August is over, meteorological autumn is here, and I missed putting up a post for August. As always, there are things about which I want to write. And that’s why I started this blog—to write. But I’m just too worn down by life to write anything, so here is a picture of a bumblebee that I took Monday.
In honor of the World Cup, which I guess happened recently, here is a derelict soccer ball.
I have never been good with shore birds. Part of that is because I don’t see them often, but also they are very confusing.
I photographed this one recently, and have been trying to figure it out. I am leaning toward the Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria), but that diagnosis depends on the legs being green, and they look more yellow-grey in this picture. The Solitary Sandpiper is not native to this area, but it could have been passing through in spring migration.
On purely a name basis, I think that it would be nice if it were a Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla), because “semipalmated” sounds cool.
As far as I know, there is no Fully Palmated Sandpiper.
I came across this strange, convoluted fungus a few weeks ago. Fortunately it was far enough off the trail to have avoided being destroyed.
I don’t have much to say about this fungus. I don’t know what kind it is. It is not, however, the strangest fungus that I’ve seen. That was one that I saw in North Carolina many years ago that looked kind of like a starfish. If I ever get the time I should see if I can dig up those pictures. (But I won’t get the time.)
From March . . .
. . . we have an American Coot, which looks kind of sinister up close . . .
. . . an American Robin on the rocks . . .
. . . and, after the American Coot and the America Robin, one might be expecting an American Crow, but this is actually a Fish Crow, as indicated by its distinctive “ah-ah” call.
Here is another picture of a Red-shouldered Hawk, a species which I attempted to photograph a few years ago.
When I look at this Walgreens Christmas bird, I have to wonder—is its plumage supposed to be plaid? Or is it wearing a plaid coat that is form-fitted to its wing and tail feathers?
Also, I find it somewhat ironic that the Christmas bird is not considered suitable for children. So remember, kids, you may admire the Christmas bird from a distance, but do not approach!
Cormorants on the pilings . . .
. . . an airplane in flight . . .
. . . the Woodrow Wilson Bridge illuminated by the setting sun . . .
November is over.
(When I came up with the idea for this post, I guess that I must have forgotten that November has only thirty days, because I thought that I would be writing on the last day of November, and I would start with “November is almost over.”)
But anyway, November is over.
The political text messages for Breana have (mostly) stopped coming.
The Halloween decorations have all come down (except for that one house that I drive by occasionally that has had a twelve-foot skeleton in the front yard for over a year).
And I have reached the point when I realize that I have done pathetically few blog posts for this year, and try to make up for it. I will probably do that with photos. I didn’t start this blog to post pictures. I start it to write. But I haven’t had time to write much in recent years.
And so I will post pictures, like this tree:
or perhaps the long view of the tree:
Or maybe I will do nothing at all.
