Baby Foxes

I have one friend out here on Long Island who is my nature photo buddy. We try and go out about once a week to take pictures, and one of our favorite places to go is Connetquot River State Park. We are there frequently enough that we know where to look for particular subjects. We've been lucky enough to learn of a fox den, and we have been even more lucky in having the opportunity to see and photograph a pair of baby foxes.

Round Robin Challenge - Anything in Threes

After a long hiatus, I am back to participate in the Round Robin Photo Challenge.

This week's challenge...

"Anything in 3's, must be the same theme and presented in 3 images."


I've chosen the theme "Ducks That Winter on Long Island." Here on Long Island, each season brings a new variety of birds through the area. In winter, it's the ducks. I was never really aware that there were SO many duck species, but I made it a point this past winter to get out to find, photograph, and identify as many as I could. It's a bit of a challenge. It's COLD near the water and often they are too timid to get very close to the shore. It takes some patience and stealth to get close enough to them to get a reasonable shot. These aren't your domesticated white ducks or mallards that expect every human they see to have a spare loaf of bread.

I think they're delightful in their funny looking sort of way...

Nothern Shoveler




Red Breasted Mergansers





Oldsquaw



Here's the linking list to see the submissions by all the other Round Robin participants...

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories

Linda
Mommy's Treasures

Freda
Day One

Sandy - Posted!
From the Heart of Texas

Nancy
Nancy luvs Pics

Carolyn
Ford Family Photos

Monica - Posted!
Shutterly Happy

Wammy
The Ellis Family Cincinnati

Suzanne R
SuzyQ421's Photo Blog

Sherrie
Sherrie's Stuff

Ruth
Scrabblequeen

Dawn **Welcome, new member!*** - Posted!
Dawn Elliott Photography

Kat **Welcome back!**
In My Dreams I Can Fly...

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures

Manang Kim - Posted!
My Life's Journey in Focus

Still Life

I have been in need of a major distraction from what's going on in my life. This weekend, I stumbled onto it. I was playing around with some macro shots and on a whim started experimenting with a studio setup and an off camera flash. I did a little background research online and headed to my "studio". Here are the results...

Jan 30, 2010

On Friday, a friend and I spent the day at the beautiful Quogue Wildlife Sanctuary. We went with the intention of photographing winter waterfowl but the variety on that particular day was disappointing. My best shots are of the birds that are housed in their distressed/injured wildlife sanctuary.

All these birds of prey have been injured with the exception of the great horned owl. He was found by a family as a chick and was raised by people. All his natural instinct has been lost, so he would be unable to survive out of captivity. He was funny....he talks to people. As soon as he sees someone approach the enclosure, he starts to hoot for attention. If you talk to him, he talks back.

I wish I were showcasing images of these magnificent birds in a setting where I did not have to shoot through a fence to capture them. They belong in the wild. However, we are fortunate that facilities exists where they can be cared for and where they can provide an environmental education opportunity.



Peregrine Falcon





Barn Owl(sleeping)





Bald Eagle






Great Horned Owl

Community Photo Challenge - Transportation

Our photo challenge this month is TRANSPORTATION. You can use cars, trucks, trains, planes, even motorcycles! Some kind of transportation with or without people. You can be creative, you can use Photoshop or a paint programs. It starts today & ends Feb. 15. Post it on your blog, come back here I leave your link in the comments. Remember to visit everyone's entry to see what they contributed. The links are here.

The best way off Long Island...

Jan 21 2010

Two photos with nothing in common except they were both taken this week and they both took me by surprise on first glance.

Bronx Zoo

Arielle and I took a trip to the Bronx Zoo on Thursday. It was a perfect day for the outing, temperatures reaching the low 40s. There were enough animals on display in the cooler weather to fill the day...and almost no people. I highly recommend a zoo trip in winter.













I have a few more photos posted at my Flickr site here.