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I've been cooped up since last Tuesday, finally got out today. The weather is gray and dark, rain coming later from hurricane Ida. She is giving Ray Nagin ulcers now! The grackle girls saw me coming way down the beach, I had 15 or 20 on and around the car in a short time. I don't know if they recognize the car, or recognize me. I try not to attract them inside, they aren't housebroke, LOL! The gull with spots is a young Ring billed gull, the gray bird is a Laughing gull. It's common for them to flock together.

They make it look so easy!

Sunshine today! The Royal Terns are coming in in large flocks, ahead of cold weather. The Grackles were pleased to see me, as usual. The males are getting over their fear of me. Grackles may be pests in urban areas, but around here they stay in the marshes and on the beach.

It's blurrier than old MySpace snapshots, but it's there as expected. The Apollo Lunar Modules and the US flag left behind at the Apollo 17 landing site has been caught in a close-up image by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The lander as well as the flag, or rather the remaining flag pole, seen in the image above are exactly where they should be based on this shot by the Ascent Module "right after Apollo 17 lifted off the Moon": Going a step further, the location can be compared to more recent images of the landing site and everything still...

I met another photographer on a forum, turns out he lives not far from the swamp. He rode over today and we went shooting. The tide wasn't really right, had to improvise and go looking for models. There is always something just waiting to be a picture!

The Grackles recognize the car now, LOL, I think I've started them on the welfare wagon!

My little pond is all dried up, had to go hunting for models. I got a Big Mac and headed for the beach. I was alternating bites of burger and shooting seagulls from the window, looked over and a little femaled Boat Tailed Grackle was sitting in the window watcheng me eat. My camera bag always has a little ziploc full of dry cat food just for these occassions. She ate some from my hand, but I couldn't use a camera that way. I put a handfull on top of my camera bag, and she settled in for lunch. The...

Overall Winner "The Storybook Wolf" This nighttime shot of a wolf leaping into a farm in northern Spain has been named overall winner of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 competition. The picture, by Spanish photographer Josi Luis Rodrmguez, was selected from more than 43,000 entries. Iberian wolves--a subspecies of the gray wolf--are extremely wary of humans after centuries of persecution. Rodrmguez captured the photograph using motion sensors and an infrared barrier to operate the camera. "This wolf jumping over the farmer's enclosure with the supposed intent of killing his livestock speaks for itself--thousands of years of...

When Dylan Lynch captures a winning shot, it usually involves a hockey game, not a yawning cat. But it was the photo of his tired, three-year-old tabby, Ben, that won him top spot in our Kitty City photo contest. Lynch, a photographer and editor for the Edmonton Oilers and Oil Kings, likes to try out his new equipment on his three feline roommates. “I don’t always have a hockey game going on at my house, so I’ve got to test them on something,” he jokes.

The Ibis was so venerated in ancient Eygpt that they were even mummified and placed in royal tombs. I think there is a reason. If you are trying to grow crops in a river bottom, in a warm climate, you will be plagued with grubs and bugs and other pests, all trying to eat your veggies. The Ibis is eager to help, they love to eat the pests. Egypt owes a major debt to the Ibis clan.

<p>This photograph from Afghanistan recently made rounds on the Facebook and e-mail accounts of folks whose work centers on military women's issues.</p> <p>The image itself didn't surprise them. It showed four Marines resting at a makeshift patrol base, their guns and helmets propped up against the familiar dusty backdrop of an Asian battlefield. Two of the Marines seemed to be snacking. One picked at her foot.</p>

Houston Man to Receive "Ultimate" Top Prize From National Geographic and Energizer. From among 12,500 entries, Bernardo Medina's incredible photo was selected as the Grand Prize Winner in the 2009 "Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest"

A picture of a hunting wolf has won the prestigious Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 award. Jose Luis Rodriguez captured the imaginations of the judges with a picture that he had planned for years, and even sketched out on a piece of paper. "I wanted to capture a photo in which you would see a wolf in an act of hunting - or predation - but without blood," he told BBC News. "I didn't want a cruel image." With a great deal of patience and careful observation of the wolves' movements, he succeeded in taking the award-winning...

The little pond will be bone dry soon, I'll have to find another place to watch birds for a while. A good heavy rain would be a big help.

Two out of the six around here, the other ones hide when they see a camera. The tabby is my special buddy, she guards my corner of the house, and her snacks!

There are times when the pond is like liquid glass. We need rain, the water is getting very low now.

Ibis, Snowy Egrets and Roseate Spoonbills today. I got more but too tired to process until after a nap. Good thing y'all don't pay me by the hour!While I was out today my daughter came in my room, evidently with a bulldozer, it is all neat and tidy for a change! She found all kinds of stuff I thought was lost, LOL!

