Picture-A-Week 2017 - Week 36

Pictures taken between Monday, September 4 and Sunday, September 10.

Spotted Oleander Caterpillar moth

White Peacock Butterfly

Giant Swallowtail butterfly

Sent from Middle Earth.

Finally, after a year and a half, got a Belted Kingfisher close enough to photograph. A male was nearby, but never close enough for a good picture.

At Bombay Hook NWR

Ken

Great pictures everyone!!

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Curiosity is famously bad for cats but it is a vital and endangered trait for today's youth. All little kids are curious. Mostly because everything is new. The problem starts later as an increasingly vapid, one-size-fits-all and ever so PC educational system stifles curiosity and punishes original thought. Teaching what to think over how to think seems to be the new normal with a vanishingly few good teachers bucking the trend. Set-it-and-forget-it parents are to blame as well. Knowing what is being taught and taking interest in your child’s education can keep curiosity alive and prevent a thirty-something Master of Art History from wearing out the couch in your basement.

Curiosity

Dave

Well no birding for the week - because the weekend was taken over by a very uninvited, rude lady...Irma. Full of hot air - what a windbag! And she'll rain all over your parade. So my photos are all of Irma and her wake:

Storm raging:

Backyard aftermath:

Trees from behind my security wall, that had shredded and fallen onto my ficus hedge...a mature 15 foot high hedge which is buried under 25-feet of fallen tree trunks and limbs:

Roads in the neighborhood are a bit on the impassable side:

Walking around this morning in the aftermath shooting the damage, I got caught in a strong feeder band that unloaded rain like standing under a waterfall:

Also - and I cannot stress this enough: I am NOT a video person!!!! - here's a YouTube video I posted (to show you how much I am not a video person, this is the first video I ever posted) of Irma's early hours as she was passing our area. Irma made landfall on the west coast of Florida, fortunately for us, but still brought us winds up to 110MPH at times, and a lot of rain...most of the damage in our area was limited to trees and foliage, and lots of folks without power. Here's a roughly 7:45 minute video:

Glad your interaction with Irma was marginal and you came out pretty much unscathed. We have been watching the weather news like hawks for a while now. We have relatives in Oviedo and my son missed being a Harvey flood statistic by about 100 ft. Some tense moments as the water kept climbing up the street.

Having grown up with earthquakes, I have come to view Mother Nature as that crazy old lady on the corner that yells at kids when they cut across he lawn.

I hope Jose gives you a break and steers clear.

Dave

Glad to hear that all are OK at the Dawg household!

here's a YouTube video I posted

Justin: It's a bit of recorded history and like Dave, we were watching CNN like a hawk!

G;ad you and yours are OK.

Thanks all. It's funny - I really don't have any interest in taking video, but enjoy watching it - looking back, it's quite telling that the last 3 times I've shot video were last week for Hurricane Irma, October 2005 for Hurricane Wilma, and September 2004 for Hurricane Frances. Hurricanes are about the only thing that make me think of shooting video - mostly just to document what happens and the aftermath - since stills shooting is more difficult to capture the actual 'winds' and rain footage in a way that tells what was going on.

zackiedawg

You were fortunate not to have your house damaged.

Glad you all were safe.

Thank you for sharing your pictures and video.

Glad you came through as good as you did, as they say it could've of been much worse. Hope the next one misses you, hang in there.

Allan

I took these photos of the Sprague fire in Glacier National Park. They were taken from the shores of Lake McDonald. Earlier in the week, the fire (sparked by lightning) had burned the 100+ year old historic Sperry Chalet that was used by backcountry backpackers.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums