Duck! a Lafreniere Park scene

There must have been some good eats down below for these three ducks to "duck" in unison  --  A Lafreniere park in Metairie, La.

Mardi Grab

I know it has a been a couple weeks since Mardi Gras, but I'm just getting around to processing the pictures.  At any rate, I hope this photo lets you capture the excitement of the shindig. You go mad yelling for beads and climbing on ladders to capture attention to get a bunch of stuff you really would rather not have.  But, ah,there is the occasional treasure that makes you glow with warmth thinking, "can it get any better than this? -- cares gone, party on, wild behaviour accepted, cut loose.  O yeah, the good times are rolling, for sure."

In the front is my niece Savarra with my sister (her aunt) Karen behind her.  My sister Sue is in the orange hair on the ladder on the right. I am faced with my back to the parade and, as luck would have it, about to get smacked in the back of my head with a bunch of beads.  Cue B.B. King's song: Let the Good Times Roll.

Pink-backed Pelican

This pink-backed Pelican at the New Orleans Audubon Zoo hails from the African continent.  It's pinkish beak is a visibly different from the Brown Pelicans and White Pelicans in this part of the world

White alligator

The famous white gator from the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans where Canal Street meets the Mississippi River.  I took this a few years ago, but I never had the chance to post it.  I guess this dude is bigger these days.

Flamingos at the New Orleans Zoo

The Flamingos at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans were pretty listless recently when we went to see them.  For that matter, so were we.  The heat just zaps your energy.

Fishing the flood

This is from the big flood on the Mississippi River in New Orleans in 2008.  The Bonne Carre Spillway was opened to alleviate the flooding and it made quite a site.  These were among the many who took advantage of the situation to do a little net fishing.

Pigeon wants to know what I am photographing

While I was shooting pictures of  the New Orleans Central Business district from atop the Tulane Medical Center parking lot, this pigeon lighted a few feet away and glanced around, as if to ask "What are you looking at, anyway?"

I felt I didn't really owe this bird and explanation, so we parted company without a word spoken.

New Orleans's tall icons draw "close"

I was struck by the seeming juxtaposition of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and a Carnival Cruise Line ship heading out of port and down the Mississippi River.  Of course, the two are far apart, but the long lens needed to capture this shot compresses the space and makes them appear as next door neighbors.

Notice all the waving people (if you can make them out) on the upper decks of the cruise ship.  The photo looks east across the French Quarter.  The ship is making its turn off of the short section of the Mississippi River from the Greater New Orleans Bridge to Canal Street where the river actually flows due north.

New Orleans from a different point of view

This is the view of the New Orleans Central Business District from the top of the Tulane Medical Center Parking garage -- eight stories above the street I think.  The shot is looking west.  I was enjoying this different view of the city.

Mississippi River is imagination highway

The Carnival Cruise Line ship gets the right of way as it heads out of dock and heads from New Orleans downstream on the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and days of fun and leisure.  The Canal Street Ferry waits its turn to pass behind the huge ship.

Summer splash is upon us

Summer could make a real splash with kids at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, if this is any indication. The young water lover is running through the spray tunnel at the zoo's Splash Park.  We were there with our grandkids for the fun.

New Orleans Rock Fish

This has to be the ugliest fish in the world.  It is from the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. We were visiting this favorite tourist spot with our grandchildren this weekend.  I suppose they call it a Rock Fish -- I didn't read the label.  The Aquarium is at the foot of Canal Street by the Mississippi River Ferry dock.

Young egrets fight for food rights

Who to feed first?  Young egrets with hungry mouths present a real problem for mom.  "Settle down or nobody will get fed."  Yeah, right. That line doesn't work any better in the bird world that in the human domain.   This photo is from a set  shot at Audubon Park a few years ago. They were hidden on an old drive I had used in a while. I though I would do a few days series on them.

Egret shows mating signs

This is a photo from a few years ago.  Notice the green around the egret's eyes-- it appears when they are in mating.  Also notice the showy feathers -- another mating sign.  The photo is from the lagoon island in Audubon Park, New Orleans, LA

Dad gets a chance watching the nest.

Looks like it's dad's turn to watch the kid, while mom takes a break and goes out to search for food. This nest scene was just outside our window four years ago.  One of the two siblings had already been lost at this point. The culprit? Perhaps a cat, or squirrel. Who knows?  I suspect the squirrel that had been hanging around the area. I had scared him away once as he closed in on the nest.

Let us however, give the squirrel his due -- innocent until proven guilty. The real tragedy is that a couple of days after this photo was taken, this sibling would be gone, also.  Mom and dad were then standing on a nearby fence wondering what had happened.  The vigil lasted about a day, maybe a day and a half. Then the parental doves were also gone.  Hopefully, gone to find a safer location for their next nest.

The key, the lock and the glass door knob

If you've lived in New Orleans a few years, you have seen this a hundred times.  Though, you haven't see it from this angle -- from the floor looking up.

The Saenger. The dream sellers of my childhood.

The old Saenger Theater in New Orleans.  The photo arouses long sleeping images of Saturday mornings watching Sinbad the Sailor movies.  Today I would probably laugh at how hokey they were. But back then, we lived in fear that the next adventure with a dragon could be his last.  We clung to a tugging believe that he was the true hero that could escape any peril.

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Climbing on the Live Oak

This tree just invites kids to climb.  You can get on it by practically stepping up a few inches. You can't easily go very high because the limb gets steep quickly.  The shot is from the lakefont in Mandeville on the northshore of Lake Pontchartain, across from New Orleans. You can see the 23-mile Causeway Bridge on the horizon.

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It's mom time now -- egret

Mom egret gets a few minutes for personal grooming while the chick is satisfied and not hungry for the moment.
You can just barely see the chick through the branches to the right of mom.  They get to spend a lot of
time together in these younger days.  This is old shot form a couple years ago in Audubon Park.

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Double Take and Double Stop

Hey, what can I say, it just caught my eye.  Two ways to stop people.

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