Pop some popcorn and put up your feet...

...'cause it was a banner picture day. So, let's get right to it, shall we?

First, a stone wall that caught my eye when I went out for a drive at lunch today:



After work, I headed on over to Nemesis Pond—officially known as Howell's Swamp, as I found out recently. It was rainy for a good chunk of the day today, and I took this shot of a wet branch right next to where I parked:



That's when the fun began.

I hadn't been there for more than five minutes when I spotted something fairly large flying overhead—it turned to be an osprey:



Settling into a pine tree:



Watching the pond like a... well, hawk:



Launching itself off the branch and toward the pond:



Splashdown:



But it came up empty-taloned this time around:





It tried its luck at the other end of the pond for a bit, but as far as I could tell ended up leaving hungry:



An otter also made an appearance today, and for once did so while it was still pretty light out:





Some mist rolled over the pond as the temperature dropped:



And the kingfishers were not only active but flying back and forth across the pond, giving me the chance to get some slightly better photos than the norm:





I have absolutely no idea why it was looking up while flying straight, but it obviously made sense to the bird at the time:



Heading past one of the geese:



A couple of shots of it in flight:





It made a grab for a fish, but the result was the same as it was for the osprey:







Two for the price of one:



By the time I left the sun was well behind the mountain, but I couldn't resist the chance to catch it sitting on one of the dead trees on this side of the pond—and, for once, I was actually able to take a picture before it flew away. So it seemed like an appropriate one to end on:

Duck Duck Goose 3: This Time It's Personal (grooming)

Lots of pictures today, so I'll get right to it.

When I arrived at the pond this evening, some wood ducks had moved from their usual spot across the pond to hang out closer to "my" side for a bit:





After a bit they began heading back over to the far shore, at which point I realized there were two pairs of a male and female each. This isn't a great shot, but it does feature three of the four:



Once the wood ducks had all retreated to their usual haunt, I turned my attention to the goose that was sitting very close to shore and engaged in some serious preening. It was hard narrowing down which shots I wanted to use, as it got into so many different and interesting poses—I definitely no longer question how gooseneck lamps got their name:









Reminds me of a dog using its hind leg to scratch itself:







Eventually it headed over to where the nesting goose was sitting, upon which they both took a spin around the pond to get something to eat:



I liked the look of the concentric rings spreading away from the goose:



I can't be absolutely certain, but I think these are some mergansers doing a flyover:



With this one, the colors and the way the ripples looked against the stalks poking out of the water was what caught my eye:



Finally, I really liked the way the sun backlit this tree:

Another quiet Sunday

It was an unseasonably warm day here today, hitting a high of 87 degrees where I live during midday—it's only gotten down to 78 degrees as I type this. So I just made a quick trip down to the pond here to see what I might try to photograph this afternoon. Luckily, in between providing an all-you-can-eat buffet for black flies and trying to elude a huge bee that took a liking to me I did manage to get a few pictures.

This time around I managed to spot the wood duck that was sitting across the pond and was able to photograph it on purpose. As I suspected, though, the resulting picture wasn't any better than my accidental shots the other day. But I'm pretty sure the female duck is standing to the left of the male duck in this one:



The kingfisher made an appearance tonight, once again using a dead tree to help kill the fish it had snagged. It shifted spots after it ate, and as you can see it really stood out against the light gray of the trunk:



A pair of exhibitionist ladybugs:



A Canada goose in flight:



And a couple of landscape shots to close things out:

Signs of spring

Just an assortment of photos taken over the course of the day, both when I was at work and when I stopped by my folks' place afterward.

I was sitting on the front steps of the museum when I took this picture of a rhododendron branch against the sky:



A flowering crabapple tree served as the backdrop for this photo of some maple leaves:



And part of the crabapple tree itself:



A branch of an apple tree blossoming in my parents' yard; there were so many bees working the branches it sounded like I was standing next to a hive:



A wild strawberry plant:



No idea what these next two flowers are:





A vinca growing by a corner of the house:



Finally, the obligatory Kaylee picture: