Is it film when it’s not really film but an SD card? I think I’m dating myself with the terminology here.

Yesterday it was quite windy on the way home, but I was stressed, and taking pictures is a way to get out of myself and unwind. It’s a great way to decompress. (Although my hair was whipping around, I sure wish I had my baseball cap with me!)

There were absolutely no cedar waxwings to practice moving the camera around quickly (I wonder if they’ve begun to migrate south); and at first, I thought there was nothng there but those big catfish or whatever they are, swimming in the shallow water and splashing around in that gross water with the duckweed floating on top.

But then I noticed a couple of herons, and although I scared off some ducks, I also routed out that little green heron and he stepped out so I could get some very clear shots of him.

The big herons moved out of the way, but not before I got some fairly good closeups.

At one point, the little green heron guy was posing for me. He stayed still on this log or piece of driftwood for some time, just checking things out and moving his head around, and flicking his tail.

I couldn’t hear any noises out of him, but he opened his mouth at one point, so I was relatively certain that I was just too far away to hear the weird squawks. This bird makes some odd noises, even when comparing the sounds to heron squawks, the green heron’s are weird sounding to me.

I’ve also been noticing some wild yellow daisy-like flowers, and was thinking to myself that I should try and get some pictures of them.

Little did I realize when I was taking photos of these birds that I was inadvertently taking pictures of those yellow flowers.

They seem to be everywhere right now; I find them in the background when I’m focusing on other subjects! In trying to research exactly what they are, I am inclined to believe they are Coeopsis Daisies.

They take root on parkways between the grass and the curb, they take root on the roadside, they even take root on median strips, which is an impossible place to grow anything! These things have to be weeds, or else they’re very beligerent and stubborn wildflowers; unlike anything I’ve seen before with the exception of dandelions.

I love my canon elph, but it has its limitations. The panasonic lumix is the camera I reach for again and again.

I sometimes wonder after my husband gets his telephoto lens for the Rebel, if I’ll be able to grab that now and then in order to close in on shots that are out of my reach with the panasonic, but..in the meantime, I am thrilled at what I’m able to accomplish with the panasonic.

Capturing these images is fulfilling a dream of mine from childhood, when I used to daydream after looking at field guides of birds.

this is better than the original, LOL

This is one of the earlier photographs taken with the Panasonix Lumix DZ8 with the 12x optical zoom and 3x lens. It was taken at the end of August. I also enlarged the photo somewhat, but there was enough clarity in the image so that the detail remained.

iwatermark is a cool little program for my macbook that will enable me to use IPTC code to tag the pictures with; although I need to study up on how to use the coding. I need to upgrade to the paid version, which I’ll be doing later on this week. That should get rid of that annoying middle line that says ‘register’.

Since it was very cold today, coupled with the fact that it ALSO happened to be raining, I didn’t get out to Fermilab. I had intended to check out the Buffalo herd and other parts of the large nature preserve in Fermilab’s surrounding area. Somewhat disappointed, I ended up just coming home and looking through the photos I’ve managed to take so far.

There is something spellbinding about these little athletic birds; they’re only 6-8 inches long; they fly nimbly but self assuredly like little F16’s with attitude. While they’re doing that, they manage to catch bugs, either from the surface of the water or simply during dive bombing style flight patterns.

They also crack me up when I get out of my car and start snapping photos because they come in close to watch.

Today I knew that I was going to have to hustle in order to get some pictures before my 3-day seminar, so I quickly finished off some laundry and did a few errands, packed my bag and raced over to the now familiar spot to grab some pictures.

It was cold.

But it turned out to be a great trip, although short.

There will come a day when I will be able to recognize these birds for what they are, but right now, sometimes I’m mystified when I run across birds that are unfamiliar or that don’t fit a particular expectation.

I took pictures of a Green Heron the other day, when I didn’t know what it was…and today I took pictures of another heron.

This heron doesn’t appear to be a green heron, because the legs are way too long; but the coloring is very interesting.

