Down on the pond

Today I did some grocery shopping when I got out of work, and after I'd returned to my apartment and put the cold stuff in the fridge, I drove back down to the pond in my unending quest to get a picture of the kingfisher that hangs out there. Quite often it'll wait just long enough for me to get the camera turned on, and then as soon as I'm about to focus it flies away, laughing at me as it leaves. One day, kingfisher. One day.

This afternoon I didn't spot it at all, so I parked at the side of the road to take a couple of images of some nearby foliage:





As I turned back toward my car, I spotted the head of a beaver just ducking back down under the surface. I was very excited at the prospect of getting a photo of it, so ultimately I decided to get up on my roof and see what might happen—it gave me a broader view of the water, and I figured if it didn't see me standing at the edge it might be more willing to surface. While I was up there, I took this shot of some dead reeds reflected in the water:



I did spot the beaver as it swam around a few more times, and saw evidence of its movement at others, but unfortunately after more than an hour all I had to show for my efforts were mosquito bites. However, I was still enough for long enough that a red-winged blackbird came down off the wire overhead and perched in the reeds for a while:





I noticed some low-hanging smoke coming from a house across the way, and liked how it looked over the water:



Finally, a shot of the other side of the pond, mostly because I thought the reflection was kinda cool: