I won NanoWriMo, meaning I finished my 50,000 words.

I won NanoWriMo, meaning I finished my 50,000 words. However, work isn't letting up and for whatever reason I decided to make everyone's Christmas gifts this year and that seems to be eating my extra time. I'll see what I can do about posting pictures, but since my free time has disappeared after Christmas is the best bet for daily photo resumption.

Back from Break

I took a little break for my birthday and to tidy up the house and yard. All the tomato plants in the yard are out as blight finally took hold. The soaker hoses have been pulled, and I emptied all the water barrels yesterday. I re potted all my African violets and ended up with 10 extra plants. I have to try a third time for cuttings of most of the coleus, but a few have prospered. I re potted plenty of outside plants as well, and figured out what would spend the winter where. I've shuffled a few reptiles around, and started buying more fish for my one fish tank. I'm building up the groups again of the single fish I have left, some are 5 or 6 years old now.

Froggie

Tower Hill has frogs that might as well be plastic for how much they move. Judging by the double line of flower petals in the nearby grass they saw a wedding yesterday, so I probably wasn't that interesting.

Flying Hawk

Excellent winds let the hawk float about 6 feet away from me for a short time. Quite convenient for photography.

More Red-Tail

There were people on this beach maybe 15 feet away when the hawk landed. They got closer and it just sat, spending lots of time watching the grass, likely trying to figure out how to catch the voles that lived in there.

Immature Red Tail Hawk

No I did not spend last week at a falconry show. I was on vacation on the Cape where the wi-fi access was too spotty for posting. The hawk above actually landed on my hotel roof, then proceeded to land on a post right outside by porch. It then hung around for about 20 minutes total, though some of that was back on the roof. There were numerous people approaching to photograph and it didn't seem startled much. This photo is cropped slightly to cut out the two people in the background also photographing the bird. I took roughly 10 photos a minute while it was hanging around. You can never take too many photos of an unlikely critter. More cape critters to come, including more hawk pics.

Seagull

Yesterday, I wandered around George's Island in Boston Harbor. We also visited Spectacle Island. The fort was quite impressive, and next time I'll think to bring a flashlight, as there were plenty of interesting passageways, but most were quite dark. Lots of geese and seagulls were hanging around looking for missed food.

Chicken

To go with yesterday's rooster.

Rooster

Just a rooster I saw at Shelburne Farms in VT yesterday.

Snow and Hawk

Finally got some snow. We actually got two days worth, but this is from Friday. Right before I had to leave for work I spotted this red-shouldered hawk in my neighbor's yard. He was obliging enough to fly a little closer. He got close enough that even my awful telephoto lens could catch something decent.

Crested Gecko

This is my no-name crested gecko. He just hit 7 years in my house. Too bad he still isn't a fan of being handled, and cleaning his cage sometimes gets you bitten. You'd think with being only a few inches long he wouldn't be so pugnacious. At least he's cute.

Squirrel

Here's one of the digging fiends. I have to chicken wire cage all the pots of bulbs or these guys dig in them to bury acorns. The like the garden beds too, especially right after I plant some seeds.

Not So Red-Backed Salamander

At first I mistook this guy for a worm, all gray and twitching. He did use the characteristic salamander twitch however so I looked again. A quick search proves my standard red-backed salamanders come in a few colors. I did find this one first but a red colored one wasn't far away. They liked the rotting wood I had left out as a winter nest.

Red-Backed Salamander

I did some fall clean-up yesterday, trying to work down my to do list. This included trashing the bits I'd pulled off one of the planting beds to check for termites. While I found no new termites I did find two salamanders. the one above was the standard red-backed variety. The other was not. You'll see that one tomorrow. I brushed all the plant debris away from the house and hope the two move down where they can stay alive.

Max

I'm finally as done as I'm going to get with tagging. I did discover quite a few lost photos as well. Above is Max the cockatiel. We're coming up on 8 years living together now. I generally avoid taking photos of birds. Well, that's a lie. I have plenty of pictures of feathered dots flying away, or tiny birds sitting hundreds of feet away (as I discovered while tagging photos). I need a better zoom lens and some sneaking skills before I get good at wild bird photography. For the moment Max will have to suffice.

Osprey

One new place I wandered yesterday was Waseeka in Hopkinton. It was the first place I've been screamed at and had an osprey circle around my head for the entire hike. The nest was in the middle of the pond, but this guy was serious about me leaving. He was circling maybe 20 feet up screaming. He never tried to dive bomb or anything so I mostly ignored him.

Deer

While this doesn't seem like an impressive picture, this is one of my best deer images to date.  All my previous attempts are either from so far away it looks like a dog, or are so dark focusing was nearly impossible.  For some reason my thrashing arms to try to stop the attacks of deer flies didn't scare away this deer, I looked up near the wildlife pond and there it was.

Mantis Hatching

The little guys from the egg case finally hatched. I had mostly given up on them so two months ago I'd put them in a glass jar with a screen cover. This morning they were swarming ready to go out. I hope they have enough time to get big enough to breed this year. They're almost a month later then last year's set. The egg case can be seen in an earlier post.

Columbine Sawfly

Sadly these guys were not too hard to identify. I noticed them on one columbine, and then had to go around to all of them clearing them off. They had already stripped one of my smaller Canadian columbines. Columbine Sawfly or skipper larvae ore often known for eating columbine, but these were sawfly.

Green Caterpillar

The time of identifiable bugs is upon us. I find tons of caterpillars that until they get larger are unidentifiable. This one was maybe 1" long, bright green, and crawling quite energetically about the yard.