This surely is the decade of the dragonfly.
I've seen more varieties and colors, and QUANTITIES, of dragonflies, even in the last decade, than for a while. Perhaps they are massing for a takeover!
Nice photo, Mighty-Mite!
And LoveRoiLion2, those are some nice shots too. I particularly like the baby skunk!
And now for a new barrage of photos from li'l ol' moi:
Clouds - Mighty's "raison d'être" XDBecause I now live in the "tidewater" area of southeastern Virginia, I am surrounded by rivers and other large bodies of water. Naturally, cloud formations are rather more dramatic and fascinating over large bodies of water...especially large rivers, lakes and, of course, the ocean!
And since MightyBalto1925 loves the beejeezus out of cloud photos, I knew I HAD to start with these.
MILOOne of my two incredible Australian Shepherd dogs, Milo is seen here in two sequences...the first, he's chewing on a "Sarge" bone (a bone which has been baked so that the strips of meat on it have the consistency of jerky, and so that the marrow remains inside for the dog to get at). The second sequence is him playing with a favorite toy in one of the bedrooms of my house. lol
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IZZIThis is my other incredible Australian Shepherd dog, Izzi (who is a working-line female; Milo is a show-line male).
LITTLE BUNNY FOO-FOOShots of just a few of the plethora of rabbits in my area. This species is known as the "eastern cottontail rabbit"(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_cottontail), which is common all over the eastern half of the United States because, they breed...well, like rabbits. lol
The first shot is of a baby (a "kit") which I happened upon while walking my two Aussies one evening. They, of course, wanted to give chase, and the little critter ducked into a patch of someone's garden and ended up with this
"oh gosh! OH GOSH! OOOOOOH GOSH!!!!" *Gasp! Gasp! Wheeze!* look on his face (as seen below). ROFL
SPEAKING OF BUNNIESMy Aussies, Milo and Izzi, just looooooooooove to hang out of the windows of my car on rides through the neighborhood, looking for squirrels, rabbits, deer, etc. to bark at or just fixate on. Here is one instance. This rabbit sat surprisingly confident as I pulled over to snap a shot not only of him, but also of Milo and Izzi contemplating jumping out of the windows to chase him. lol
GRAY SQUIRRELEncountered this little guy at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park (
http://seaworldparks.com/en/buschgardens-williamsburg). Here you can find several different animals they have on display for conservation's sake. But there are also several native wild species which seem to enjoy the park as well (not only gray squirrels but also eastern cottontail rabbits, white tail deer, five-lined skinks, groundhogs, foxes, turtles, and all MANNER of birds and insects). Especially it's carefully-preened and maintained landscaping and gardens (which have earned it the title of "most beautiful theme park in the U.S." many years in a row...a title well-deserved I might add). The gray squirrels in southeastern Virginia are rather on the tame end anyway, but in the park they seem in no great rush to get out of anyone's way, and are really rather blasé about humans. Surprisingly. lol This fellow was a prime example. As I was exiting the park for the day, he slowly and calmly worked his way up onto the upright post of a split-rail fence near a brook (and close to a tree) and watched me as I carefully worked my way close enough to him to snap this pic. And then he very nonchalantly headed over to the tree to work his way upward. lol Crazy beast.
GRAY WOLVESSpeaking of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, they are part of a theme park network which includes the Sea World parks, all of which are heavily into animal conservation and protection (and educating we ignorant humans about the animals they display). At THIS theme park, Jack Hanna's organization has a program for gray wolves (
http://seaworldparks.com/en/buschgardens-williamsburg/Attractions/Exhibits/Wolf-Haven and
http://seaworldparks.com/en/buschgardens-williamsburg/Attractions/Exhibits/Wolf-Valley)...and a very good one! I have posted some pics of the wolves in previous pages of this topic. Here are some more...two wolves are shown here...only one I know by name (because one of the handlers was feeding them, and called him by name)...that's Odin -- the first two shots below. Don't know the name of the other wolf...but each wolf they have in their small pack has a name.
CRAPE MYRTLEA repeatedly-blossoming tree native to the Indian subcontinent, according to the information I found on Wikipedia (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagerstroemia), this species of tree has become a popular one for landscaping in temperate regions which remain warm a good portion of the spring, summer and early fall, and in subtropical locations. Primarily
because of its beautiful and repeat-blooming flowers. They come in a full array of colors spanning the pink to purplish-red spectrum, and white (
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/databases/crapemyrtle/crape_myrtle_varieties.html). And down here in the "tidewater" area of southeastern Virginia, especially in the historical regions, you simply cannot go more than a quarter of a mile without encountering these trees all over the place. lol They are ubiquitous here...in the full array of flowering colors. Beautiful trees! Here's one:
GAME PRIZEAt the Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park, in the section known as "Oktoberfest", there are some carnival-style games of skill and chance, in which you can win a variety of prizes. Here's a shot of one of the prizes, a wolf...who's obviously--by his expression--peeked in on the dramatic goings-on here on one of the Animation Source shoutboxes (most probably the Balto Source one) recently. ROFLMAO
BABY FIVE-LINED SKINKSnapped a couple of pics recently of another one of these little suckers (and the photos are a page or two back on here). Though the other one was a bit older. This one is obviously a recent hatchling. Found him in the house, and had to coax him into a coffee mug so that I could get him contained and back outside, where I subsequently set him free. lol He was still quite small...barely four inches.
FLOWERSI liked the ensemble of the tree stump and flowers and figured, well...photo.
