When seasons collide

Last night we experienced our first snowstorm of the year. If I dwell too much on the fact that winter appears to have begun in October, I'll probably end up curled up in a ball in a corner somewhere. So instead I'll focus on the unique photo opportunity it provided me this morning in the form of a maple tree I noticed when I got to work. Vivid red leaves, white snow, clear blue sky... how could I resist?





Not much in the way of snow in this one, but I still liked how it came out.



And a closeup of some leaves to close things out:

To baldly go...

About a week ago, a very scruffy-looking Goldfinch caught my eye when it was sitting on my bird feeder. I didn't realize exactly how scruffy it was, though, until I zoomed in on it with my camera. I have no idea whether it's molting (as the rest of its plumage suggests), survived a run-in with a cat or some other predator, or is the result of some cross-breeding experiment involving Goldfinches and Vultures that's gone horribly awry. What I do know is that this Goldfinch was, at the time I took these pics, practically bald:



Giving me the side-eye:



And a look at the opposite profile; if you look closely, you'll see that the bird has quite a few more feathers under its eye than it does on the other side. I just hope it's all filled back in soon, as it's getting a bit chilly outside to be going bare-headed all day long:

Rock stars

Today I have another group of photos I took while staying at Mom and Dad's a couple of weeks ago, these from a walk in the woods I took with Kaylee. A stream cutting down the mountainside during Irene deposited a truckload of rocks and gravel by the sugarhouse I photographed a couple of times last year. As I wandered around along the rocks, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye, and was able to get some nice shots of a grasshopper against a fairly neutral background:





Based on my multiple viewings of A Bug's Life, I'm pretty sure this particular grasshopper is in the middle of molting:



The crickets I saw were a bit more skittish than the grasshoppers, making it a bit harder to get close enough for a decent shot. Still, I managed to pull off what I thought were a couple of good ones:





Finally, a snake that darted out from under a rock I was about to step on:



Unlike the garter snake I saw earlier this summer, this dark brown/black snake (a coloring I've never seen in person before) was rather camera shy. As a result, this is one of the few in-focus pics I got of it:

Rough around the edges

Just thought I'd share a few pics I took at my parents' place yesterday morning of a Cardinal that's obviously still waiting for all of his winter plumage to fill in:



His crest is definitely looking a mite sparse:





Kind of reminds you of a moth-eaten sweater, doesn't it?



It's not often I catch a bird looking straight at me, so this seemed like as good a shot to close with as any:

Monarchs

On my way back home from photographing the flood waters last Monday, I noticed a pair of female Monarch butterflies working the flowers out in front of St. James church. Nice sunny day, colorful flowers, butterfly... yeah, no way I wasn't taking pictures.

I love how the butterfly seems to be looking right at me in this one:



A wide shot of the pair:



A couple of shots of this butterfly's wings:





A bumblebee and a butterfly sharing real estate for a moment:



I really liked how the colors in this shot came out:



A good look at a butterfly using her proboscus to dine:



My best shot that day of a butterfly's wings; I wish there'd been a bit more light on the shot, but you take what you can get:



And in this last shot, I really liked how the wing was backlit—it reminded me of stained glass:

Muddy waters

Since I wasn't able to drive in to work today, I spent part of my day taking some shots of a couple of spots in Arlington where Irene left her mark.

The entrance to the Arlington rec area:



Some extremely muddy water, in this case a section of the Battenkill, rushing under a bridge:



A look at that same stretch of the Battenkill from the bridge:



The reason driving to work today was a non-starter for me:



I like to imagine this dog was thinking, "Wait a minute... there's not supposed to be water here. What in the heck is going on?"



While most traffic was turned away, a few folks driving trucks that rode high enough to clear the flooding decided to take their chances:



A shot of the area to the left of the flooded road:



And a bit of the right side as well:



When I headed back into town, I took this shot of a pine tree that's now leaning toward the water on the other side of the bridge:



As I got close to the intersection of routes 7A (the road I was on while taking the above photos) and Route 313, I decided to make the quick jaunt down 313 to check out what had happened where it crosses the Battenkill. This first shot is of what is usually a field with a tiny creek running through it:





Looking back at that same area provides a better view of the turbulence created as the water pours into the field:



A shot of the actual river and how far it's risen past its banks; that's the main bridge at the right of the photo:



The section on the right is the Battenkill; the left is the edge of the field:



Closeups of the water turbulence on both sides of the main bridge:





More of the Battenkill as it heads towards the main bridge:



This? This is the back half of the Arlington golf course, which is attached to the rec area:





Yesterday a gentleman left his trailer parked in the area between the golf course and the bridges. Big mistake. Here it is today, now relocated to the underside of the bridge over the creek:





A couple of guys doing some of their own photography out by the baseball field that's usually found next to the course:



This image pretty much says it all, really:



But wait: there's more! For once, I actually remembered as I was taking photos that my camera can also record video. So here are a few clips I shot of that same area:

The creek flooding the field:



The water flowing under the main bridge:





And a pan starting with the trailer and moving across the golf course; the shakiness about 40 seconds in is me repositioning myself on a section of concrete that was only as wide as a balance beam (you can see it near the beginning of the footage):

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