This bird is one that I always enjoy seeing because it means summer has come to our area. This is a Dickcissel named for their call. They are colored similar to Meadowlarks but are smaller and chunkier. When they migrate, they assemble into very large flocks. It's classified as part of the Cardinal family but is actually difficult to determine it's closest relatives.
Happy Monday and happy new week! It's also a double digit day today! 😁 Today's image is the last flake that I took images of during a snow on the 28th of December. The snow was beginning to break up very badly as it was windy and that made it difficult to take images because it was moving the flakes around as well so this is not my best effort but I thought it turned out fairly well. Hopefully I will have had another opportunity over the weekend for other images as we were supposed to get snow as I type this. This image is a 6 image stack.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! I have a very steamy image for today. This is my Accucraft Live Steam locomotive after it had been repaired this past year for leaky cylinders. I was operating it on a friend's layout during his steam up event. The steam out of the smokestack showed up very well against the sun setting sky.
I was out for a walk recently and there was a spectacular sunset that was wonderful to watch it change and lasted longer than I thought it would. It began with lovely light hues of orange and yellow but ended up with these vibrant reds and oranges. I was lucky to be in a good spot for this color without a lot of houses around. I thought the clouds kind of gave this image a 3D effect.
It's Friday, TGIF! Today is supposed to be bitterly cold, a high of only 15 F so I wanted something that would warm me up and this image I took of my Rudbeckias this past summer does the trick. I had first seen this variety of them at a Transportation museum in St Louis and loved them so I was very happy I was able to get some seeds to grow and flower. This image also has some lovely bubbly bokeh so is perfect for today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious here on the Blog!
I always look for these guys when I bike ride in their area. There are a couple of very large limestone rocks at the end of a driveway and in the summer, I can usually find at least one of them sunning on it. I got really lucky this past year and was able to capture both the male and female Collared Lizard. The a bit brighter green male is on the right. I look forward to seeing them this year.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is another of my very favorite wildflowers, Queen Anne's Lace. It is named for the red spot that is usually found in the center. For some reason, my group of them did not have a very prominent spot this past year. It is in the Parsley family and usually blooms June to September. I find them very photogenic.
