Egrets Behaving Badly

I spent a couple of days at the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, and this happened.

Don't Forget Your Hazmat Suit

This is a horrible little place called Van Campens Glen on the Jersey side of the Delaware.  If you visit, I strongly suggest that you wear a hazmat suit.  On second thought, maybe you shouldn't go at all.  Keep Out!  Stay Away!  DANGER!  DANGER! DANGER!

Horrifying.

The One That Got Away -- Volume I

People think that photography is so glamorous and easy that anyone can do it.  Well, it's not; it's hell.  And sometimes you miss the shot, as I have expertly depicted for you above. 

I like to hang out at swamps, and on this particular day I was floating in the muck and mire in my float tube under a blazing sun.  I happened to look over my shoulder just in time to see a mink launch itself from a log toward a wood duck that was swimming by.  The mink missed and began swimming after the duck as I furiously tried to turn myself in the right direction.  By the time I got myself turned around, the duck was well out of reach of the mink, which gave up the chase and disappeared back into the swamp. I didn't get a single shot off.

Bet you would have gotten the shot with your little iPhone.

Waterfalls and Other Prickly Things

Buy this photo

I wasn't going to post anything today, because I'm so freaking tired.  But I decided I couldn't disappoint my beloved, loyal audience, which consists, mostly, of my sister and friends on Facebook, who feel obligated to visit my blog for fear of being unfriended.  Don't know if they actually read it, because nobody leaves comments.  So maybe that's my answer right there.

Nonetheless, I am making a good faith effort to post more regularly.  I don't really have anything to say right now, so here's a waterfall along the Savantine Creek and that prickly thing I was talking about.

It's Not As Easy As It Looks

Tammany Trail

I wanted to get an early start toward Mt. Tammany this morning.  It was supposed to be sunny early on before turning overcast and giving way to rain.  Unfortunately, unless I have told someone that I will be somewhere at some stupid hour of the morning, an early start ain't happening.

Getting up Mt. Tammany in time to get some shots of the Gap in its fall finery just isn't motivation enough, apparently.  But despite not getting to  the trailhead until almost 9, I still held out hope that I could make it in time.  I'd just pick up the pace.

Hahahaha.  Yeah, that's funny.

Several long stretches of trail looked like the photo above.  Still, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if MY KNEES DIDN'T SUCK.  But my knees do suck, so it took a bit longer than expected to get to the overlook at the top.  By then, it had started to rain.  The forecast called for partly sunny skies later in the day, but I didn't feel like sitting around all day, so I slowly continued the loop in the hope of finding something that would justify what I had just done and would continue to do to my knees.  (Going back down is much worse than going up.)

Well, look what I found:

I was quite pleased with my find and continued my torturous descent down the mountain, stopping along the way to photograph Dunfield Creek.  When I got to the parking area, the sun came out, and I thought, "Hmmm, maybe I should hike back up to the overlook."

My knees said, "No."

Am I the only one who likes this photo?

Every year at Christmas I give certain family members and friends a photo book filled with images from my previous year's adventures.  As said friends or family members turn each page, my commentary usually goes something like this, "Ooh that's one of my favorites......That's one of my favorites.......That's really one of my favorites."

So basically, every photo is pretty much one of my favorites.  Otherwise, I suppose, it wouldn't be in the book.  However, if you put a gun to my head and said, "Choose or die," I would have to pick the above photo.  The repro on Blogger really doesn't do it justice, but if you click on the link below it, it will take you to the photo on my website.  That's a much better representation.

I'm not certain that others love this photo as much as I do.  My attachment to it may have to do with the circumstances in my life at the time.  One day I was on my way home from work and was stopped in traffic, when my car was slammed from behind.  I won't go into all the exciting details of what happened or what I went through.  Suffice to say, it really screwed up my back.  The pain became worse and worse as the days went by until I was barely able to walk.

A couple weeks later, we happened to get one of those late fall snowstorms.  It was a heavy, wet snow that stuck to everything.  It was gorgeous.  I'm going to try to not say anything rude about people who don't like the snow, but ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?  You're nuts, cuckoo, looney, one brick short of a full load.

Oops.  Sorry.  I tried.  Okay, not really.

Hmmm.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, snow.  I love snow, and I wasn't going to allow a little excruciating pain stop me.  It was only a year earlier that I had decided to begin building a nature and wildlife portfolio, so it was, basically, get the hell out of my way pain.  I'm on a mission.  Plus, it was so beautiful.

I threw my gear into the car and headed out.  I'm not really sure why I picked this particular spot to stop.  However, as I pulled my car over it immediately became evident that it was not the best place to park, and I decided to find another spot.  Mother nature had other ideas.  My wheels spun, and I rocked her back and forth but the car made no progress.

Now, it would have been blatantly obvious to anyone who passed that I was stuck and, as luck would have it, a snow plow came slowly ambling along.  I continued to spin the wheels and rock back and forth, so that Mr. snow plow driver would see that I was having trouble and would, hopefully, come to my aid.  But do you think that *bleep*ing [expletive deleted] would stop?  No, the *bleep*ing [expletive deleted] continued on his merry way like the *bleep*ing [expletive deleted] that he is.  He even stopped briefly right in front me, just to taunt me, I'm sure.

*bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep* you!  Okay, deep breaths.

I finally just said, "Screw it.  I'm already stuck, so I may as well just get the pictures and deal with the car later."

 I threw on my backpack and dragged myself across the road.  As I started walking into the woods with my back screaming at me, all I could think was, "This is not a good idea."  But that's never stopped me before.

Fortunately, the scene above was only about 50 ft. in.  When I saw it, I stopped immediately and was in awe.  It was so quiet and peaceful and beautiful.  And for just one moment I forgot about my pain. 

Ummmmmm.  The End.

Whadda you lookin' at?

This was one of those amusing moments in time in which I wish someone had been videotaping the scene.  I had been running errands all day and wasn't planning on heading into the woods, but something kept telling me to go.  Bad things happen, when I don't listen to the voices in my head, so I headed out to one of my favorite swamps in High Point State Park.  In order to see the swamp, you have to actually be in the swamp.  It is surrounded by very thick growth, most of which is thorny bushes.  So I donned my chest waders and headed in.

After shooting for a couple of hours, I started hearing what sounded like people walking near the outskirts of the swamp.  I don't really like people, so I kept really quiet in the hope that whoever it was would just keep walkin' and leave me the hell alone.  But then I started thinking, what if it isn't people.  What if it's a bear.  And what if the bear decides to come into the swamp where I'm sitting.  I wouldn't know it was a bear until we were nose to nose.

Not to worry.  The sound finally faded into the distance and I continued the task at hand--sitting in the muck in the hope of seeing something cool, which I did.  My logo, which is at the top of this page, came from a photo that I took that evening.

Finally, it was time to go and I worked my way out of the swamp.  I was walking along with my head down, because it's very rocky there, when that voice in my head told me to look up.  There was a sudden rush of happy excitement and holy shit wrapped into one.  Standing maybe 50 feet away was a big mama bear and her two cubs. 

The happy excitement part of my brain told me to start taking pictures.  However, the holy shit part of my brain took over, and I backed away slowly until I reached a big, fat tree.  At the same time, mama bear and cubs were making their way slowly to their own big, fat tree.  We all hid behind our respective big, fat trees and all at once poked our heads out to look at one another.

Unfortunately, my camera settings weren't ideal, so the photo isn't technically well done.  But it was such a great moment, I love looking at it.

This was my very first bear encounter, and I think it went relatively well, save for the bad photography.  My next encounter wouldn't go quite as smoothly.  Maybe I'll tell you about it one day.