Monday, August 29, 2011

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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Saturday, August 20, 2011

Heels over head

I've seen woodpeckers perch at some odd angles before, but for my birthday this Hairy Woodpecker pulled off one I'd yet to witness: completely upside down underneath Mom and Dad's mesh feeder:



A slightly closer look:



It spent quite a bit of time underneath the feeder, working its way from one side to the other:







Another close-up; in this one you can really see how its tail feathers are bent against the bottom of the feeder:



Finally, it apparently decided it was time to stop exploring and get some food:



I cropped in on this one a bit to make it easier to see the seed that's about halfway down its beak:



And there it goes down the hatch:




Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Strange bird

Just wanted to share this photo of the unexpected visitor I spotted on my bird feeder a couple of weeks ago: