Never had the swing of it

I never was much good swinging on those handles.  When I see kids doing this with such deft and ease, I get jealous.   Not jealous enough, mind you, to want to jump on one of these playground contraptions and risk wounding my body and pride.

Don't jump!

Who do you suppose would have jumped the farest if the glass had not been there?  I suppose the iguana and our grandchild Sophie, would have both set a world record. Right there in downtown Houston at the Aquarium.

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.

Fountains whet appetite for concert

Sometime back, we were at a concert in the courtyard by the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge, LA.   I don't know if this is a common occurrence, but many of the kids were splashing in the ponds and fountains.  It was great relieve from the heat, I am sure.  This young man took it up a notch, lying in the water and leaning over the waterfall.  It was not long, though, before dozens were as immersed in the water as the adults were immersed in the music.

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Sunny Serenity of Selected Seats.

Looking out from a baptismal font in a church into which we wandered in Washington D.C.  The sun had found a trio of windows it could blaze through and was adding real ambience to the scene.   It's nice to have a production assistant like that when your shooting photos.

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Ferris Wheel wait

These two are waiting to go soaring at the Aquarium in Houston.  Big Ferris Wheels always get my stomach quesy.--steve buser

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Smiley Gators

Well, snap my finger!  

It looked like a chorus line of Alligator mississippiensis.  They sat staring out at the crowds from their French Quarter shop perch.  They seemed almost to be saying "Come on, snap me up."
Okay, it was a bad joke, but I tried didn't I?
-steve buser

Aligators, New Orleans, French Quarter

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Duck -- the water is your world.

When you live in it, swim in it, and eat from it, even a little extra murkiness in the water can't stop you from appreciating its vitalizing power.  Yeah, that's refreshing.
--steve buser

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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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Rules of the road: buffalo rule the road.

Don't get out of your car to get close to wildlife near a road, the park rangers tell you at Yellowstone Park where this was taken.  Still, people do it all the time. The buffalo looks calm and peacefule moving across the road, but apparently they can get riled easily.  If they do get riled,  they can put up such a tantrum that a car can be the loser.

--steve buser

Yellowstone National Park, buffalo

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Giraffe ballet anyone?

A little giraffe ballet anyone?   These giraffes were just checking me out -- trying to guess if I was going to feed them or something.  I was standing about eight feet back from the fence at Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, LA. Nonetheless, the attendant wandered over and suggested that giraffes have a longer reach than that, should they decide to lean across.   I had no problem moving back.
--steve buser

Giraffes, Louisiana

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Giraffe, eye-to-eye.

Seeing wildlife is an up close and personal thing at the Global Wildlife Center near Folsom, LA,  north of New Orleans.  The animals come up to the wagon train to eat from the visitors' food cups.

--steve buser

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Crystal flowers from Yellowstone

I love these lovely crystalline structures that grow in the pools of geysers at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.   Unless I am mistaken, that is a quarter that someone dropped (hopefully accidentally) on the "flower" -- it gives a sense of the dimension.
--steve buser

Yellowstone National Park

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Cool journey home

In the cool of the evening and in frigid mountain waters, this gal was slowly making her way back home up in the mountains.  This is on the west side of Yellowstone National Park, shortly before you exit the park.
--steve buser

Yellowstone, Mountains, Wyoming

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Skipping Sanderling

A Sanderling (Calidris alba) skips rapidly across the sandy beach at Perdido Key, Florida, finding a lot of good things to eat on the shore because of the high wave action in the Gulf of Mexico.
--steve buser

Sanderling, Florida, Perdido Key

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Chipmunk

This little chipmunk pounced out of the rocks in front of us on this trip to Colorado.  I don't think it was because he was not afraid of us -- more than he just wasn't paying attention to us.
--steve buser

Duckling sitting -- Salt Lake City

Mama watches over her young ones (although they are getting pretty big) as the sun rises and the joggers come out.

The pond was near our hotel where we stayed on a recent trip to Salt Lake City.
--steve buser

Ducks, Salt Lake City, Utah, ducklings

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Sunset breath-stealer at the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon at sunset is one of the real treats at this national park.  There are good spots and better spots to do this.  We kept traveling along the rim of the Canyon looking for that perfect spot.  Finally as the hour grew late, we pulled into a parking area and found a "suck-the-breath-out-of-your-lungs" view.  The scenery, the colors, and the shadows made a constant play as the sinking sun skimmed its rays over anything it could still hit.
--steve buser

Grand Canyon, Sunset

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Egret -- just winging it.

A Great Egret takes a leap into the air and glides away from his perch.  The picture is from the Oil and Gas Park in Jennings, LA. His companion for the the morning, the Anhinga on the right side, doesn't give it much attention.
-steve buser>

Great Egret, Louisiana

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Sniping Stripes --Zebras zerks

My biggest surprise at Global Wildlife Center where we visited this past weekend was the orneriness of the Zebras.  They would push their way to the front nearthe wagon train we were in and then chase away any animal that would push on them.  We were warned not to feed them from our hands because they will bite -- apparently an expression of affection. Apparently, from the way I see it,  the stripes are just to a make them look more friendly.