We have so many herons in this area that there are forest preserves named after herons, and housing complexes named after herons.

There sure seem to be a lot of varieties of herons that I knew absolutely nothing about, LOL…

Here he is, at first I thought he was a juvenile green heron, but now I don’t think so when comparing the length of the legs. A young green heron might not have the right coloring yet, but the bird wouldn’t be as tall as this. I get the feeling that he was scrunched down and that his neck would look a lot longer if he stretched it out. Maybe he’s just a juvenile blue heron, but I haven’t seen any pictures of any herons which showed these rainbow hues.

These are just two of the shots I took of this bird, but I took many photos of him; he didn’t move anything but his head. He wasn’t fishing or hunting the way most herons have been over there, which is why I get the impression he’s an immature bird of some type. I got the idea of watermarking from Michelle. (TX Michelle!)

This appears to be a type of box turtle or snapping turtle, I’ll have to research that, too. My son had a collection of turtles at one time, and this one reminds me of those turtles; they were brightly colored, and had stripes on their heads and legs.

This is another cedar waxwing picture; I’m getting them while I can because …I read that they migrate from this area of the country for the winter and my opportunity of getting photos of them is NOW.

Is it a straited heron, a night heron, or something else? This bird was very stunning in certain kinds of light, while nondescript in others. And…he WOULDN’T STAND STILL.

MYSTERY SOLVED: A reader informs me- it’s a Green Heron, and I checked out google images, sure enough, there are more pictures of this bird there.

The Green Heron is one of the few tool-using birds. It commonly drops bait onto the surface of the water and grabs the small fish that are attracted. It uses a variety of baits and lures, including crusts of bread, insects, earthworms, twigs, or feathers.

He reminded me of a kingfisher, but…when I looked at pictures of kingfishers, the only thing that was similar was his spikey mohawk that he put up for me (above).

All five pictures are of the same bird. From the front, he’s spectacular, but from behind…he doesn’t look like much.

This was a striking bird with bright yellow legs and feet. I don’t know if I’d recognize his call if I heard it again, but he flew all over the place and was a little nervous about my presence.

I didn’t get the clearest of pictures, but we were out by about 9:00 this morning and the light was different than what I’m accustomed to dealing with…usually I’m out there taking photos at 4:00 in the afternoon, and the joint is jumpin’.

There were still a lot of cedar waxwings around, but they were mostly in the green trees rather than dive bombing the water to get bugs and then flying up into the dead trees where I would have a straight shot at them. I was having trouble locating them and even went on a wild goosechase trying to get a photo of them among the branches of a live tree.

Still, we managed to get some good pictures today, and I managed to catch a glimpse of a few new bird varieties, and Steve played around with his new Rebel.

Downy Woodpecker

Plover

Don’t know what this one is; could be a catbird.

Couldn’t place this one, either.

Great Blue Heron

Cedar Waxwing

In this courtyard, they had Japanese bonsai on display; and they were quite beautiful. The characters for “bonsai” are 盆栽. Bonsai are unique in that they are not miniature trees or genetically dwarfed plants; they are intentionally trained to be small through pruning and the pruning of the roots in small containers.

It is a true horticultural art form.

The placards identified what you were looking at, and the display must be some sort of tradition because to the side of each large bonsai was a smaller plant.

Well…in several of the cases, this was true, but not all.

Behind each display was a large white semi-opaque sheet of some material I couldn’t identify, which showed off the bonsai much better than if they’d just been sitting on open tables.

They were very striking.

I didn’t put up all the pictures, this is just a sampling of the incredible plants they had on display. For some, at the time of day when we were there, the lighting was wrong and the sun cast a shadow.

Bonsai growers have a lot of patience to train the plants to become works of art, as the plants grow very slowly.

The mushroom people and their associated displays on tables inside one of the buildings at the Chicago Botanic Garden - was a gathering of the Illinois Mycological Association - people who study mushrooms.

You learn something every day …I had no idea there was such a thing, although I’ve seen people comment that they like to tromp around in the woods, birdwatching and ’shrooming’. I guess this explains what that means; although I don’t find the study of different types of FUNGUS very fascinating.

The variety of gardens is so spectacular; it’s hard to chose where to go.

Here is a checkerboard pattern of hedges in contrast to a silvery-blue colored groundcover and the arches in the background. It makes you want to sit on one of their benches and just drink it all in.

In this gazebo, you could sit down, although standing against the railing felt great because of the wonderful breeze coming through.

There were no shortages on places to sit along the way, which made it very pleasant. If you needed to rest, or fumble for a lens, or sit down for a while, you certainly could.

This is another view of this spectacular pool. My parents had a few of these in our yard, but they were filled in when I was little because they attracted neighborhood boys that liked to catch frogs, and were expensive to keep up. Our pools were stocked with goldfish, but I didn’t see any in these waters.

The Chicago Botanic garden is a simply lovely place to while away the hours.

Of course, darling little girls caught my eye who were there with their families, and I couldn’t resist taking pictures of their sweet little faces.

They reminded me of Stephen Hanks watercolors of children.

This woman was enjoying the mild weather, with her newspaper spread out and was reading her Sunday paper. This kind of picture takes me back to when things were simpler.

I was immediately drawn to the walled English gardens with their carefully trimmed hedges. They reminded me of the privet hedge that surrounded my parents’ corner lot, and which my father was constantly tending.

Although…these are much taller and dramatic than the privet hedge on my family’s corner lot.

The music of running water was evident with numerous fountains and pools.

I’m not sure what these are called, but you can see the shooting water bursts behind the people walking; they look like white blades of grass.

The picture above is of a central circular short fountain type structure, that was surrounded by pools that had waterlilies and lily pads floating in them, guarded by fencing.

Backing up a little bit to get a broader view, this is what it looked like. See the unbelievable sight? Slightly to the right in this photograph is a PALM TREE. Unbelievable.

Carefully pruned hedges surrounded curved walkways, leaving a dramatic effect.

There were a number of places where you could find water lilies. I think the photo above is Japanese Lotus.

They come in a variety of colors.

I thought this shot was spectacular; I’ve never seen such a thing.

They’re all quite pretty, and unusual; I’d never seen them in this type of setting before.

It began to get rather crowded and hot, as the sun was rapidly going up to the high noon location. The Botanic Garden is a tremendously large place. There are buildings, a greenhouse, and a number of things we didn’t even get to; but it was such an enjoyable trip.

This doorway reminds me of ‘the secret garden’.

My husband shook his head and said ‘the British go a little overboard with their pruned hedges…’ - but I think it adds tremendous drama to a landscape, and I know it’s a tremendous effort to keep them that way.

The butterfly exhibit at Brookfield Zoo made me very aware of the butterflies and the opportunities for taking pictures of them. This one was practically posing for me; a swallowtail got away before I was ready!

There were many bold chipmunks who darted in and out among the crowds. People seem to walk - oblivious as to what’s going on - it’s no wonder they do so well and come running out only to dart underneath a privet hedge or clump of roses.

There are a considerable number of wetlands type areas where there are water lilies with their associated lily pads in the water. And along the way, you can find without looking very hard, turtles and herons and other wildlife.

i took another 200 something pictures on this trip, so I’ll be wading through them to post one or two more little vignettes.

In a courtyard there was a special show of bonsai, which was spectacular; and inside, they had a mushroom club meeting with tables of mushrooms. I didn’t find that very interesting, but I took pictures of some of the bonsai. There are a few other points of interest, but I think this is enough for today.

Hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

I finally DID get a shot of a robin, LOL…they were stealth flyers in that place.

Steve is now getting a Canon Rebel and it’s on its way. We are going to be taking a lot more of these trips; I have so many ideas of where to go and places I want to check out. He’ll probably want to go to a railway museum; but I think some of the interesting places in Chicago - like the Chicago Aquarium would be neat places to go. Or since it’s on its way to my folks place, we could take some pictures of Al Capone’s hideout - which is now a restaurant. It’s a pretty cool place to go and eat.

