Some recent skies for Friday Skywatch

This is supposed to make up for my recent absence on the blog. Too much other stuff to do these days.

To see lots more skies, click HERE.

Spring is springing

This is not at all the order in which these photos were uploaded, but I don't think it matters. Redbud, snow bells, and a violet.

The day in color

The sky was soooooooo blue

The narcissis were so yellow

The camellias so fucsia

The daffodils so bright

The nandina so purple and pink.......

..........and green and red

My neighbors went out in their john boat

He tried to scare her on the curves

It was very pretty in the late afternoon sun

And lastly, the deer scat was so black! LOL

Friday Skywatch

Sneaking it at the last minute. Blogspot was not opening for me for a while this evening.

I got a teleconverter for my camera, but it has to go back because it's not compatible after all. But I did get it to work for one picture.

Here is the sky with some tree branches in the center that are starting to bud for spring.

This is how I know they are starting to bud. Nice zoom, huh! But unfortunately it won't work, so I will just have to save my money and buy a big lens.

To see lots more Skywatch pictures, click HERE.

A mixed bag

Like yesterday, here is a mixed group of pictures from a recent day.

I got a new lens that zooms from 28mm to 300mm. It's very compact and will be good for trips--very versatile.

Here's a wide angle view from the deck. You'll need to click it larger to tell anything.

New bird for the feeder area! Ruby-crowned kinlet. Isn't he adorable. That's a six inch board he's standing on, so you can see how teeny he is. That trash all over the deck is wind blown seed hulls.

I took a lot of pictues, but he moves so fast--and through the window at dusk, not many came out. I don't know what he was eating, but he was pecking away as fast as a sewing machine!

I meant for the next picture to come up first, but they appeared out of order. The osprey nest is on the way to Botany Bay and is right by the road. Hard to stop and get pictures because of traffic going to Edisto Beach. These are through the windshield.

I was taking pictures of this great egret on the creek when it flew, so I did a burst and got one shot of him not behind a tree.

A white-tailed deer ran by too.

Uh-oh--car went into the marsh on the way home from Botany Bay. There was someone there helping already.

There's the guy who went into the water to help and he was talking to the driver, but I couldn't see the driver, so maybe he was lying down on the seat. The tide was coming in, so they needed to get that car out quickly.

I didn't hang around, but didn't see anything in the paper, so just a routine car in the marsh--happens a lot around here.

Three pictures from this week

A willow oak tree against the blue sky

Two white-tailed deer running across the front yard

A pine siskin and I check each other out.

Comet plus

I thought you might like to meet our dog, Comet. He is a three year old Doberman Pinscher--the ninth one we've had. Our first was Max, a show dog. The last ones before Comet were Donner, Blitzen, Dasher, and Prancer, . You may sense a theme there. Donner came to us already grown and named, so we just continued. Comet is the best one since Max. Amazing since I found him on line.

He likes to sit this way on the top step of the deck surveying his kingdom

He's very well built and probably could have been a show dog, but I was finished with that game years ago.

Here he's doing his tough dog trot.

Another portrait in the sunset

Dobermans come in black and tan like Comet and also red and tan. The reds could easily be mistaken for deer when they run through the woods, so that reminds me to show you our resident deer again.

This little guy is somehow easy to tell from the rest. He says he's still the cutest one, just like he has been since he was very tiny.

Here's the whole gang. Click to make them big enough to see.

Watch where you step!

(I recommend clicking all these photos larger to see the detail.)

Sharon and I went to Bear Island to photograph tundra swans yesterday--will show you some soon--and then decided to drive through Donnelly WMA on the way home. We usually stop here at the Savage Backwater and walk out on the dike to the little observation platform to see water birds.

Today we decided not to....

There were 12 of them! My friend who had been there earlier in the day said forty were counted around the whole pond.

This is the view from where we normally park. The big mama whose head faces left is over 10 feet long.

"I see you too!"

Blue birds!

I had been doing some indoor photography just before supper and went down to the car to get something with my camera still hung around my neck. Good thing because I caught a glimpse of color out of the corner of my eye.

It was after six and there was no light so I put the ISO up to 1600 in order to see anything at all. Got a lot of graininess, but some nice behaviors. Here is Mr. having chased away a chickadee from the nesting box. Chickadees used it last year.

Checking out the insides

Back on top looking at Mr. chickadee.

You can just see Mrs. is inside the box

And there she is! But she sees me........

......and takes off.

They went up into the pecan tree this house is under and chattered away. I hope they win out over the chickadee, but even if they don't, there are other houses in the yard, just not as easy to observe as this one.

Next time I see them, I hope it's not at dusk.