Oh, what a beautiful morning,

[Esav Benyamin]

... oh, what a beautiful day! Back up to 70 degrees again, bright sunshine, mild breeze. I went down the trail to walk around a local lake. Crossing the parking lot nearby, I saw a turtle crossing ahead of me. He finally got to the fence around the park and couldn't get under, so I shifted the gate and he finally got through.

Crossing the parking lot:

Walked over to get a closeup:

Stepped back and he got up and started walking agaiin:

Heading for the fence with my shadow on the right looking over him:

Heading around the trail, I saw another one cross my path and slide down the bank into the lake.

The water was covered with several species of duck, a flock of grebes, and the usual one cormorant.

What I really liked to see was so many people out fishing, mostly kids by themselves, or with their dad, one of whom took his kids across the lake by canoe.

And on the way home, too fast to get my camera up -- a deer leaped off the trail and back into the woods! Not really surprising ... the woods here, as sparse as they are, are regular deeryards. Serious overpopulation, and within the municipal boundaries as they are, impossible to hunt.

It's not the wilds, but it's not concrete sidewalks, either.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Yayyy Photobucket.

My fault. I need to practice resizing. I thought I had them all that smallest size, but evidently the resizing didn't take on all of them.

 

[southern bigfoot]

nice to see a bit of wildlife, thanks for sharing Esav.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Thanks! I've gotten a lot more comfortable with the camera recently and I think instead of carrying it around inside the camera bag, I'm actually going to take pictures with it this year!

Photobucket added some nice editing tools but they are a bit slow and take practice ... so, I'm going to practice. interesting pictures are a good incentive to practice.

 

[kgd]

Looks like a snapper! Great shots Esav!

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Snapper it is. We've got huge one in the far corner of the lake. I only saw him dimly once. Don't stick you toes in the water ...

This guy was just a young one. I have never seen one out of the water around here, and today I saw two. Maybe it's a real population explosion!

A diverse ecosystem, a complex ecosystem, is a stable ecosystem. The greater the variety of lifeforms, the better the system can sustain or compensate for damage or loss of some of them.

 

[theonew]

That's a great shot, never seen such a curious looking turtle.

 

[k-spar]

Thanks! I've gotten a lot more comfortable with the camera recently and I think instead of carrying it around inside the camera bag, I'm actually going to take pictures with it this year!

Photobucket added some nice editing tools but they are a bit slow and take practice ... so, I'm going to practice. interesting pictures are a good incentive to practice.

great idea. photography is my favorite way of passing the time outdoors when it isn't hunting or fishing season Hell, even then sometimes it's just more fun to go and take pictures.

 

[pitdog]

Great pics, I loving seeing stuff like that when out and about, makes my day !!!!

 

[Esav Benyamin]

That's a great shot, never seen such a curious looking turtle.

I leaned down with the camera and he (finally!) looked back up at me. Snappers are not naturally shy

 

[texastonydobbs]

excellent snapper !

 

[rroundy]

they are tasty as well.

i picked one up once from what i thought to be a safe position, the shell just above the back legs. i was wrong.

ryan

 

[Dantor]

there was a movie called; "the seven faces of doctor lao" and one of the faces was a snake, and that really looks like him, just needs the cigar!

I'm on the opposite side of the country "Oregon" and we had our first 70 today too! it was glorious

I heard their was snow in the middle!

 

[Esav Benyamin]

7 Faces of Dr. Lao is a 1964 film adaptation of the 1935 fantasy novel The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney.

What great memories. I read that story over and over again. Never saw the entire movie, but I caught a brief part of it on TV one day. What I saw was fun!

 

[lotoblades]

Great pics!!

 

[theonew]

I leaned down with the camera and he (finally!) looked back up at me. Snappers are not naturally shy

I hope you got him to sign a photo release, I'm sure peta has already hired him an agent.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Shhh ... I'm trying to get PETA out in the open where

we're trying to set them up for a repeat of this earlier incident.​

 

[theonew]

Shhh ... I'm trying to get PETA out in the open where

we're trying to set them up for a repeat of this earlier incident.​

LOL, it almost seemed credible at first, since there isn't a lot of support for DETH (Dinosaurs for the Ethical Treatment of Humans)

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Student anthropologists do a lot of that sort of story referring to cavemen instead of dinosaurs. I'm sure we could have found better ways to waste our time, but it was good practice for later stints as staff experts on B-movies.

 

[theonew]

Student anthropologists do a lot of that sort of story referring to cavemen instead of dinosaurs. I'm sure we could have found better ways to waste our time, but it was good practice for later stints as staff experts on B-movies.

From the Geico commercials I've seen, it would appear such stories are not well received by the caveman community.