We’ve been talking about going on another little photo-related trip today.

I’ve settled on three places to chose from: The Chicago Botanic Garden, Fermi Lab, or - Crabtree Nature Center.

We blasted off in the pocket rocket to the Chicago Botanic garden this morning to take advantage of the morning coolness. It was a great little trip, and I’ll put up a few pictures from it. We didn’t get around to the Japanese gardens, but we did take in some of the sights; the rose gardens, the paths, the walled English gardens, and so on.

So much to see…we ran out of time because it was beginning to really heat up and get crowded.

Book links Obama to massacre of Christians
Senator’s continuing ally launches genocidal tribal violence

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has continued to support Kenya’s Raila Odinga, even after Odinga has been blamed for inciting tribal violence and slaughtering Christians, according to an explosive new book written by WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi.

In “The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,” Corsi argues that Odinga’s protests following his loss to U.S.-backed Mwai Kibaki in Kenya’s 2007 presidential election led to a wave of tribal and religious violence aimed against Kibaki’s majority Kikuyu tribe.

The violence Obama’s ally was blamed for included the slaughter of some 50 Pentecostal Christians.

As WND reported earlier, during his first visit to Kenya as a U.S. Senator in 2006, Obama openly campaigned for Odinga, to the point where Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua accused Obama of meddling inappropriately in Kenyan presidential politics. Mutua charged during a television news video that Obama had become a “stooge” to Odinga during the Kenyan presidential election campaign. Obama’s father belonged to the same Luo tribe as Odinga.

In the disputed Dec. 27, 2007, presidential vote, Odinga charged he was denied winning the presidency by voter fraud.

After the election, Odinga pressed for a power-sharing arrangement in which he would be the prime minister in a government where Kibaki was president, with the two factions sharing a 50-50 power split in the cabinet.

Odinga’s claim led to widespread fighting that killed more than 1,000 people in the weeks after the election, leaving more than 350,000 Kenyans displaced.

While proving involvement is difficult, many in Kenya assumed the post-election violence was supported, if not organized, behind the scenes by Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement party.

Naturally Obama bloggers have tried to come here saying that this isn’t true.

But one doesn’t need to wonder about Obama’s Greek temple set up at the DNC; it’s merely tipping their hat to history and the Greeks’ throwing Christians to the lions in front of the crowds.

Update: It was actually the Romans who fed the Christians to the lions. The Greek Temples in fact housed cult statues and storehouses of treasures that were ‘given’ to the gods.

My husband said these birds are finches; he’s right; after doing some research for male and female goldfinches, I found pictures almost identical to these.

This was somewhere around the kangaroo exhibit where the large ostrich-like emus were. It was in an area that was not fenced in, and these were simply local birds eating from flowers that had gone to seed.

My husband remarked that they were EVERYWHERE; they were flitting from one seeded former flower to the next, anxiously harvesting the seeds.

The bright yellow birds (the males) were not as easy to photograph as their paler counterparts (the females).

Goldfinch Female

Imagine how surprised I was when my husband had nailed what they were - and I wasn’t exactly sure.

This is the first time I’ve seen them close-up and personal, I’ve seen them at the Crabtree Nature Center and along the side of the road flying from branch to branch in bushes. I had the impression that they were smaller birds from those experiences, but this was a wonderful experience having them so close as to be able to take some reasonable pictures of them.

Stingray bay was a place full of an odd excitement that I didn’t share.

Young families were there with their children, and lifted them up to lean over into a pool where live stingrays were swimming around and a nurse shark. I didn’t find the nurse shark in there, but the whole experience kind of gave me the willies.

There was a lifeguard type of a person with a microphone who was coaching people regarding how to “pet” them.

People were encouraged to pet the stingrays, and the stingrays apparently like to be petted.

One lady said “go ahead! They’re soft!”

