PHOTO: Hawk Eats a Pigeon , Clay St. Watertown

 

Hawk dining on a pigeon, 418 Clay St, Watertown, NY

 I pulled into driveway of our Clay St apartment house in Watertown and saw this hawk eating a pigeon. After I snapped a few frames I tried to get closer and the bird took off.  I left to do some errands and when I got back the pigeon was gone, only a few feathers remained. 

Pigeon killed and eaten by the hawk above.

Wild Turkeys Visit Our Yard

Wild turkey wandering around our yard in Chaumont, NY. 

A pair of wild turkeys visited our yard in Chaumont NY today. They wandered around the backyard pecking at and inspecting things. Then they walked down the street and crossed over into a neighbors yard. I was able to get some nice photos of them with a Minolta 200mm f2.8 lens. That lens delivers amazingly sharp images. 

Wild turkey portrait. Creature was in our backyard. They are a rather homely bird.

Weather today started out partly sunny with high of 65 degrees. The day finished at under 40 degrees with some rain. There was also a funeral today for my brother Tom's mother-in-law, Ellen Dean from Calcium, NY. She was 82 years old. ai spent some time at Clay St too, accomplished little. Apt #4 has a problem with entrance door and some cieling and wall damage around the chimney. Brother Ron was there checked it out. Hope tohave hime repair it Sunday. iPhone says I walked 3,168 steps today. 

Bat in Attic in Winter and Pest Control Guy

 

Bat in our attic in February. I thought they migrated somewhere in Winter.

Saturday February 22, 2025,  I enter our attic with idea of putting a screen over the opening beneath the roof vent so as to prevent possibility of bats entering via that. However, I discovered a bat hanging on a roof rafter. His fur seemed to have a patch of grey or white hair. My research has lead me to believe the bats in our area migrate to a warmer clime in the Fall and return in Spring. Not this one. So I called a pest control guy and he came over this morning (Thursday February 27). Now the bat was nowhere to be seen, but we were not prepared to move through the attic to locate it either. The past week or 10 days the temps have been below zero here, reaching 10 below one night. Of course the attic would  warmer and the bat must be hibernating n our attic. BUT, days later it wasn't in view. I learned that bats will arouse every couple weeks during hibernation and move around.

This close up of bat was cropped from the wider view photo above.

The bat guy said he could find NO evidence of bat activity in our attic. If not for the photos he wouldn't believe there was ever a bat in there.  

One more thing. I have read in many different web sites that bat's do not stay in attics because they are too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Instead they go down in the walls. Sometimes these walls will lead into the basement and bats find themselves there.

Pileated Woodpecker In Our Yard Today

This pileated woodpecker was in our yard for about half an hour today. Snapped the photo with a 500mm f8 Minolta lens on a Sony a6600 camera. Weather was 25 degrees, overcast and gloomy. Difficult getting a good photo of the bird without scaring it off.  We met my brothers Al & Ron, and sister Suzy for lunch at Jeb's Restaurant in Lowville. About an hours drive from our Chaumont house given the sloppy, winter road conditions. Son Troy and his girlfriend and couple others happened to be there too. 

Pileated Woodpecker at our Chaumont, NY home. 

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.