Half Mile Trail Walk With Better Half

1/4 mile marker at Development Authority of North Country Nature Trail, Calcium, NY

I took a half mile walk with the Better Half today on the nature trail in Calcium, NY. She has long had a back and leg problems that have been limiting her walking. Her pain and discomfort during walking is abated when she pushes a shopping cart through a store. With that in mind we recently bought her a walker. Today we tried it out on the nature trail. WE made it to the first 1/4 mile marker, trned and went back, executing a half mile. This was a real milestone and morale booster. Especially since she is soon facing some surgery and the doctor would like her to get walking before hand so as to be better prepared for after surgery recovery.

Development Authority of North Country Nature Trail, Calcium, NY

It was a  lovely day after 2 or 3 days of rain. Breazy with a temperature about 68 degrees, low humidity. I also put a couple hours work in at our Clay St apartment house. My phone app says I walked 5,501 steps today.

Photos of Northern Flicker woodpeckers, Chaumont, NY

 

Northern Flicker woodpecker in my backyard, Chaumont, NY.

I present here today a couple photos of Northern Flicker woodpeckers that have been in our yard in Chaumont, NY. I really don't recall seeing these birds here before. I have learned they are quite common here in  the North Country. A friend who lives in Chippewa Bay on the St. Lawrence River says they are plentiful there. I shot the photos with a Minolta 500mm f8 lens, hand held, with a Sony a6600 camera. It was raining here today when I snapped these photos.  Camera settings were iso 2000, 1/200th sec shutter speed. All of the photos exhibit some motion blur and the focus is on the birds body rather than it's head. I also had to crop the photos quite a bit to zoom in on the birds. Today was the 3rd time that I had a camera close to try and photograph them. The seem to be skittish and fly off as soon as they sense my presence. 

Northern Flicker woodpecker in my backyard, Chaumont, NY.

Autumn Maple leaf with rain drops

This is a photo I snapped with the iPhone 5 of a maple leaf with rain drops. It was on the back steps of my Clay St., Watertown NY rental property.

Maple leaf in Autumn, Cly St., Watertown, NY  iPhone photo by Gary Walts

The elusive Silver Fox

Silver Fox photographed in Carthage, NY, Nikon D4 with 70-200mm f2.8 lens                  photo by gary walts

Two Summers ago I was in the back yard of my home in Chaumont, NY, near dusk and an animak suddenly appeared from behgind the garage. It looked at me briefly and darted away. I had no idea what it was. After some google searc hing I determined in was a Silver Fox. I had never seen one before. It so happens that they are rare and they do not live long, two or three years. They are also unique in that they climbv trees and can be found sleeping in trees. Anyhow, yesterday I was in Carthage  playing guitar for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Carthage Area Hospital. I was finished and on my way home and decided to stop at the liquor store in Carthage. It was 7:30PM. I was about to get out of the van when a Silver Fox creaped out of the brush. I grabbed my camera and made these photos. What a beautiful, healthy looking creature.

Silver Fox photographed in Carthage, NY, Nikon D4 with 70-200mm f2.8 lens                  photo by gary walts

Photo of Bird Skeleton

I went up into the attic of our Chaumont house to try and find location of a roof leak and discovered a bird skeleton. It appears it has been there for a long time. I find it visually interesting and snapped a couple shots with the iPhone. The brightly colored rendition of one of the photos was created by increasing the color saturation with Photoshop.

Wolf spider with egg sack

I photographed this Wolf Spider with an egg sac with an iPhone 5. I recently had ten cord of wood dropped off in my driveway. My sister C happened to be visiting from Tucson, AZ and was helping me stack it. She picked up a piece of wood and revealed this spider. Ten minutes later we uncovered another one. The photo quality is under par for my liking. My Nikon would have been a better choice.

Wolf Spider with egg sack found while stacking fire wood.

Snapping Turtle in the Road

Snapping turtle in the road near Wilson's Bay and Dablon Point, Cape Vincent, N.Y. photo by Gary Walts

The Better Half & I took her grandson G for a ride down to Wilson's Bay in Cape Vincent. It is a favorite swimming spot about ten miles from our home. On the way back we encountered a snapping turtle in the middle of the road. A young man was using a stick to try and lure the turtle the rest of the way across. For some reason the creature got 2/3rds across and decided to sit still. A recipe for disaster. Not only could he accidentally get killed by a car, there are those out there that drive over turtles for sport. Sick bastards like  that should be jailed. Anyhow, I took it as a photo op, snapped a couple shots and then the young man in the photo gripped the turtle by the tail and with a quick motion dragged him off the road. Mission accomplished.

Incidentally, it was 93 degrees in Syracuse and 82 at my house in Chaumont which is why we took the drive to the lake.

Trying to lure a snapping turtle out of the road in Cape Vincent, N.Y.  Gary Walts photo

Rudyard Kipling Quote and an orange chamelian?

Here is a great quote I stumbled upon by Rudyard Kipling:

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”    Rudyard Kipling

I spotted this critter in the woods in Tully NY while I was photographing Llamas and hikers for the Syracuse Media Group.   photo by Gary Walts

I was photographing a couple hiking through the wood with their Llamas when I came upon this orange chamelian. Or is it a lizard, or a newt? I really don't know what it is. This is the first time I ever saw one this color. All of the others in this part of the World have been brown to black in color. Usually I only see them when over turning rocks or logs. This gut was sitting just as you see him in the photo. He is very tiny, about 2 inches in length. I did not have a macro lens so what you see here is man extreme crop from the original. Imagine how spectacular it would have been if properly shot with a macro lens.

Today I took my mother to the bank and to the county office building to pay her property taxes. The tax bill was $2,235.00 and change. 

Then I had guitar lessons. 

Then I came home finished editing some wedding photos, burned them to a CD and printed the CD. 

Now I am going to bed.

Dandelion Photograph iPhone 5 Instagram

<br>
I snapped this photograph of Dandelions in the front yard of my home in Chaumont, NY with an iPhone 5. I then used an instagram filter to crop and tone it. I love the iPhone and instagram.

Dandelions in my front yard. Taken with iPhone V and
modified with instagram. Photo by Gary Walts

I photographed 3 jobs today for the Post-Standard / Syracuse Media Group: A man, one Dan Gristwood of Pennellville who spent nine years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Then it was a man named Chol Majok. He was one of the Lost Boys from Sudan who ended up in Syracuse and now works for Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner.  Finally, I photographed some lacrosse players at Christian Brothers Academy as they painted their faces with eye black before a game.  Tomorrow I have a couple of guitar lessons, a violin lesson w/ JJ and then I must take care of some yard work at my Franklin St apartment house.

Nature Photography: Gray Tree Frog (Hyla versicolor)

Tonight, near dusk, as I was preparing to cover our Easy Set pool, I saw an unfamiliar looking frog on it. I grabbed a camera, in this case a Nikon D300 and snapped some shots of it. A Google search revealed it to be a Grey Tree frog which is wide spread through out New York State. In all of my life I had never seen one before. I didn't have a macro lens so these images are cropped from much wider originals. Hence, it is limited upon how large I can make them.

Moammar Gadhafi Dead & I Can't Sleep

Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's dictator for 42 years is dead. So another one of the world's infamous dictators has met his demise. But now what? Will Libya get it's oil production going again and prosper? Or will there now begin a long series of tribal fighting for control of the country? Evil as men like Moammar Gadhafi and Saddahm Hussein are, their cruel, iron fisted control acts as a stabilizing force in regions that have long histories of tribes in conflict or war that prohibits any form of progress of any kind for the masses. I suspect that Libya will enter into a long period of disruption, instability and no productivity. The masses will be worse off than they were under his rule and a new leader may impose even harsher control over the Libyans. The country is ripe for the taking by a focused Muslim regime. Dictators like Moammar Gadhafi are so brutal that ALL the tribes are so stricken with fear that they "tolerate" one another. The dictator does not tolerate in-fighting amongs the tribes. As soon as the dictator is gone the long, historical disputes among the many factions rekindle. Then it's back to the ancient unrest and the oil wells will sit idle.

So why can't I sleep?

Well, it has nothing to do with Moammar Gadhafi or any other World events. I put in a fairly long day. Taught guitar at Musicology, came home & spent the evening catching up on paper work, bills, and the like. At 10:30 I went to bed, read until I could not keep my eyes open, so clicked the light off at 11:00. Well, I dozed for maybe ten minutes. Seriously, that was it. Then I lay there in the dark until 12:30 and decide to get up. I pour myself a glass of wine, slice up some cheese and have a few crackers and decide to make a blog entry. This entry. So what. Let's go back: Why couldn't I sleep? Well the real reason is that I had a big blow out with the Better half today. Lately we have been going through a period of many arguments and discontent. I don't like it. Most people think of me as easy going and mellow. Well, for thye most part I am. But I am an Aries, a red headed one at that. I have a fiery temper that I am not proud of. Nothing makes me feel worse about myself than when I unleash it toward the woman that I love. Or anyone I love for that matter. Over the years I have grown to control my temper a LOT. Compared to when I was in my twenties, it's like night & day. Abbot & Costello.

What about the squirrel in the cage?

The squirrel is not in a cage. He's in a trap. It's a HavaHeart live animal trap. Recently a squirrel got into the walls of my house. Upon investigation I discovered a hole that the vermin had chewed through the eves on the backside of my house, next to the chimney. Well, I baited the near by area with some peanut butter. Before long a squirrel that had taken residency in the chamber showed his face. That unfortunate creature met his demise from high impact lead poisoning, courtesy of my $200.00 Gammo air rifle. He was a young Grey squirrel. The one in the trap is a very young, juvenile Grey Squirrel. The young ones start out red, and go grey as they mature. Anyhow, it's obvious that there is a lot of squirrel activity around my home, and I have seen many young ones racing about. So, even though I shot one of them with my Gammo air rifle, I do Hava-heart, and so I set out a trap to catch any of the other's that might have had plans on moving in to the late squirrel's quarters. Well, lo & behold, in two days I trapped 5 young ones. Each of them was rewarded with a free ride to release at a wooded area adjacent to a cemetary about seven miles from my home. Now wasn't that nice?

I Find A Serpent

It has been rather lovely as far as the weather goes here in Chaumont, NY.

You never know when the next photo opportunity is going to present itself. The snake photos are a case in point.


Yesterday I loaded some firewood into my Dodge Caravan. It was from a dead Ash tree that I cut up at my brother T's place in Dexter. The wood has been sitting in a pile undisturbed for about six weeks. As I was handling the wood I disturbed various insects, worms and the like that had settled into the pile. The wood shifted a couple of times. I lift up one large piece of wood and find a small, dead snake. He had just gotten crushed by a piece of the tumbling wood. Anyhow, I load up and drive home. I didn't get to unloading it until this morning. When the last of the wood was all removed I spotted a small snake scurry under one of the seats. I captured him and took his photo.
I didn't have a macro lens so I cropped the lower photo to show off the detail in the upper photo.