A soft morning

Bare trees, plus mist lingering over the valley added up to being a few minutes late for work.

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When doughnuts fly

Threw a couple of stale doughnuts out in the yard early this morning figuring fox, coyote, raccoon or possum would take advantage. Surprisingly, the first on the scene for breakfast al fresco was a small murder of crows. Each snagged a pastry and headed for the trees. (Oh, the big thing is a leftover Halloween pumpkin, which the crows raided for seeds and everyone else is enjoying the rest of the fruit.)

SHAKE DOWN — Crow fidgets with the doughnut until he has it just the way he wants it in his beak.

OFF WITH YOU — Strictly carry out this morning.

The icing is the best part

Winter in the South is as likely to bring ice as it is snow. Ice-weighted trees present any number of dangers, but their beauty in the sunlight is extraordinary.

Herding fish

Sunfish guarding his rocky nest chases a herd of egg-eating red shiners away.

We have liftoff!

Black swallowtail lifts off after a nectar snack in the wildflower garden.

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity

The unintended consequence of going from the air conditioning into the full humidity of a warm Arkansas summer night to capture the moon and its pond reflection.

 

Silent Sunday

Two hawks, one dead squirrel. High drama at the office.

Sure, the office is in a beautiful setting. Almost peaceful with its trees and wildflowers. Within the canopy,  however, different life-and-death dramas play out every day. Here, a red-tailed hawk, harangued by bluejays and mockingbirds, seeks a moment’s respite in a tree with a squirrel he’d caught for lunch.

The rest did not last long. The smaller birds screamed and even bashed him a time or two and he took off for another hiding spot. Alas, that last flight cost him. As he landed, his squirrel slipped from his talons and crashed through the branches.

A a second hawk, who followed the action and withstood an assault by other small birds, cashed in on the lost lunch.

Hawk No. 1 with his squirrel lunch, which he carried from tree to tree under attack by bluejays and mockingbirds.

Hawk No. 2, the interloper, withstanding attacks from a pair of mockingbirds who screeched and hit the hawk. The hawk, unusually, was undeterred. Red-tailed hawks tend to be scaredy cats. 

The interloper, keeping his eyes on the prize, just waiting for a free lunch.

And the loser, wheeling off sans lunch. 

Teach a snake to fish …

Everyone’s gotta eat. It was incredible to watch this diamond back water snake snag a fish, wrestle it in the water while it flailed wildly. The snake, his jaws still clamped around the fish like a dog with a bone, swam it up on a gravel bar and proceeded to swallow it, as the fish continued to flip and writhe — all in vain. Taken 19 May 2017. 

 

Struttin’ his stuff …

… or, the many moods of Blueberry. Blueberry the indigo bunting loves to strut and sing for the ladies. Here he his putting on his song and dance in the driveway on a gray morning. Taken 19 May 2017.