Sunny and Warm

(December 12th) Well after the snow moved through, New Orleans recovered to its normal warm self. For third day in a row, I ate some form of oysters. We walked around the city for a bit looking at some of the great architecture and parks.

Snow!

(December 11th) Unbelievable... we come to New Orleans and for the first time in a decade there is snow - and it snowed quite hard too, even sticking to the ground for a little while. Here you can see the snow outside our hotel in the morning.

The Big Easy

(December 10th) I've arrived in New Orleans for a short work trip. It's almost Christmas time, so everything is all decorated up as you can see with the main hallway in our hotel. I'm off to eat oysters!

It Doesn't Feel Like December

(December 1st) For my last day of break, I returned to Savannah NWR. The previous time there was some frost before sunup, but today was warmer. It sure doesn't feel like Michigan weather down here. It was a nice sunrise over the ponds.

The morning had lots of interesting birds - Glossy Ibises, Double-crested Cormorants, and Snow Egrets aplenty. I spent quite a bit of time on some ducks - there were loads of Blue-winged Teals and Northern Shovellers. I ran into my best subject of the day after I finished up with the ducks and started to make my way out of the refuge. The wind kicked up a notch and a Little Blue Heron started to preen right in front of me. I just love the texture on its feathers.

Salt Marsh

(November 29th) I love salt marshes. They often have a sulfurous smell to them that dissuades some people, but when I smell that odor I feel energized. Salt marshes are teeming with life - they are the most productive habitat on the planet, on par with tropical rainforests. Most of the life you don't see - crabs in the mud, young fish and shrimp that spend the first part of their lives in the marsh waters, squid swimming through the deeper channels. The overflow that you do see is amazing though. Today I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon at a nearby salt marsh. Like clockwork, the clouds appeared righ as I got there. I stopped to take a picture of the Spanish Moss draping this Live Oak on the trail in.

When I got to the marsh, I tried to capture the enormity and vivacity of it, but I am not satisfied with the results. The dull light didn't help, but I feel like it still could have been much better. Here is the best of the bad.

I tried some driftwood shots and some wave shots, again with little success. On the walk out I saw this Horseshoe Crab someone have left just for me to capture in black-and-white. I don't have much B&W experience - well next to zero to be exact - but it's definitely something I want to work at.

Pinkney!

(November 28th) After filling up on the Thanksgiving dishes that I'm so fond of, I woke up early to head to Pinkney NWR. I know the refuge fairly well, having been to it a dozen or so times. It's fairly large and all access is by foot, so it was good to head in early. The refuge occupies the bulk of an island with salt marsh and oyster flats around the perimeter and oak woods and freshwater ponds in the interior. Most of the action was around the freshwater ponds today. The sun hadn't been up more than half an hour when clouds rushed in. It was densely overcast the rest of the time. As I found out, the overcast conditions made for perfect shooting the Common Moorhens I watched for some time. Here is one of the adults.

This Eastern Phoebe didn't seem to mind the overcast morning. It also was pretty nonchalant about my presence.

After an enormous alligator and a mockingbird, I ran into a flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. The kept darting around the trees a couple of yards away from me. They'd alight for a few seconds, take a look at me, and then hop off to another branch. I was able to snag loads of images, like this one of a juvenile.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(November 27th) Thanksgiving means a lot of things. First and foremost it means being thankful for all that has been given to me. Secondly, it means spending time with my family. Lastly, it means food - and lots of it. Here's my dad happily carving the Thanksgiving turkey. Little does he know, while it seems easy now it's going to get a lot harder after the first few cuts and the pack of ravenous wolves won't be able to resist giving pointers on how it can best be done :)

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

(November 26th) I got up early today with that thrill of going to an unexplored new place - Savannah NWR in this case. It's under an hour from my parents' place, but since Pinkney NWR is 15 minutes, I tend to go there. Savannah NWR was locked when I got there (turned out the gate was having problems), but I parked outside and walked in. The day was a sparrow bonanza. The most abundant sparrows were these Savannah Sparrows, and they were everywhere near the entrance.

This Song Sparrow was another of the sparrows I was able to photograph. I literally had hundreds of photographs of "small brown birds" to sort through and identify when I got back :)

The refuge has some extensive freshwater ponds which historically were used to farm rice. Now they attract a variety of waders, ducks, and other waterfowl. This Little Blue Heron was one of the more abundant waders. Unfortunately, I could only spend the morning at Savannah NWR, but I'm sure I'll be back.

A Jaunt Down South

(November 25th) For the Thanksgiving holiday, I went down to South Carolina to visit my family. I was down for a few days, so I got a few chances to take some shots. The first afternoon I got there, I walked around near my parents' house and was intrigued by the geometry of this palmetto.

My dad and I took their dog for a walk. Well, he took the dog for a walk and I took a few more shots. Here's a view of the sound near their house catching some shade (for those who didn't grow up near the ocean, a sound is the part of the ocean that goes between an island and the mainland).

Back to Familiar Haunts

(November 1st) After the trip to south Texas, the Ann Arbor locations may not be as exotic or have quite as much wildlife, but just being out in nature is rewarding. Today I walked the trails of Dolph Park with different eyes. I was eager to see if I could notice some improvements in my photography after the trip. I got some nice pictures of this Red-bellied Woodpecker and experienced a bit of deja vu. This female looks quite similar to the Golden-fronted Woodpeckers that were all over the Rio Grande Valley.