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):

4

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:

Strange bird

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

Snake in the grass

On Wednesday morning my coworker Yoshi spotted a Garter snake when he stepped out the back door of our office. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to follow him outside, camera in hand. It certainly didn't seem too alarmed by our presence, which allowed me to get closer than I'd expected to. In fact, you can spot two drops of water on its head in this shot—one on the tip of its nose, and one on the upper edge of its forehead (just a reminder: you can click on any photo I post to see it in a larger size):



A look at its entire length:



It then looked like it was going to make its way across the walkway, so I set myself up in its path to try and get some shots of it coming toward me instead of moving away. I also took a ton of shots whenever it stuck its tongue out, hoping for maybe one or two decent ones. In this photo, both my goals were achieved:



I really like how its body was curved in this shot:



It continued along its way right in front of where I was crouched next to our picnic table, so I used the bench to brace the camera and worked on getting some good close-ups; in this one, you can see the fork of its tongue just poking past its mouth:



Without question, the best shot I got of the snake with its tongue extended:



Finally, I cropped this one in nice and tight so you can see more of the details, such as the new water drop it's sporting on the tip of its nose and the reflection of the clouds in the snake's eye:

Paper nest

My folks noticed a large paper wasp nest while they were out on one of their walks with Kaylee, so the last time I stopped by Dad took me up so I could get a few photos of it.

This first one isn't the best quality, but I wanted to include it to provide a sense of perspective as to how big the nest was:



Same angle, but I was a heck of a lot closer when I took this shot:



I wanted to be sure to get a photo of this side so as to get a good look at how the wasps simply built their nest around the maple leaf that was still attached to the branch:



And a shot from the opposide side; you can see the hole they use for going in and out of the nest on the bottom left:

Bird feeder

A couple of weeks ago, toward the end of a Saturday stint at work, I heard the sound of a crow cawing right out in front of the building. I took a peek out one of the windows, saw there were three crows less than ten feet away on the lawn, then grabbed my camera. It didn't take me too long to realize that one of the crows was a fledgling, still looking to its parent to provide its meals:



The three birds together:



The young one squawking away, hoping for some food:



I then got very fortunate, as the young bird and its parent not only came closer to the building but were facing right towards me as the adult obliged its child:











That's the young bird on the right; note that while the inside of its mouth is pink, the adult bird's mouth is as dark as its feathers:



One final shot, taken not 10 minutes after the above sequence, of the younger bird once again demanding to be fed. Clearly, a parent's work is never done...