Grandson Gerry has ROTC drill Tuesday after school, and I pick him up. I leave early and sit by the pond, or cruise around looking for models. I timed it right, the pond crew started showing up about the same time I did. The season change is bringing in a lot of new birds, the Boat Tail Grackles were back in the marsh today.The double Hibiscus was growing in a yard close to the street.

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Details emerge of the scam job meeting on the White House lawn. Michelle Malkin tells Sean Hannity the greasy tactics of the Obama White House.

We always have some of the various sandpipers around, but now the winter migrants are starting to trickle in. These are Greater Yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca

I've been stranded for several days, the ignition switch on the Ford locked up and stranded the kids in town last Saturday. Replacing an ignition used to be a ten buck, 20 minute job, it isn't anymore! For some reason the car decided that someone was trying to steal it, and shut everything down. Thinking back to all the times I've been 20 miles from a paved road I sure am glad the vehicles I drove were repairable in the field. The pond was busy, All these shots but the Osprey were taken from one spot.

Doctors from all 50 states come to support reform. White House Photo, Lawrence Jackson, 10/5/09 Love the lab coats. Adds just the right touch of staging, don't it? I actually first heard about this from a 6 year old I was driving to work, yesterday afternoon, after picking him up from his school along with his sister (I teach gymnastics, and they both take classes). He asked me why the president was with doctors (he must have seen this on tv at school, or something). I had no idea what he was referring to, but said it probably had to...

A Great egret and Snowy egrets from the little pond.

Photographer Ben Cooper took this photo of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket launching at Cape Canaveral using a sound-activated camera. And when your camera is that close to a launch, your lens probably won't survive. The particular setup for this was sound activated. The lens was destroyed (worth it of course) but the camera survived this one despite being severed from its ratchet straps and thrown to the ground, and the sound device used for this one disconnected from the camera and thrown about 200 feet backwards into the pad perimeter fence (still worked!). All settings are preset manually. No...

I managed to slip through town without getting tarred and feathered by the local democrats, and hung out by the pond for a while. If I time things for high tide there is usually something going on there.

This bird still has yellow up high on the legs, it is one of this years chicks. The feet will stay bright yellow and the legs will turn black.

Couldn't sleep last night, got out early and just roamed around with my cup of black coffee. The high seasonal tides are still here, we call them marsh hen tides because the high water pushes the Rails out so they can be hunted. Didn't see any marsh hens but the Great egrets were perching in the Black Mangroves, the water is too deep to wade. The Snowy egret was chasing grasshoppers by the pond. If they can't hunt in the water they do fine on shore. This is a young Snowy egret, still some yellow showing on the legs. Mature...

St. Augustine High School hosted a regional JROTC drill competition today. Grandson Gerry rolled me out of the sack at 6AM and off we went. Why we had to leave so early is beyond me, nothing started until about 9AM, but since the army was running things you just got to follow orders! I couldn't get the right angle on the Sun but managed to catch some of the action. I headed out just after 10AM to chase some critters, Gerry was there for the day. I'm trying to calibrate a new monitor, some pics may be light or dark...

Caption the Sith Lord Obama.

PHOENIX – Speed camera photos of the man in the monkey and giraffe masks have generated lots of chuckles. But the cops aren't laughing. Dave VonTesmar, 47, started getting the $181.50 tickets last year, but it took Arizona state police several months to realize the same driver was repeatedly triggering speed cameras and refusing to pay the fines. By the time they did, more than 50 of the tickets had become invalid because the deadline for prosecution had passed. VonTesmar, who has now amassed $6,7000 in fines, is fighting each citation by claiming he wasn't behind the wheel.

The first photographs of the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind at Guantanamo Bay have cropped up on the Internet, and experts say the images of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are being used by terrorist groups to inspire attacks against the United States. The photographs, taken in July by the Red Cross at the Guantanamo detention centre in Cuba, show Mohammed in a white robe, a red-patterned headdress and a long salt-and-pepper beard. They are the first known images of Mohammed since shot taken upon his capture in Pakistan in March 2003 showing him in a white T-shirt, with disheveled hair and a moustache....

Lizzie Miller is considered too large to model plus-size clothes. Is the reaction that followed the publication of this picture going to change that? 'It's a photo that measures all of three by three inches," gushes Cindi Leive, editor of US Glamour in a post on the magazine's blog, "but the letters about it started to flood my inbox literally the day Glamour hit newsstands." The picture in question, illustrating a story about body confidence, has generated more than 700 comments on the site, and featured on the US Today morning TV programme. What does it show? A beautiful, creamy-skinned...

