rock

I Claim This Rock!

March 16, 2023 — 10 Comments

F/5.6, 1/250, ISO 800.

Muskrat

Why did the cookie go to the hospital?

He felt crummy!

Interesting Fact: Muskrats are most active at night or near dawn and dusk. They feed on cattails and other aquatic vegetation. They do not store food for the winter, but sometimes eat the insides of their push-ups. While they may appear to steal food beavers have stored, more seemingly cooperative partnerships with beavers exist, as featured in the BBC David Attenborough wildlife documentary The Life of Mammals.[22][23] Plant materials compose about 95% of their diets, but they also eat small animals, such as freshwater mussels, frogs, crayfish, fish, and small turtles.[5][6] Muskrats follow trails they make in swamps and ponds. When the water freezes, they continue to follow their trails under the ice. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat#Behavior )

Leave A Little Sparkle Wherever You Go!

February 12, 2023 — 20 Comments

F/6.3, 1/160, ISO 250.

Snowy Egret

What does a pig put on its paper cut?

Oinkment!

Interesting Fact: The Snowy Egret eats mostly aquatic animals, including fish, frogs, worms, crustaceans, and insects. It often uses its bright yellow feet to paddle in the water or probe in the mud, rounding up prey before striking with its bill. Snowy Egrets feed while standing, walking, running, or hopping, and they may vibrate their bills, sway their heads, or flick their wings as part of prey gathering. They even forage while hovering. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snowy_Egret/lifehistory )

If You Talking About My Neck, I’m Not Responsible For What Happens Next…

February 6, 2023 — 4 Comments

F/9.0, 1/320, ISO 160.

Great Egret 

Why are pirates so mean?

I don’t know, they just arrrrrrrrr!

Interesting Fact: Males choose the display areas, where nests are later constructed. The nest itself is up to 100 feet off the ground, often over water, usually in or near the top of a shrub or tree such as a redwood, tamarisk, live oak, eastern redcedar, yaupon holly, wax myrtle, mangrove, Australian pine, buttonwood, Brazilian pepper, black willow, or privet. Great Egrets occasionally nest on the ground or on artificial platforms. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Egret/lifehistory )

Im On Top Of The World!

May 22, 2021 — 6 Comments

F/6.3, 1/100, ISO 250.

Chipmunk

Why was the chipmunk late for work?

Traffic was NUTS.

Interesting Fact: Their shrill, repeated, birdlike chirp is usually made upon sensing a threat but is also thought to be used as a mating call by females. Chipmunks are solitary creatures and normally ignore one another except during the spring, when mating takes place. After a 30-day gestation, a litter of two to eight is born. The young stay with their parents for two months before they begin to gather their own provisions for the winter ahead. ( https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/chipmunks/ )

Cliffhanger!

March 26, 2021 — 15 Comments

F/9.0, 1/320, ISO 160.

Green Heron

Why did the soccer player bring string to the game?

So he could tie the score.

Interesting Fact: The oldest Green Heron on record was at least 7 years, 11 months old when it was found in Mexico in 1979. It had been banded in Oklahoma in 1971. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Green_Heron )

You See Me Rollin!

October 14, 2020 — 12 Comments

F/7.1, 1/200. ISO 125.

Great Egret

What did the Buffalo say to his little boy when he dropped him off at school?

Bison.

Interesting Fact: The Great Egret walks with its neck extended and its wings held close to its body. In flight, it is graceful and buoyant, with its neck tucked back against its shoulders and its legs trailing behind. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Egret/lifehistory )

Shh… I’m Hiding From Negative People.

September 14, 2020 — 18 Comments

F/6.3, 1/160, ISO 160.

Green Heron

Why won’t sharks attack lawyers?

Professional courtesy!

Interesting Fact: Occasionally Green Herons hunt in deeper water by plunging on prey from above. They hunt at all times of the day and night in the shallows of swamps, creeks, marshes, ditches, ponds, and mangroves. They usually forage among thick vegetation in water that is less than 4 inches deep, avoiding the deeper and more open areas frequented by longer-legged herons. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Green_Heron/lifehistory )

I Am On A Seafood Diet. I See Food, And I Eat It.

September 2, 2020 — 13 Comments

F/ 6.3, 1/80, ISO 640.

Turkey Vulture

Two vultures are in a field, eating a dead clown.

One vulture says to the other, “Does this taste funny to you?”

Interesting Fact:  Turkey Vultures nest in rock crevices, caves, ledges, thickets, mammal burrows and hollow logs, fallen trees, abandoned hawk or heron nests, and abandoned buildings. These nest sites are typically much cooler (by 13°F or more) than surroundings, and isolated from human traffic or disturbance. While they often feed near humans, Turkey Vultures prefer to nest far away from civilization. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Turkey_Vulture/lifehistory )

I Swear, I Am One Cocktail Away From Telling Everyone What I Really Think!

August 27, 2020 — 8 Comments

F/8.0, 1/250, ISO 160.

Least Sandpiper

A Sandwich walks into a bar.

The bartender says “Sorry, we don’t serve food here”

Interesting Fact: Researchers studying Least Sandpipers discovered a new feeding mechanism. While probing damp mud with their bills, the sandpipers use the surface tension of the water to transport prey quickly from their bill tips to their mouths. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Least_Sandpiper/ )

I Am Too Busy Working On My Own Grass To Notice If Yours Is Greener

July 22, 2020 — 7 Comments

F/6.3, 1/250, ISO 640.

Muskrat

Why is sex like math?

You add a bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs, and pray there’s no multiplying!

Interesting Fact: Muskrats provide an important food resource for many other animals, including mink, foxes, coyotes, wolves, lynx, bobcats, bears, eagles, snakes, alligators, and large owls and hawks. Otters, snapping turtles, and large fish such as pike prey on baby muskrats. Caribou and elk sometimes feed on the vegetation which makes up muskrat push-ups during the winter when other food is scarce for them.[24] In their introduced range in the former Soviet Union, the muskrat’s greatest predator is the golden jackal. They can be completely eradicated in shallow water bodies, and during the winter of 1948–49 in the Amu Darya (river in central Asia), muskrats constituted 12.3% of jackal faeces contents, and 71% of muskrat houses were destroyed by jackals, 16% of which froze and became unsuitable for muskrat occupation. Jackals also harm the muskrat industry by eating muskrats caught in traps or taking skins left out to dry. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat#Behavior )