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.

This is a song sung by Lloyd Marcus.

You can see him at his website, here.

He also has a channel on youtube, but personally I don’t think he’s getting his stuff out like he should…this guy is fantastic.

I couldn’t believe the headline, but when I clicked on the link, the article didn’t say that as the headline. (It would have made more sense had it been the headline!)

So was this merely a slip of the wrist, a mistake, a gaffe, or was it originally titled that and then changed?

Either way, when you put it in these terms - McCain’s steady hand versus Obama’s trustworthiness, there isn’t much of a choice there.

I mean…that in itself is admitting that Obama hasn’t proven himself trustworthy in the eyes of the American people, and his hysterical supporters haven’t help that perception along. In fact, most of the behavior on that side of the aisle has actually - HELPED McCain’s case for steady leadership and experience.

Since I put up a post the other day and people were determined to ignore the message by claiming it didn’t fit Snopes’ fact checking, i thought it would be cool to just keep putting great stories like that up.

From Dave, in Atlanta.

A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his bike; runs to the cage; and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back…. letting go of the girl,and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A New York Times reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter addressing the biker says, ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.’

The biker replies, ‘Why, it was nothing, really….. the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.’

The reporter says, ‘Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist from the New York Times, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page. So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?”

The biker replies, ‘I’m a U.S. Marine…. and a Republican.’
The journalist leaves.
The following morning, the biker buys The New York Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on front page:

U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH

Obama’s training program described as ‘Big Brother’
Critic says plan would herd ‘American youth into government-funded re-education camps’

Of course they are! What do you think he accomplished with his work with Ayers and the Annenberg Challenge? It certainly wasn’t about ‘improving education’!!! It was about re-educating people to become socialist revolutionaries! I thought the greatest example of that was turning down programs that would focus on improving math competency, and giving money to programs such as Juneteenth - which was to encourage afro-Americans to forget about the 4th of July (or at least minimize our Independence) in favor of Juneteenth, the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation as their summer holiday….or holiday MONTH.

What a weird thing to be harping about this many years later. Don’t you think black folks should pull out of that ‘poor me’ mentality?

The tax-funded Chicago organization cited as a probable model for programs to integrate youth into the social and political world under an Obama tenure in the White House is the epitome of “Big Brother” that shovels impressionable youth through a course of brainwashing, according to critics.

The organization is called Public Allies and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of directors in 1992. He later resigned and his wife became executive director of the group.

According to an editorial in Investor’s Business Daily, Obama plans to use the non-profit, which is funded partly by the federal government and is featured on Obama’s campaign website, as the model for a national service corps, called the “Universal Voluntary Public Service.”

This is his government-funded bunch of storm troopers, “the “civilian national security force” that would be as powerful, strong and well-funded as the half-trillion dollar Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force.”

In the July 2 speech in Colorado Springs, Obama insisted the U.S. “cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set.”

He continued, “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

“Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas,” said IBD. “They plan to herd American youth into government-funded re-education camps where they’ll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of ’social change.’”

According to the Zogby poll, McCain is leading over Obama by 5 points, when you’d expect the Obamessiah to be in the lead at this point.

From the end of July, Newsmax: Obama’s Trip Backfires; McCain Surges to 4-Point Lead in USA Today/Gallup Poll

From 8/20 at the Hill:

The Reuters/Zogby poll showed the Arizona senator taking a five-point lead over his Democratic rival. That lead, perhaps most surprisingly, was due in large part to voters polled who gave the Arizona Republican the edge in handling the economy.

The new poll, which will likely only add to increasing Democratic jitters, comes after a sustained attack effort by McCain and just after a weeklong vacation for Obama (Ill.).

September 6, 2008 Newsmax: Zogby: McCain-Palin Got ‘Small Bounce’ After Minn.

McCain’s favorability rating increased from 50% favorable last week to 57% favorable now, a significant jump that indicates the GOP convention was a success. Among independent voters, 61% now have a favorable impression of him, compared to just 49% who said the same a week ago.

Nearly half – 49% - said they had a favorable opinion of Barack Obama, while 50% they had a negative impression of him. Among independent voters, 47% gave him favorable marks, compared to 46% who said the same thing last week.

Do you think the attacks on Palin and her family are helping or hindering McCain’s campaign?

It seems to me that it’s an eleborate campaign against McCain that’s backfiring big time.