And I thought to myself, no thanks, I’m here to take in the sights, not pet the wildlife.

I found it to be a very strange place, the idea in itself rubbed against the grain, although I don’t know why.

We should strive to understand creatures like this, but I don’t think it’s right to teach people that they are totally harmless and can be stroked like a pet domestic dog.

They were gliding gracefully by, flying through the water like water borne birds - they were strikingly beautiful; but although I’d washed my arms up to my elbows, I wasn’t interested in touching them, and neither was my husband.

We went to Brookfield Zoo today and captured a lot of incredible pictures with our cameras. First, we stopped at the Butterfly Exhibit, which I’ve been dying to see since I first heard about it. It ends in the beginning of September, so I was anxious to try out the cameras - all of them - and for Steve to try his hand at taking some pics, since I don’t think he’s taken the time to do it before this.

I was right about that; he hadn’t. He was surprised at what he was able to accomplish with his elph; I was thrilled at what I was able to do with both the elph and the panasonic lumix. Steve really needs a digital camera to take the place of his fancy nikon that needs film.

Here are some of his butterfly pictures:

One of the dark swallowtail butterflies rested on my cap, and I was afraid to move.

It was a very fruitful trip in that the butterfly pictures - and scores of others - turned out to be breathtaking.

Here are a few of my butterfly shots.

I was so taken in by the variety of butterflies (particularly the different types of swallowtails), that I neglected to take some good shots of the monarchs, but luckily, Steve managed to get a few pictures of them.

Well it looks as though I got more monarch pictures than I thought. I think all of the butterflies in this picture and the next, with the screen in the background, have several monarchs in the picture, but I’m no expert. Maybe they’re viceroys.

The butterflies were fluttering everywhere, which made me a little nervous, since I was afraid I would have an immediate response to brush one off if it decided to light on me - they are so delicate, it wouldn’t take much to kill one. Luckily, it only happened on my cap, and I didn’t feel it.

There was lovely music softely playing that matched the magic of what we were witnessing in the exhibit. It was screened in, and there were so many butterflies that we needed to step carefully, lest we stepped on one that stopped to rest on the pathway. They were everywhere.

Little children were there - very excited to see what they were seeing; but the lady that briefed us on how we were to behave said not to touch them, to step carefully, and not to pick the flowers because they serve as the butterflies’ food.

This little girl didn’t seem to be all that interested, and her mom was trying to have her look.

I think this is one of only two monarch pictures I captured.

There are tons of pictures; I took over 400 of them, which is why I have more to show off. Steve is now looking at a Nikon and a Canon Rebel; I’m partial to the Rebel myself, after having read reviews and shopped some; but the Lumix was in my price range, and I bought it used and then beefed it up with a 3x lens to popo the 12x zoom in a little closer for those long shots.

The monkeys’ expressions were a little bit eerie and they seemed to be quite interested in the parade of people walking by looking at them.

This one in particular struck some interesting poses.

Several people commented on just who was on display when he settled into this pose.

When we were in the tropical exhibit where the monkeys are, the gorillas were somewhat amusing. And the people who were talking to their children explaining what they were watching was even more amusing. One young man was talking to his kids, and said…”See that grumpy guy over there in the corner? I’ll bet he’s the dad. And it looks like he just got home from work.”

I have more, and I’ll take a look to see if there’s anything else I want to share.

There are a couple of funny stories to tell, but I’ll reserve those for a different post.

All in all, we got a little sun in, a little relaxation, and tuned the world out for a while.

As always, I appreciated watching young families and their little children - particularly when they had very small babies in tow.

I’ve been amazed at some of the photographs I’ve managed to take lately; I am in love with my camera, although it’s not the latest and greatest.

For years I wanted to take pictures and use the pictures for my own paintings subjects, whether they be pastel, acrylic or oil, but now it appears as though the pictures can stand all by themselves. Eventually, though, I will get back to painting.

