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

Glowing close together -- Hot Air Balloons

Another shot from the Moon Glow of hot air balloons at the festival this weekend in Gonzales, LA

Hot Air Balloon Festival warms crowd

We were at the Moon Glow at the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Gonzales yesterday.  As the sun expired, the balloons at the Lamar Dixon center seemed to take its place.  Their faint sun-mimicking effort made a wide-eyed crowd come to life.

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.

Trees gather to life in glimmer of morn

Daylight mists down on Lake Bigeaux along side the I-10 bridge over the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana early one morning last week.  The first revenants materialized into tree shapes from the foggy breaths of the lake waters.  Maybe a little too much coffee on the drive?

Reddish Egret watches for night

A reddish egret does a one-legged, wait-for-the-night-to-come, stance near Lacissine, LA. The highway night gathering spot for egrets and their friends is one of my favorite places.  Lucky that it happens to be just where I am often passing by as the dark eats up the sky. The assembling includes hundreds (maybe thousands) of Cattle Egrets, Ibis, Snowy Egrets, shore gulls, Blue Herons, Cormorants, an occasional Roseate Spoonbill and more.

It looks as though our solitary sentinel may have snagged a spiders web on his glide to his post.

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.

Heron hangout harkens thousands

How many Ibis can you get into the top of a pine tree?

This is the place to find out.  Last night was the 4th time I have visited the spot along I-10 at the Lacassine exit. Three times it looked like this; once there were no birds.  I think I have it figured out now -- they all start congregating here about an hour and a half before sunset. Don't come in the middle of the day.

This time, like the others, there were thousands of herons -- Ibis, Cattle Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Blue Herons, Comorants and even some  shore gulls passed by ( but didn't land).

The spot is in the northwest corner of the intersection on the service road (not on the I-10 on-ramp).  Just as you come onto the service road and negotiate the sharp turn, there is a small industrial facility (looks like a sand operation). The trees behind it  are where the herons hang out. They literally fill the trees and keep coming by the hundreds.  They fill the trees behind the facility first and then spill out toward the I-10 as the sun goes down and room on the limbs runs out.

You can easily get a solid half hour to an hour of shooting photos in, depending on your lenses, the clouds and what ISO you want to go to.  I shot this at 800 and about 1/500 sec. I was using a lens equivalent to 450mm.    If you have better glass, this would be a real treat.

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.

The newest baby

This is our newest grandchild, Sloan Buser, born to proud parents Shawn and Sarah.  Of course Linda and I are just bursting with joy.

The spray of summer opens imaginations

Add some heat, a lot of spraying water and an fertile imagination, and the splash pad becomes  an chimeric escape from the mundane days of playing at home.  At the Splash Pad in Port Neches, this is our granddaughter.  I am thinking that that in this day dream  there is some kind of metamorphosis into a feline.

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.

T-ballers lose interest to sandlot sketches

It is our grandchild, Sophie, with her first season of t-ball.  She was able to hit the ball and then get on base.  However, that's where her interest waned. The first baseman joined in the fray.  I want to guess they are posting on their own brand of social media.

Did a ball go by here?

It's the first year of t-ball for our granddaughter Sophie. Standing in the outfield waiting for action to happen within five feet of her is not her style.  So anything for a distraction.  In this case, it appears to be contagious.

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.

Wildlife is a wild time at Global Wildlife

We were at Global Wildlife in Robert, LA, with the grandkids and nieces and nephews this weekend.  This is always one of the greatest hits for things to do.  The kids love feeding the wild animals, who come right up to the caravan.

Spider suspense

This is I believe a Orchard Spider (Leucage venusta), hanging from the bottom of its web and waiting for a meal.  From the woods near Madisonville, across the lake from New Orleans.

Mushroom migrant

This was a mushroom growing from the bark of a Pine tree at my brother-in-law's house across the lake from New Orleans. The black spots are bugs burrowed up in the folds of the mushroom. It was about eye-level above the ground.

Swinging gently in the breeze

  Hammock.  That's it.  Says it all

Right?

"Leprechaun" sits watching

Sitting on a decaying log, he was lost in his reverie.  I almost didn't see him because of his hat.  But when I took a picture of the mushroom next to him, I thought I saw him wink.  I think the mushroom man has a little Irish in his "blood."  Perhaps even a little leprechaun. 

A spiders wet web

Oh what a wet web a spider spins, when a spider spins before the morning fog.  This was the scene in the woods of Mandeville early Sunday morning when a foggy morning misted the spider webs throughout the woods.  Little droplets lined the sinewy threads of the web.

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.