Reconnecting with nature through hiking, camping, and paddling
Five of the eight legs of this spider were on the surface of a small pool of water. The other three were resting on a leaf floating on the surface. At first I thought this spider had been stranded on the leaf but I later realized it was probably waiting there for lunch to come along.
Like all the photos on my blog, you can click on the image above to see a larger, high resolution image of this photo.
Animal tracks always catch my attention but they aren’t always very photogenic. These bird prints were on a beach along the James River. It would be impossible to identify the type of bird that left them but the deeper, wider prints in the foreground indicate the bird landed here and then hopped along the beach before taking flight. The early morning sun provided enough shade within the prints to make them stand out in the photo.
I watched these tundra swans paddle around in the water for a while and hoped they would take flight. When they finally did I was able to capture a few photos.
The American Coot is a rather funny looking bird. They break the old rule that says “if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it must be a duck”. They are actually more closely related to rails and cranes. When you get a good look at their feet, which are not webbed, you realize they must not be ducks.
Walking in a park near the James River on spring afternoon, I stopped to see if there might be anything interesting in a large puddle adjacent to a small pond. Sitting, quietly a few feet from the trail was this red toad. It remained so motionless as I photographed it, I began to think it might be a toy frog somebody put there as a joke.
During a walk along the James River I noticed these cairns out among the natural rock formations. Perhaps they were put their by a paddler as a way to mark their take out point?
A Zebra Swallowtail butterfly feeds on henbit and buttercups along the Washington Ditch in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge near Suffolk, Virginia.
This little Yellow Breasted Chat and I met up along a rather unscenic part of a hike. I didn’t have my camera ready when I first spotted the bird but it was gracious enough to hang around and let me snap a few pictures of it. It almost seemed to pose for me a couple of times.
This photograph was taken on Hog Island Wildlife Management Area, along the James River, near Surry, VA. It was a cold February morning, just after dawn. While the entire scene looks wet, it was actually frozen. The sand along the shore was a hard as cement and the foam around the river stones had been turned to ice.
During a hike near the James River, I came across a group of Forster’s Terns flying above a stream. I watched as they floated, effortlessly in the air above the water. After a few seconds they would dive out of view and then come flying back up, circle around, and start over. I assume they were catching small fish but I couldn’t get close enough to be sure. The tern pictured here is hovering in position, waiting to dive.