My happy place

Mushroom Rock! Frio! The ranch! I miss you!

Skywatch Weekend Reflections Weekend in Black and White

Yellow-throated Vireo

Here's another buddy from Texas, a Yellow-throated Vireo. He's all fuzzy and smooshy and stuff but check out the photo where he's ripped that bug in half and is in the process of snarfing him. So vicious! I still love 'em. World Bird Wednesday

Look at the tiny.

I come across the little guys pretty often. The gecko is from the Texas Hill Country. I initially thought he was a baby Texas Banded Gecko but I guess he's a Mediterranean Gecko. Either way, he's my buddy. I found him in the sink at this cabin we were staying at for field work. It was one of those big industrial sinks and he couldn't get out. I helped him out (and he dropped the end of his tail, oops) and then he jumped out of my hands.

I couldn't find him and figured he'd jumped on the ground and could find his way out (there were a lot of holes in that kitchen cabin). About an hour later, in a different cabin, I was getting my stuff ready for work the next morning and felt something crawling in my dress. The gecko was on my boob. That's right, on my boob. I almost squished him (yikes) cause he felt like a spider or something. So once again, he jumped off me and he booked it underneath my bed. There was no way to get him but again...lots of holes and I assumed he'd let himself out.

The next morning, I got dropped off at my field site (about a 30 minute drive on rough roads). I got out of the car and bent over to put my boots on and said: "What the hell, there's a scorpion in my boot!" The scorpion turned out to be the freaking gecko - again!

Obviously, he's my new spirit animal. Or at least my spirit gecko. I mean, COME ON! I finally was able to get some pictures of him with my point and shoot and found a rocky outcrop for my gecko friend to make a happy new home.

So the other guy...I don't know what he is other than a miniature and adorable dinosaur. I stumbled on him while mountain biking in North Carolina. I stopped for water and found saw this guy nearby. He ran up my bike tire and on crawled up my arm eventually. Super cute. I like cute stuff.

A black hallelujah split the night

(More Mike Scott words)

Weekend Reflections Weekend in Black and White

Baby Snapper

Wordless

Oh. zarks.

About a month ago, spent a couple days in the Ozarks (Missouri part, not Arkansas). While they were certainly pretty, they didn't make my jaw drop. There was a pretty massive storm that started the second we got the tents up, which kinda sucked.

The next day was nice though. Went for a short jaunt in the woods and then I took my car and bike in search of some mountain biking trails. This didn't work out quite as planned. Luckily I didn't get too lost in the sketched out boonies (some serious meth labs happening, nothing different than Mississippi though). Though the Ozark Trail information is full of shit! I asked a few of the local inbreds (no offense anyone) for directions and was invited into a couple uninviting situations ( I declined).

Yeah, anyway. Eventually I ran into a law enforcement guy on a dirt road I shouldn't have been taking Vladimir (my ancient, beloved civic BEAST) on in the first place and he was nice and helpful and gave me useful directions. So, finally I found a bike friendly (uh, kinda) trail and hit it up. Pretty sure no one has been on that trail since it was constructed (whenever that was). It wasn't really what I was used to for mountain biking, but I made it work without any serious injuries. It was about 9 inches wide with a lot of downed trees and approximately 12,433 spider webs going across it.

Despite pulling spider webs and and spiders themselves out of my various orifices, including deep inside my nostrils, I had a good time on the trail. I rode under 2 adult Bald Eagles and had some really nice looks at them. At some point, the not so reliable Ozark Trail just decided to cease to exist. Totally disappeared. I heard some little crying noises nearby so I dropped the bike and wandered around in the woods for a while until I found the culprit - which ended up being two baby squirrels. Well hot damn! It took me a few minutes to recover from the cute attack.

One of them was on the ground and his eyes were closed but he wasn't newborn (as you can see in the photo). The other one was halfway down the tree. I could see the nest at the top of the tree, so they hadn't gone far and they were both in good shape. I read somewhere that they'll do that and the moms will carry them around, so I felt better knowing that. I was glad I had my point and shoot with me for pictures of the little guy. He's pretty freaking adorable, isn't he? Outdoor Wednesday

(Above, really? REALLY??)

(below: liquor and guns - the best combo!)

Eastern Amberwing

I was all up in this guy's face for about ten minutes, watching him chow down on some tasty treats. It was pretty fascinating stuff to actually watch him gorge on bugs. Weird! Awesome! Macro Monday

My good friends

I miss my Golden-cheeked Warbler buddies. I'm pretty certain they miss me also.

Camera Critters Scenic Sunday Bird Photography Weekly World Bird Wednesday

linger...

Weekend Reflections Weekend in Black and White

Happy turtle time

Baby turtles. They make me freaking HAPPY. And when I say happy, I mean, like, really really happy, teary-eyed happy. Cute stuff makes me cry, ya know? Here's a red-eared slider I found earlier today. He was pretty little - probably hatched around May or so. Soon after I found this guy, I almost stepped on a newly hatched snapping turtle (photos of him later). Baby turtles are one of my favorite things in life. Possibly even on my top three list of favorite things in the world. So, given my two bablet turtle finds today, it was a pretty good day.

Here's some waterfalls.

Transylvania County. Sweet name huh? Here's some more photos from the Western NC trip last month. Transylvania County is known for it's mass amounts of waterfalls (over 250). Susan and I checked out a bunch of them, biked to a lot of them. (Most of these are all from my handy little point and shoot since mountain biking isn't really ideal for lugging a nice piece of equipment around, ya know?) Anyway, good stuff. Miss that place. Freaking miss some mountains, yo.

Daily Dose of Cute

This Black-crested Titmouse took bath time really seriously. World Bird Wednesday

In Your Face.

This is a female Eastern Pondhawk. She's not bad looking. You've noticed a severe lack of wordy nonsense on the blog lately, huh? Yeah. I'm not all that chatty right now. I got stuff to say, just don't feel like saying it. I've still got a hoard of Texas photos to throw up there though, I should get on that...