The next thing I’ll need to invest in is some sort of a camera bag…that can carry my laptop. I also noticed a cool-looking holster for a camera, which keeps it at-the-ready, rather than in a bag where you have to wing it around and waste valuable moments getting the camera out. In some instances, you only have moments - and if you’re not completely ready to pull off the shot, you’ve missed it.

I’m having trouble identifiying what type of bird this is.

This is a young male cedar waxwing. What I discovered while trying to capture pictures of these little guys is - they are swooping in very close to the surface of the water to gobble up certain bugs. In shallow water, they’ll even walk out to grab their prey; whatever it is.

Two cedar waxwings. These two lit on a dead stump very close to me. I pulled off only one clear shot of the two of them together before the one on the right flew away.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron. I think this is a female, but sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Great Blue Heron. This big fella likes to hang out near this crop of dead trees. He is preening a lot and you can see some of his castoff feathers on the surface of the water. I think the one that is wandering around is the female, but I’m not quite sure.

Plover. None of the plover pics are as clear as the others - because I have to magnify them considerably; but I have numerous pictures of sandpipers and plovers from this one particular area.

I’m completely enthralled with this area because there is so much action, and I don’t have to wait very long before great shots come into view.

I missed a good shot of a turtle dove and a woodpecker; I’ll have to go back when I have more time.

Seagull on a street lamp

A song written and sung by Michael Britton for Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The song’s video shows a photo of Ignacio and Jose.

You can help Ignacio and Jose by visiting:

http://www.outtahear.com/Britton/downloads.html

Steve (my husband) and I went out this morning because we haven’t had a lot of time together lately because of his new job and the incredibly long hours he’s been working. I’ve been finding ways to occupy my mind and my time, through taking pictures, mostly, and reading, studying and blogging, which I do, anyway.

After we had breakfast out and ran a few errands, we came pulling into the parking lot of our condo and there was an unusual sight; a practically perfect pinwheel of a lacy spiderweb, strung across the hood of a parked vehicle; between the antenna and the windshield; a practically invisible net-trap for flying insects, unless the light hit it just right. It was out in the open, so I was surprised that it was bending and swaying in the wind without getting ripped apart. I wondered how long the little spider engineer had to work on this magnificent piece of work - it was probably created overnight after the weather had calmed and the storms had passed.

Still, it appeared to be an incredible effort which will be swept away as soon as the driver gets in his truck and drives off, as I doubt it will withstand the kind of beating it will receive at driving speeds.

When we were at the pavilion yesterday, there were a number of spider webs, were completely invisible until you walked through them and felt the whisper of the sticky filament-like threads. Afterwards I would get the creepy crawlies, wondering if a spider was on me.

What a feat of engineering these creatures are able to put together within a matter of hours!!!

Mallards. I think these are bibbed mallards (the two on the left) swimming with a regular mallard (on the right). This picnic was at Potawatamie Park in St. Charles, and we were sitting in the beautiful wood pavilion looking onto the Fox River. The whole time I was there, there was a threat of rain; the clouds were overhead, there was a wonderful breeze, the temperature was perfect, but it was humid and “close”.

There were several types of ducks swimming together, which I couldn’t identify.

I had no idea there were different types of mallards.

They were gathering underneath the pier for shelter, and would come out swimming in groups, stopping to preen like this one.

There were a number of young families there with children, and although there were signs that said don’t feed the birds, they did it, anyway.

So it was no wonder when I started to take pictures of them, they began to swim TOWARD me.

This little boy looked very much like his mother.

This little fellow was excited about getting a ride on a boat.

The beautiful pavilion has a tower that you can climb up into to take in the surrounding scenery from a bird’s eye view.

This little girl and her daddy must have been looking up at someone they knew, like mom and another sibling.

They were adorable.

This young man had his 6-week old son in a carrier, and was holding onto his son’s little foot.

This family stopped to have something to eat on the bridge. Either that, or the bread she’s handing her son is for the DUCKS.!!!

I thought this photo was particularly cute because the little boy seemed so excited over getting something to drink at the drinking fountain.