--steve buser

Zebras, Global Wildlife Center

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Wildlife are happy to greet you

We had the grandkids and a bunch from Linda's family at the Global Wildlife Center in Folsom this weekend.  I don't think I have ever seen brighter kids' eyes thatn when they found out they got to feed giraffes, zebras and buffaloes and more.  It's a vast open range prairie that the animals roam freely.
--steve buser

Global Wildlife Center, Louisiana

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Elk eye contact

A young buck elk in full velvet in Yellowstone National Park stops eating leaves for a second to check me out. I guess he was wondering what that big eye was sticking out of my face.  This was on a recent vacation Linda and I took at the end of the summer.  There was a big buck looking over the herd of about 12, mostly females.  He was laying in the grass and barely looking around.


--steve buser

Yellowstone National Park, elk

Great Egret,

This lone Great Egret (Ardea Albus) was ranging around the pond at the Oil and Gas Park in Jennings today. I managed to get in a spot, just behind a tree, that allowed me some camoflauge and a place to steady my shot.  He quickly found me, though, and took a couple stares right at me to check for threats.

The fishing wasn't so good, so he soon decided to head to his (seemingly temporary) nesting place in some bushes near the bank. 

What surprised me on this shot, was how limber you have to be, to be a Great Egret and keep your feathers straightened.
--steve buser

Great Egret, Ardea Albus, Louisiana

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Pasture perfect

Old school buses, put out to pasture, now just lineup behind a fence and watch the I-10 traffic flow by.   Near Winnie, TX (to the east of Houston)
--steve buser

Texas

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Green Heron

This Green Heron at Austin's Arboretum was wary of me, but didn't fly away as long as I kept my distance and didn't make sudden moves.
--steve buser

Green Heron, Austin

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Washington Monument at the edge

Our son, Charlie, and my wife, Linda, check out the map of Washington D.C. in the portico of the Washington Monument during a recent trip there.
-steve buser

Washington D.C., Washington Monument

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Black-capped Chickadee

I had to shoot between the legs of a railing to catch a shot of this Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) eating on some tender shoots of a branch in Yellowstone National Park this summer.
I think the railing provided just enough cover to keep my friend here unfrightened by me.
--steve buser

Black-capped Chickadee

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Blowing off steam

Will the geyser blow soon?  If you know the ways of this beast, you can probably guess the time it will blow within a couple hours.  A Yellowstone National Park ranger would come out to the site periodically to check the signs and give her prediction. 

When the geyser blows, it really puts on a visual and sound phantasmagoria.
--steve buser

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

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A Peek at the Peak Peak

At the top of the photo is the peak of the Grand Teton.  The photo is from our trip to Yellowstone earlier this month.   We were climbing to Inspiration Point on the far side of Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons National Park.
--steve buser

Grand Tetons, Wyoming

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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.

Rolling during the marathon

While the older people were running the Houston Marathon Sunday, a fewof the kids took to the hill in from of the George R. Brown center to enjoy the art of rolling down the hill

--steve buser

Houston Marathon, kids, sports, Houston, Texas

Looking down on Atlanta

A shot out my hotel window in downtown Altanta,GA from a trip there a few years ago.

--steve buser

Home away from home

a 

Stairs lead to the second floor of a home and then to a deck on the third floor.

The home itself was last seen shortly before Hurricane Ike slammed ashore on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas.

In the foreground, not even the pilings remain of a home that was washed away. On the other hand, the slab is still there for the parking area under the house. Many homes even had the slabs washed away on the finger of land facing the Gulf just southeast of Houston.

In the background, two homes remain standing, though most homes on the island that withstood the fury of the massive 400-mile-wide beast still have to be gutted to return them to a livable condition.

--steve buser

Lost and found, but not fixed

While driving on the Bolivar Peninsula a few days ago, we came across this collection of found items.

There was a man wandering around, and I assumed it was his work. All around stood sticks where houses and been -- gutless houses with nothing below them -- and every kind of destruction you can imagine.

It has been more than 90 days since Hurricane Ike unleased its destructive force on the defenseless finger of land.   Still little has been done to restore the island to life. Building codes, financing, real estate laws, insurance, FEMA assistance, flood elevations, work to restore utilities, roads, dunes -- it is all in a snarled mess.

So, this man does what he can. He places things he finds in this pile, hoping that someone will recognize something that was theirs. Maybe it will restore a little, though very little, order to their life.

Behind his foundlings laid out on the driveway is a gaping hole where homeowners used to park their cars on a slab beneath the house. The slab is cracked into pieces, some in the hole, some missing.

Meanwhile, on a internet forum board for the peninsula, volunteers saying they are working to get donated ladders so that people can enter their houses and see what is left.


--steve buser

Technorati Tags: Hurricane Ike, disasters, hurricane recovery, Texas, Bolivar Peninsula

Peek morning

The early morning sun peeks through a glen in west Houston.

--steve buser

Technorati Tags: Sunrise, Houston, leaves, bright, trees