Snowy Egrets and White Ibis today. The tide is exceptionally high, it's a seasonal trend, lots of marsh birds way out, perched in the Mangroves. Nothing moving at the pond. I waited a while and the Snowies and Ibis started showing up. I put out some french fries and dry cat food to bring in some gulls, they just weren't eating at the time, and a gull will usually eat anything. If you know you have a good spot, and nothing is there, wait for a while, often, they will come. Hunting is an exercise in patience, and wildlife photography...

SARASOTA - The city that guards its bayfront against ugly bridges and homeless boaters made way for a gigantic smooching sailor on Tuesday night. Related Links: Sarasota resident Jack Curran, center, salutes those who give him a round of applause at a public hearing on whether to accept his donation to keep the "Unconditional Surrender" statue. STAFF PHOTO / E. SKYLAR LITHERLAND After a spicy two-hour public hearing, commissioners voted 3-2 to accept a World War II veteran's donation of the 26-foot-tall "Unconditional Surrender" statue. Much of the controversy was over one of the strings that the donor, Sarasota resident...

On August 14 in Afghanistan, Marine LCPL Joshua Bernard was killed in action when he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. As Bernard lay maimed and dying, embedded Associated Press photographer Julie Jacobsen smelled a Pulitzer, so she snapped picture after gory picture instead of helping those trying to save LCPL Bernard. After the young Marine was buried, the AP dispatched a minion to Bernard’s parents, John and Sharon, ostensibly to “get their permission” for the publication of the gruesome photograph. John Bernard emphatically denied their request,

I was sick much of last month, still don't feel good, I'm just old, tired, aggravated and worn out, I suppose. First is a LITTLE BLUE HERON, next a GREAT BLUE HERON, different birds altogether. I love the color of the Magnolia seeds, nothing else quite like it.

The decision of the Associated Press to release a photograph of the last moments in the life of Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, especially after his family objected, is contemptible.

HAVANA – Cuban state media have released a second recent photo showing Fidel Castro in regular civilian clothing instead of the track suits that he commonly wore after falling ill in July 2006. In the picture, the 83-year-old Castro is shaking hands with the visiting head of the Chinese parliament in the walled backyard of an undisclosed home. Castro is wearing a red, short-sleeve dress shirt as he greets National People's Congress leader Wu Bangguo. ..

It's rarely a good PR move when a social Web site decides to remove a politically-charged image--the InterWebs get angry. One such case came to light today: A Photoshop mockup of President Obama as the Joker from The Dark Knight, superimposed on the cover of Time magazine, has been removed from Flickr. The 20-year-old Chicagoan who made the photo got an email from Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo!, saying the it had been removed due to copyright concerns. Plenty of tech pundits are saying Flickr was strong-armed by Time, Inc., which didn't like its brand associated with something so...

I rode North of St. Augustine to the Guana-Tolomato Preserve today, it is a peaceful change of pace.

What's a left-winger to do when Barack Obama gets caught showing his character? Deny, discredit and denigrate, of course! As a purely voluntary, patriotic watcher of the tattletale brigade over at Media Matters, I'm subscribed to their daily Rush Limbaugh Wire. So, every single weekday, I get 3 separate, detailed emails in my inbox giving me the leftist lowdown on Rush. I nearly ruined my keyboard with spit-out coffee Friday, when the hour 2 Limbaugh Wire arrived in my box. As many readers may recall, Media Matters was the brainchild of Hillary Clinton and receives heavy funding from George Soros....

Kim Jong-un at age 10 (left); presumed appearance at 26 (right) according to ODNI

Out at 5;30, with a sausage biscuit and a cup of coffee. I watched the sport boats head out the inlet, but the sunrise didn't really turn on today. I watched the Red Shouldered Hawk land, got as close as I could, then the Mockingbird showed up cussing at the hawk. The Mockingbird knows it can out manuever the hawk, they are fearless.

It's the iconic photo that captures the essence of the Spanish Civil War: a soldier falling to his death, arms splayed out behind him, gun still in hand, after being shot on a grassy hill. But new evidence now claims to prove once and for all that the camera does lie - and Robert Capa's famous Falling Soldier was faked.

The White Ibis seem to be finishing with the seasons first crop of chicks. There are some just fledged birds around, but they're spooky and hard to approach. This is a yearling, one of last years crop. It will be closer to pure white when it is a little older, The grass is actually growing in a pond.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks with the use of one teleprompter after the other fell and broke at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, July 13, 2009.

The big kingfish tournament was this past weekend and everything was chaos. It was pretty much calmed down today, the marsh birds were just waiting for the tide change.