà! No, No! Sulla tua bocca lo dirò quando la luce splenderà!”

(English translation: “But my secret is hidden within me; none will know my name! No, no! On your mouth I will say it when the light shines!”)

“Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio che ti fa mia!”

(English translation: “And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!”)

Just before the climactic end of the aria, a chorus of women is heard singing in the distance:

“Il nome suo nessun saprà… E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!”

(English translation: “No one will know his name… and we will have to, alas, die, die!”)

Calaf, now certain of victory, sings:

“Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All’alba vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!”

(English translation: “Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At daybreak I shall win! I shall win! I shall win!”)

The intolerance of Big Science in academia shows the Darwin paradigm as a secular religion. No intelligence allowed!

Ben Stein’s film is about the evolutionists and their thought police tactics regarding the antiquated theory of evolution.

Dinesh D’Souza wrote a piece about it at Townhall.com entitled “Ben Stein Exposes Richard Dawkins”:

In Ben Stein’s new film “Expelled,” there is a great scene where Richard Dawkins is going on about how evolution explains everything. This is part of Dawkins’ grand claim, which echoes through several of his books, that evolution by itself has refuted the argument from design. The argument from design hold that the design of the universe and of life are most likely the product of an intelligent designer. Dawkins thinks that Darwin has disproven this argument.

So Stein puts to Dawkins a simple question, “How did life begin?” One would think that this is a question that could be easily answered. Dawkins, however, frankly admits that he has no idea.

Read the entire article. The complexities of life and how we came into existence-simply cannot be explained by that out dated Victorian “theory” that is being taught in our schools without any other alternative.

What is even more entertaining beyond the infinitesimal impossibility of this all coming together ‘by chance’ - is the fact that Dawkins then proposes the “ET Theory”; that life evolved, but was set into motion by intelligent beings from outer space.

So now that Dawkins has admitted that evolution provides no explanation for the origins of life, and we are left with the notion that it has to be either ET or God.

It isn’t as big a leap of faith to believe in God as the creator of all things when you put it into that context.

Chuck Norris has a piece up on Worldnet Daily about this entitled “Win Ben Stein’s Monkey”

What’s surprising to me is that this debate is framed by atheists (who have their own religion that they’re trying to push on everyone else) in terms that are incredibly odd–that it’s science against religion. Where Evolution is consider science (when there is no hard evidence that supports it) - and Intelligent Design is considered “religion”. ID is by no means a religious concept…it only supports the notion that it’s highly unlikely that-in the words of Ben Stein-when lightening strikes a muddle puddle, what emerges from that is a fully equipped 747.

Glen Beck’s book looks like it’s worth checking into, too.

Saturday at 3:00 CST, Michael A. Minton, author of “Mr. Right Opinion-Unplugged and Unashamed: one man’s musings during perilous times in America’s history,” a hard look at current events. In the second half of the show, Kfir from Protest Warrior will talk about their new book: “A Field Guide to Left-Wing Wackos -and what to do about them”

Sunday at 3:00 CST, Jack Idema, Green Beret and former Special Forces soldier, tells us his harrowing story of being accused by terrorists-and arrested in July 2004, then declared guilty in a kangaroo Afghan Taliban court of ‘torturing innocent Afghans’ in September of 2004; while our government disavowed him. This show will surprise you.

Geert Wilder’s new film.

As seen at Michelle Malkin’s website and numerous other websites…

Ezra Levant:

The film isn’t particularly groundbreaking — there is no original footage. What’s novel is its juxtaposition of warlike passages from the Koran, with jihadist exhortations from European imams, with footage of terrorist carnage. It’s an effective piece — and a warning of what’s yet to come.

UPDATE: As of midnight ET, the clip had been seen by 1.5 million people in English, and 2.5 million in its original Dutch. That’s how the marketplace of ideas works, especially when threatened by medieval censorship. I’m sure Wilders’ film would have been popular without all the fatwas against it; but I doubt it would have been seen by 100 people per second. And congratulations to Liveleak, the Internet site that hosted the movie. Not only did they do a brisk business, but they stood up for freedom of speech, something YouTube/Google seems to get worse at every year.

This describes very plainly what we’re up against. And I don’t know how you can look at this and not come away with the thought that ‘terrorist’ is how they describe themselves…and that is what we should be calling them.

Robert Spencer asks, will Muslims rage against the truth?

My question is…will their aiding and abetting supporters rage against the truth?

heh. But then, why should today be different than any other?

What’s depicted in the film is what Code Pink supports; being that they sent $600,000 worth of money and supplies to the terrorists in Fallujah.

Meanwhile…back at the ranch…

The FBI is now involved in the theft of a car after it was found in Los Lunas with an explosive device and Iraqi currency inside

FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism.

The car was reported stolen last week. After the theft, the car’s owner was fueling his motorcycle when he spotted his stolen car….

The car’s owner pulled the keys out of the ignition of his stolen car and the people in the car fled.

When police arrived, they found the explosive device and less than $1,000 worth of Iraqi cash.

“We don’t know what their intentions were,” said Nuanes. “We don’t know what they were planning on doing with any of this.”…

Emphasis mine. Via Robert Spencer again, at Jihadwatch.

The world is in sane, mostly due to consistent moonbattery that doesn’t dare declare the intentions of a terrorist…”terrorism”.

Update:

Not to worry, FITNA is up elsewhere, and we should continue to promote it; particularly in light of this horrifying development.

Here’s a torrent link to Fitna, and another TOR link for Fitna.

A message from David Thibodeaux courtesy Rochester Conservative:

A fellow Marine and I wrote, and I recorded a song titled “Not Ready To End The Fight.” This song was inspired by the fact that I, like many Americans, don’t particularly appreciate the underlying message behind the Dixie Chicks’ song “Not Ready To Make Nice.” While I did like the underlying music from song, the lyrics’ just didn’t sit well with me, many of my colleagues and other Americans. After being urged on by friends, family, and colleagues I decided to record “Not Ready To End The Fight” to make a point, criticize, comment and answer the Dixie Chicks song and all the other Hollywood stars that constantly overestimate my interest in their personal politics and their level of competence in foreign policy and about how our Country should be run and how they imply they know what is better for this Country than our elected officials.

I know there are very complicated issues that must be considered when undertaking a war. I certainly don’t pretend to have the solutions to any foreign policy issues. I also know that smart people can look at the same set of facts and events and often reach different conclusions. That is probably a good thing! So anyone who characterizes these very complicated terrorism and war issues as very easy-and-simple need to try to at least try to see the other side of the issue… no matter what side you are on.

I am just an ordinary “country boy” who feels like I need to speak up about my personal opinions, experiences, and exercise my freedom of speech! I am 23, a husband, a father, a full time Marine and part time musician. I am not a celebrity or politician, nor do I know any. My wife and I are hardworking, religious, family oriented, patriotic Americans. We each were born and reared in small-town Louisiana. I grew up in Eunice, Louisiana. I also have family in Texas. My wife, newborn son, and I live in the Washington, D.C. area where I am presently stationed. We are blessed with large supportive families.

To make a contribution to the Country and the war effort, I joined the Marine Corps upon my graduation from high school. I have served in combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq with extraordinarily unselfish and brave Americans.

Thanks to everyone who strongly supports the military and our mission! Your prayers and appreciation make our job gratifying!

Semper Fi! - David Thibodeaux

Please visit David’s Myspace Page to just say thanks, to find purchasing info and to support organizations he endorses:

David Thibodeaux’s myspace page