Month: April 2022

Straight at me walked

Got down low for good photo

Leopard eye contact

The Ruddy Shelduck

Found at five thousand meters

Sacred to Buddhists

(Tadorna ferruginea)

5,000 meters equals 16,400 feet.  

Northern Waterthrush

Found in still water’s presence

Not thrush. A warbler.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. – Wendell Berry


(photo taken this morning)

A Buddhist dancer

He pulled my beard. I pulled his

Then he motioned “no”

Since, as I mentioned earlier, I was sitting in the front row. This Mani Rimdu dancer came over to me…. and playing to the crowd…… pulled my beard. I pulled his right back. He then kind of secretly shook his finger at me as much to say “don’t do that”. It was all in fun.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Beautiful yet dangerous

Lone person walking

Today’s hike down low

The mountains quietly wait

Footsteps are coming

My hiking buddy, Mary,and I only had about three and a half hours to hike so we hiked near town….The photo was taken at the beginning of the hike…eventually we turned east and the traffic noise disappeared.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Far distance to photograph

First for the county

These photos are not the greatest, but they did serve to document the identity of the bird which turned out to be the first one ever recorded in the county.  The normal range  for the Lesser Black-backed Gull is primarily the East and Gulf Coasts and some of the Great Lakes.  All of the images were hand held and taken at a considerable distance and cropped to 100%

Dusky Flycatcher

Notice tertials short, stubby

Birding – so much fun

 Went birding again today and for the first time I photographed a Dusky Flycatcher…..It is an Empidonax flycatcher……

“But the toughest group of North American birds to identify in the field has to be the assorted Empidonax flycatchers.”  – from the internet

“Dusky and Hammond’s Flycatchers are so similar that telling them apart is a true challenge. Color and pattern do not help. Even the voices, usually the most helpful character in distinguishing Empidonax flycatchers, are quite similar. In the field, birders use “primary projection” to distinguish the two species visually: the tips of the primary feathers that stick out past the innermost flight feathers (tertials) are rather short and stubby in Dusky Flycatcher, notably longer, narrower, or pointier in Hammond’s.” All About Birds – The Cornell Lab

I’ll throw in a couple of images of a Hammond’s, which I am sure that you are all extremely excited to see. NOT!

Dancer wearing mask

Mani Rimdu Festival

Scares children, tourists

Mani Rimdu is generally celebrated by Sherpa in autumn at the Tengboche Monastery in the Everest region. Lamas and Sherpa gather at the monastery for five days. They gather for the welfare of the world. There are plays, masked dances, prayers and feasts. Demons are quelled and the pious are rewarded. It is a very colorful and ideal festival to combine with a trekking expedition in the Everest region.

The dancer in this dance portrays one of the Four Protecting Ghings, defending the Buddhist faith against attack by demons. Shining paper masks hide the faces of the dancers, each a different color and each displaying a constant smile. The dancers’ hops are rhythmically accompanied by the beating of cymbals.

The dancers charge at children in the audience and scare them for fun.  I managed to get a front row seat (on the stone floor) and got good photos and was also teased by the dancers.

African Penguin

Confidently striding forth

Lesson for us all