This couple was unusually dressed for the humidity and heat; and we speculated what was in the basket; probably a picnic lunch. The guy with the hat on reminded me of the actor Harry Anderson from the old TV Show, Night Court.

This is one of the piers - I think this the pier that people would use to board a ferry boat.

Behind the ferry you can see a peninsula where people were grilling and had pitched tents for camping.

Several boats were out; these guys were just hanging out drinking beer, but there were a few other boats that were devoted to guys with their sons, fishing.

There were boats that you could take a ride on, canoes that you could take out, paths that you could walk or ride a bike on, a place where you could get food and drink, and a number of other interesting things - like a miniature golf area - that I didn’t get pictures of, but it’s an absolutely stunning park area, and we had a lot of fun.

It’s the same area, by the way, where my mom had taken me to watch the Native American dancers that I mentioned here. St. Charles always has interesting things going on.

People showed up with their small children and babies, and at one point, two adults were holding two babies who were sitting opposite each other, looking into each other’s faces.

I just couldn’t get pictures of it all…but it was terrific.

So there ended the busy day, starting out with getting over to the Minuteman Protest, and ending with a wonderful time on the Fox River with my parents and the church group.

Even my 70-something year old mom’s 90-something-year-old harmonica teacher showed up; and played a rendition of “How Great Thou Art” on her harmonica.

What a trip it was!

I met the pastor, his wife and his family, and several other folks, but by this time I was getting tired from the air and heat and had pretty much stopped taking pictures. I showed up early, at about 1:00, and they didn’t really start gathering until after 3:00, and I left at about 4:00.

Through the eye of a camera…God’s creation is beautiful and wondrous.

Every little detail is so carefully thought out…and there is a symphony of beauty and order- right down to the smallest creature, plant and cell.

Blue Dasher Dragonfly (male) Pachydiplax longipennis (what we don’t see very clearly here are the amazing green eyes on this bug.)

I don’t know how anyone could imagine in their wildest dreams that all of this happened by accident.

Life is interdependent…how could one thing appear alone… when its food or prey is its perfect match? It all had to happen at once. The food chain couldn’t have just morphed from one type of animal…that theory is incomprehensible. There is no evidence of one species mutating into another…in the fossil record, or in the lab; evolution has never been observed; it’s an untested antiquated victorian-era theory.

Nor could one species morph into another if it was placed in the right environment.

This they found out when the Russian biologist Trofim Lysenko tried to posit the notion that if you plant something in a rye field, what will eventually turn up is rye…this hypothesis and the experiments he held up as proof- was eventually exposed as a fraud.

Great Blue Heron or Ardea herodias

The Common Whitetail or Long-tailed Skimmer, Libellula lydia - Common dragonfly (male)

I like to try and unravel and identify the mysteries and possible stories of what it is I’m shooting…it’s part of the fun.

Cabbage butterfly, or Pieris rapae (Linnaeus)

I’m not a real fan of bugs, but if they pose for me and I have my camera handy, I make sure to get a shot of them for closer examination later.

They always amaze me when I get a closer look at them.

Is this a fresh water eel? This is what I thought was a ‘big fish’ the other day - Whatever it is, there were several of them, slurping and swishing in the shallow water, and they gave me the creeps. I’ve seen them now twice; once when I also caught a shot of that muskrat, and now again when all there were were these slimey creatures; showing their backs above the water. I have no idea what they were feeding on, but whatever it is, this environment seems to be rich with food for them.

This appears to be a female mallard duck. The lighting throws the color off; this is late afternoon between 4-5 pm.

I took some blind shots of some action in this collection of dead wood. I had no idea what was really going on there until I downloaded the pictures from my camera. A big blue heron was preening there.

It started off that I wanted to work at home today…but the network wasn’t cooperating, and my husband, who usually serves as my ‘help desk’ was trying to get some other things accomplished and so his first priority was NOT getting me hooked up to the network. Being that I’ve had my new work laptop for over 4 days and have been unable to connect from home thus far, I was just a tad perturbed, so I zoomed off in the pocket rocket.

Very soon after passing the mosque under construction on Bartlett Road, I came across a very unusual sight; someone in the basket of a REMAX Hot Air balloon.

Immediately the stress of not getting onto the network began to melt away as I started to wonder how much someone would get paid for going up in one of those things…or if the thrill of the moment was enough for the person inside; and if they might have even donated their time.

I know it would have been a-okay with me, LOL…although heights and me don’t always get along that well.

I’ve always marvelled at construction workers who could scale buildings under construction, or bridges, or people who wash windows, swinging off scaffolds.

I stopped briefly at the usual stomping ground to see if there were any herons or egrets, and managed to shoot a few more shots. Nothing that unusual.

Most of what I saw this morning were silhouettes of herons against the marshy background, the pictures didn’t turn out that well…although it’s always thrilling to try to get some pictures of them.

Then there was the work day, and then the trip home. Right away I noticed the dark colored birds had come in, which appeared to be cormorants, although they could have been grebes or even loons. I understand we have both grebes and loons in the area, but I wouldn’t know one if it bit me in the leg.

By the afternoon, though, things had livened up a little bit. There was a big bird on the rocks that sit in the sun…

The cormorants were lively, fishing, and moving about…

Fairly recently - I’m not sure why - I went over to youtube to see if I could find some Cedar Waxwing videos, because I was wondering if there are any in the area. I’ve never seen any, and I was wondering just where I should be looking, or what I should be looking for. The video showed a flock of Cedar Waxwings in a frenzy eating fruit; and I got the impression that they’re very quick little birds, probably smaller than a robin, and that they travel in flocks.

Being that the flocks of birds that I usually see around here seem to be dark-colored birds (like grackles or starlings), I thought - well, I don’t think we have any fruit trees around here, and I know damned well there aren’t any mulberry trees, so I guess I’m out of luck on that one.

I stopped at the area on Palatine Road where there are wetlands on either side, and thought I’d squeeze off a few more photographs before I came home. The nature in the area lured me in to stay longer than I had planned.

There was a great blue heron hunting, stalking along on his spindly long legs…and there were what appeared to be very large fish of some sort, which were very close to the surface among the duckweed.

There were some small birds darting in and out, which seemed to be yellow, but bigger than a goldfinch, and my focus began to turn to them, although there was an interesting animal near the large fish, which I was trying to identify.

That animal turned out to be a muskrat. He was a snarky little chap, too, splashing around, and swimming like he was an olympic swimmer. He seemed to take pleasure in splashing; he was a real clown and at first scared the crap out of me.

And the birds, to my surprise, turned out to be Cedar Waxwings.

I’m going to have to study up on them, because from what I was able to tell, they aren’t in there element hanging around a marsh area with other water-type foul.

They seemed to be rather curious about me; I wasn’t making much noise at all, and they seemed to forget I was there. And when they realized it was when they came flying rather close; but they’d quickly change their minds and fly up into a dead tree.

There are no shortage of dead trees sticking out of the muck there. These little birds are quick, but they’re also very striking and pretty, and they have a little mask over there eyes almost like a raccoon does; and a silhouette that looks somewhat like a cardinal’s.

And they were darting in and out, swooping along the surface of the water, apparently searching for some kind of insects to eat. As I walked along the brush, a lot of grasshoppers were getting out of my way, so it seemed to me that there are plenty of bugs of all different types and I started to get the creepy crawlies.

But that feelings passed, as I was taken in by the birds again.

I finally got a shot of the terns today, too, alongside a big dark looking heron-like bird.

We have no shortage of those around here.

What do you want? Marshland is what we live in..Chicago, in fact, was BUILT on a swamp. That haze that they complain about as being air pollution? It’s what you’d see over a swamp. No kidding.

Just call me “swamp thing”, LOL…

The pictures I’ve been taking are from the road, but the marshland is located in and around one of the most exclusive *and might I add expensive* suburban communities in the area…Inverness.