Rainy day

Mornin’ Well, the rain begins here. I woke to the pitter patter of rain on the roof and now I have to get ready for a rainy day on the river. Poncho,check, opti sleves (rain covers) for the camera, check. Now just bring on the Kayakers!!!! Most folks would write off photography in the rain but I’m not smart, and I like a challenge. So later this morning after a hearty breakfast I’m heading out to find something to photograph.
Tonight will be the big challenge for me, I’m heading up to the Skyway before the snow hits and wait for sunrise, Why leave early? Well it snows pretty hard up at the higher elevations and getting down is easier than getting up. There are a couple places at 5000+ feet I’d like to check out, Spirit ridge trail is an easy trail which should be great with snow, then back to Stratton meadows and the drive back down the forest road should be fun.
I hope everyones weekend is going well. The pic is of an Eastern Towhee, a new bird to the feeders here, sorry bout the quality it was very early in the morning and I had to up the ISO to 1600 to get the pic and that causes the pic to be grainy.
Later…Ed

TGIF

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Well we’re off to Knoxville today for a bit of fun, the used book/movie/CD store, a stop for me at the Ritz camera store and Chinese food. I hope it rains alot today to bring out the Kayakers tomorrow.
This is a short post today and tomorrows will be late in the afternoon with lots of pics hopefully.
Till then here is a Carolina Wren that was hanging out at the woodpile behind my dads woodshop.
Later…Ed

I got my sunrise

my day started at 4:30am and I got to the top of the Cherohala Skyway an hour later. As I sat in the dark I was hoping the cloud cover would break before sunup. Well the dawn broke and the sun came out for only 20 minutes so I worked fast, tripod up camera settings set and I just waited until the time was just right. After that it was just driving around looking for targets of opprotunity. I found some small waterfalls and alot of fog on the top of the mountain. All in all it was a blast! I got back to the homestead around 1pm and downloaded the pics, all 325 of them and whittled that down to around 63. I had my mom pick 10 of her faves and added a couple of my own for the blog and flicker. So I hope ya’ll enjoy them I’m posting my favorite sunrise pic from this morning and you can see the rest of them at my Flicker account on the right side of the blog, just click on a pic and it will take ya there.
Hava great day, I’m taking a nap…:-)
Later…Ed

Wordless Wenesday

If you fill them, they will come…

Well, I was’nt home an hour before I had the bird feeders filled and the camera set up and lo and behold the finches decended like magic to attack the thistle feeder. It was a finchapalooza. I missed hearing the calls of the finches,bluebirds, the chuffing of the woodpeckers and the cardinals, it is so quiet here. Well I’m off to get my hair cut, I’m starting to look like a hippee.. I’ll start stalking the bluebirds and woodpeckers this afternoon.
Later…Ed

Back in Tennessee

YEAH!!! I made it home, well almost. I have to drop a trailer in Knoxville and bobtail the 40 or so miles to Tellico Plains and some much deserved home time. I hav’nt been home since the beginning of December when we did the holiday lights challenge. Man, has it been that long? Oh well, I get to do some photography on the river, visit my mom and dad, and maybe squeeze in a day trip to Cades Cove and one to Knoxville to take the folks to our favorite chinese buffet that has the best hot-n-sour soup in the country. Well I got to get some sleep so I can get up and drive the last few miles later today. If I get any good pics I’ll post them over the next 5 days. The pic is from last year, I hope it snows here in the next few days I need some new winter pics on the river..:-)
Later…Ed

Sunday Stills

Here’s a little something for the country folk….:-)

The Bickersons

One afternoon I was on one of my wonder walks and spotted a cool old tree. I noticed holes in the upper half and wondered if there were and woodpeckers about. well as luck would have it there was not one but two Red-Bellied woodpeckers! Lucky day!!! I spent the next half an hour shooting pics of the couple as thes hopped all over that tree and chuffing back and forth at each other. I still wonder if they are still living at that tree in Alabama. I also found and Eastern fox squirell at the same location but that is for another day.
Later…Ed

Bad hair day

Ever had one of these days? I have, not recently though. This fella spent all day waiting for the rain to let up so he could get to the feeder, the problem was there was no leaves on the trees. So, he just got wet!
Moral of the story, Cardinals are silly birds…
FYI, I left Laredo last evening and am heading north to the Birmingham Alabama area, Oh Joy…..
Have a happy Friday….Ed

I was’nt in a bad mood yesterday…

Sorry if ya’ll got the wrong impression by the pidgy, I just liked the detail of the pic. As a matter of fact I’ve been feeling pretty good, miles are picking up and I’m on my way to Tennessee for some off time and a couple homecooked meals by my mommy….
And lots of pic taking on the river and in the mountains…YIPPEEE!!!!!!
Later…Ed