Saturday photos

[altivo]

Finally. If you were waiting for bird photos, no dice. I'm not fast enough to get those. But here are some nice flowers, scenery, and foliage. Our first stop of the day was Coral Woods, a well-maintained park area that is largely wooded and harbors many native species of both plant and animal. Reportedly there are gray foxes in the wood there, the only species of fox that climbs trees. I haven't seen one in the wild since I was on Isle Royale back in the early 1980s, and I need to go back and do some watching.

This reflecting pond actually had a few ripples from drips and breeze, but the camera was quick enough to smooth most of them out. It's a little hard at first to see where reality ends and the reflection begins, but the delineation is there. I couldn't resist trying to snap photos of it, and I may try to paint this eventually.

More from Coral Woods.

The other place that I took photos was on a 160 acre plot of closed land now owned by the county conservation district. This area has been closed to the public since it was purchased in 2008 or so, but will probably be opened as a recreation and wildlife area similar to Coral Woods at some time in the future. It needs work and will probably need a continuous ranger presence due to risks such as the old quarries that are now full of water. As a potential wildlife and wetland area, it has tremendous promise, though the scars of human exploitation will take a while to heal and disappear.

Here's a view of part of the old limestone quarry, now filled with water. I have no idea how deep it might be, but it looks clean and clear. The water fowl are finding it acceptable, and I imagine at least some fish might do well if introduced, even if the water is hard and alkaline due to the limestone walls. In any case, it's very pretty. The sun wasn't really shining, but even in the subdued light it looked good.

More from the limestone quarry.

Comments

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

The photo from Coral Woods at the top of your entry is really very cool. The variety of greens is what's striking, along with the reflection in the water.

How many species of birds did you manage to count?

[hrrunka]

That photo is indeed strikingly cool.

[moonhare]

What a beautiful area. Our jack-in-the-pulpits are doing quite well this year, too.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Oooh lovely...look at all that water, can you send some to the poor people in Toowoomba here, they're dams aren't very full.

[altivo]

I wish there had been more sun. It was so pretty last year on a clear, blue sky day. But I didn't have a camera with me then. Actually there was a goose swimming in the distance in the second photo and I didn't get the camera up in time. It went behind the hummock rear left.

[altivo]

There is a lot of natural beauty left in this county (for the moment, anyway) but nowhere that you can get away from traffic noise and other signs of population encroachment. Even deep in the woods at that reflecting pond you can hear cars and trucks on nearby US20.

[altivo]

I'm afraid I couldn't afford the postage and someone would steal it before it got there.

[altivo]

I don't have the exact count. Whenever I get it from our recordkeeper, I'll let you know. I thought it would be down from last year, but it may not be.