Blue blazes

As I got into my car to leave work this afternoon, I saw a Blue Jay swoop down to check out some corn stalks left over after we'd finished putting up our fall decorations. I got a kick out of watching it root around, then do a prairie dog imitation to make sure nothing had approached:



Successfully snagging a corn kernel:



Definitely a lucky shot here:



I then decided to head over to Whimsy Pond to photograph some more foliage:







I also decided to swing by Howell's before I called it a day, just to see what my photographic prospects might be. Unfortunately, the reeds are still far too tall for me to even think about photographing the birds on the pond itself. Fortunately, there was one bird hanging out across the pond that I did have a clear shot of:



That's also about the only good shot of the egret I managed to get; between the fading light and the distance involved, most of the others came out pretty blurry.

Finally, a photo I took under somewhat... unusual circumstances. I had just left work, and it wasn't long before I noticed there was something dangling underneath the chassis of the truck I was following. Once I'd assured myself that I was indeed seeing what I thought I was seeing, I naturally thought, "Man, I wish there was some way I could take a picture of that." Then I remembered that my camera was already out on my passenger seat, as I hadn't put it away after photographing the Blue Jay, and thought, "Well, why not give it a try?"

I'll spare you the details, as it's probably best not to dwell on how distracted I may or may not have been during the process. The most important thing is that I didn't hit anything or anyone. The second most important thing is that I actually did manage to take a single photo of the truck—and, miraculously enough, that one shot came out in pretty much in focus (don't forget—if you click on this or any photo you can see a larger version of the image):



I'm not going to pretend to have any sort of insight into the workings of the male mind, but still: do you really want the people who see you driving in your truck to immediately be associating you with blue balls?