Squirrels are usually reluctant models. This one, however, had a card that read, "I'm Ready for my close-up!"

I have been taking photos of the deer in Tom Sawyer State Park for years, yet I have never seen, let alone photographed, a Buck with a set of antlers. I have heard them snort before but never actually saw one. Earlier in the day today I played hide-n-seek with this one and got several photos with various branches and sticks in the way but I was happy with them because you could clearly see that it was a buck. Then, as I was leaving, he came right out in the open and seemed to actually want to be photographed. I started out about 100 yards away and slowly made my way toward him, stopping every several yards to get closer and closer photos. Then he just walked away.

Just look at the neck on this guy!

Just a vigilant squirrel I saw at Bernheim Forest..

Whenever I hear someone talking about going to "their happy place" I always wonder what it looks like. I'm sure that there must be several that look like this.

When this guy flew past my head, I thought it was a flying barrel. I really thought it was an owl because it was so large.

A look across Bernheim Forest's "Big Prairie".

Way in the distance is a weathered bronze statue called, "Let There Be Light" by George Grey Barnard, at the gravesite of Isaac W. Bernheim, his wife, daughter and son-in-law. I have always thought the name of the statue makes for a good "Photographer's Prayer". I make sure I get at least one shot of the statue every time I visit...

A resident of the "Edible Garden" at Bernheim Forest. Word has it that these taste like lemon.. :-)

This week I went to Tom Sawyer State Park and found more deer there than usual... I think there were actually more deer in the park than squirrels that day. (For some reason, posthaven [the host] is stripping the color info out of my photos! It doesn't happen immediately, but seems to happen if I come back in to edit the post. This will mark the third time that I've deleted and reuploaded the photos. This might be a good reason to look elsewhere for hosting...) Figured it out.. Apparently something in the process doesn't like the ProPhoto RGB colorspace.

It was really hot in the park this day. Hot enough that the local deer all knew to stay in the shade.

A bee of some sort eating a piece of a weed.

Spotted at Parklands of Floyds Fork

The other day I went for a quick walk in Tom Sawyer Park with my camera. It was the first time in the park, with my camera, since winter. I was concerned that, with the vegetation as thick as it was, I was going to have to stay on the main paths. Typically, all of the animal activity happens off of the beaten paths so I figured there wouldn't be many photo ops this day. Turns out I was wrong as I kept running into unsuspecting deer and even a small group of turkeys.

A few weeks ago I was roaming around Tom Sawyer Park as I often do, but it was so hot and humid that there didn't seem to be anything presenting itself to be photographed. All the plants were either brown and dry or wet and weedy. No butterflies, no deer, just gnats and hot air.

Having given up any hope of seeing anything interesting, I left the woods for the walking track where all the wannabe skinny people were walking as usual. Off to the side I noticed the familiar group of soccer fields and that the grass on those fields had grown quite high and was very dry like everything else. Then I saw there was something sitting on one of the goal cross posts. It was a large bird, a red-tailed hawk, and I was there without my long lens!! Apparently I had not made the appropriate offerings to the gods of Canon that week to ensure that the Force would be with me.

Well, I know these hawk guys can count the pores in your skin at 100 yards so there wasn't much hope in sneaking up on this fellow. I figured if I walked slow enough he (she?) would not feel threatened and, since it was so hot, maybe it would just sit there and "chill". I got close enough to be in range with my inadequate 200mm lens when it flew off before I had a chance to take my first photo! Arghhhhhh! Why is nature being so camera shy today?

But then I noticed that it had reappeared on the opposite goal but I didn't see how it had gotten there. It was like it jumped off of one goal one second and teleported to the other goal, a soccer field away, a second later. And then it was magically back on the goal near me and I was able to document what was going on.

If you look at the series of photos below, you will see what I saw. The goalkeeper was actually hunting at high speed between the goals. It would dive off of the close goal, beat its wings once or twice, and then ride the wind like a bullet, hovering just a wingspan above the ground, or less, as it made its high speed, guided missile-like run across the field looking for small rodents, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Though the hawk didn't catch anything while I was there, I caught my few photos and felt privileged to have been invited to watch.

(Each thumbnail will get displayed in the larger image area when you click on it and that photo can be enlarged, even more, if you click on it again. Clicking the super-sized photo will toggle it between large size and regular size.)

"The rabbits became strange in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was happening. But even to themselves they pretended that all was well, for the food was good, they were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear; and that struck here and there, never enough at a time to drive them away. They forgot the ways of wild rabbits. They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?"

Fiver, Watership Down

Neighborhood destruction done by a recent thunder storm. (Photo was taken and edited on an iPhone 4S)

Today I saw a tiger in the park. This is the time of year that they always come back. I was not too afraid because I could see that it had recently eaten. You see, the slippers of his last victim were still evident in its mouth...