Pink, Super Moon in Beaumont, TX

Two views of the Pink Super Moon from Tuesday  night in Beaumont TX.

Beaumont's Cattail Marsh attracting social-distancing walkers

Cattail Marsh's smiling gator

The happy alligator from the Cattail Marsh Scenic Wetlands & Boardwalk in Beaumont Texas.

Pimpled, Dappled Sky

The sun didn't quite go down as I was shooting this, but it's brightness emphaises all the little speckles sprinkled around the sky.

What do angry clouds portend for the seasons ahead?

These were the angry clouds that moved slowly through early this week.  Habringer of turbulent summer weather to come?

Sunny flowers brighten backyard

The sunflowers in the backyard are really putting on a show this week.

Cotton puff sky highlights Ole Glory

I was watching the sky today as we moved around the city on chores.  This shot was while I was at Kinsel Ford dropping off a vehicle which needed repairs.  I was struck by the contrast between the cotton puff clouds in the  background and in the foreground the American flag flapping actively in the breezes brought in by a cool front.

Great Blue Heron ponders how to eat a catfish whole

Okay, you're a Great Blue Heron and you have caught a big catfish for your meal.  How do you eat it? 

Well, you play with it and poke it with your beak for about 20 minutes. (repeat poking and playing as necessary). Then you are ready for the "big swallow" (see bottom photo). 

This was taken at Cattail Marsh Scenic Wetlands and Boardwalk in Tyrrell Park in Beaumont, TX -- a popular birding spot.

Excuse the fuzziness -- but this heron was a long way away and wasn't going to tolerate me getting any closer (fearing I would steal his meal).

Alligator enjoys an after lunch nap at Cattail Marsh

This alligator at the Cattail marsh seemed to be enjoying a nap back a good ways from the viewing boardwalk.  He was up on the land to get more heat to help digest his meal of one of his marsh fellows.

Posing lizards thumb noses at gravity.

My brick-scaling, gravity-defying, photo-posing lizards are very active this summer, in case you wanted to know.

They want you to know.

Ominous clouds can't deliver on rain threat

This was the weather system that blew past our neighborhood last night. Ominous as it might look, it was all bluster and no rain.  The air cooled down to about 80 degrees, and it turned breezy  -- but not even a sprinkle.

Eastern Blue Bird

Eastern Bluebirds aren't a common site, chez moi, so I was glad to see this visitor.

Butterfies fill the air

Butterflies were all over the backyard Monday.  This is the only one that would sit still for a portrait, though.

Tongue is bird's best tool

A sparrow performs magic with his tongue. After cracking a seed with his beak he uses his tongue to flit out the shell an preserve the tasty germ of the seed.

Food fights at the bird feeder are serious

I told you, stay away from my side of the bird feeder, you thief.  The attacking sparrow, lets the snacker know he is serious by putting his claws on him.

Hummingbird -- That's a lot of nectar, by golly.

This is something new for the Hummingbirds that have been hanging around our backyard.  This guy stands on top of the plastic petals and stares at the nectar reservoir.  It's like he's planning how long it will take him to drink it all.

The rest of them will take their drink and then fly away or fly up to the top to play King on the Hummingbird Feeder -- chasing after any rival that comes near it -- including, one time, giving me a ear-popping buzzing as I was walking past.

Nightfall hush

Nightfall out in the backyard.  Calm, quiet, still. As if the night had sucked the sound as well as the sun from the horizon.
-steve buser

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Black-Crowned Night Heron

I go all over the place trying to find these birds, then I walk out my door a few months back to find one is there in the ditch.   This is a Black-Crowned Night Heron.
--steve buser

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Do not spindle.

How willing would you be to assume that the cloud shape overhead was just an accidental formation as the clouds swirled around?

I walked outside and saw this one day back in November.  I then ran into the house, grabbed my camera and started shooting.  I'm still perplexed by what it was all about.  Despite what you see, it didn't seem to be spinning rapidly.  At least it wasn't spinning any more rapidly that anything else in the sky which look more like a ocean full of splashing clouds that a sky.

This is a SkyWatch Friday post.  Hundreds of other bloggers post sky-based photos each Friday
Go and check out more Skywatch images at the Skywatch Site!

--steve buser

clouds, weather, swirling.

Blanketed with Christmas spirit

The weathermen and weather ladies said Beaumont received three inches of snow this week. Maybe at the weather station it did. There were lots of places that clearly got five to six inches.

Let us not quible over inches. It was a rare event, in terms of  1) it snowed at all  2) how much it snowed   3) that it snowed so early

It, put me in the Christmas spirit, though.

Oh, see the green in the foreground, by they red curb. That is a helium balloon that lost its spartanic battle of trying to stretch to the heavens. I suspect it sucumbed to the cold before it sucumbed to the snow. The shot is at the Preserve on Old Dowlen Road. ( I left this picture pretty big, so double click it to get a good blast of snow in your face.)

--steve buser