smskelton

Pin-tailed Whydah, Cape Town, South Africa

Another picture from Zion. There is a good reason this is a National Park.

Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco

African Jacana. This bird's feet are so large it can walk on top of water plants. Lake Panic, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Zion National Park rock formation

Hadada Ibis, South Africa

Sunrise over Elk Lake, Oregon.

The Sunderland Wash in Catalina State Park in Tucson is a watercourse that comes out of the Catalina Mountains. A Hohokam village existed on the hillsides just above the wash from around 500 to 1150. They were farmers and used the flat area next to the wash, about 500 yards wide, for farming crops. After the culture dispersed a Spanish family named Romero inhabited the land and raised cattle. Now the ruins of the village, and the Romero family "ranch" are an attraction that visitors can tour with information plaques to tell about the history. The flat area by the wash is overgrown with trees and foliage now and in some areas it is nearly impassable. Sometimes, I take my camera and quietly try to negotiate the overgrown area to see what is there. That is when I found this female Northern Cardinal.

In addition to being interested in birds, I have been a life long sailor. One of the most interesting sightings of a bird was when we were in a storm off the coast of the Baha in the Pacific Ocean about 75 miles off shore. It was blowing about 50 knots with 25 foot waves and we were concerned for our safety in a 37 foot sailboat. While this was going on, I noticed an Albatross that was gliding on the wind currents just off the water, having fun. This was its element, not ours. When we were in South Africa and I was looking at the rough seas of the Indian Ocean off the coast, I was reminded of that time. The Cape of Good Hope is one of the major danger areas for ships because of shallow water, high winds and underwater rock shelves. It is one of the "great capes" of the world. Capes are also convergence zones where waters from different oceans and currents collide and create turbulent seas. The lighthouse on the tip of land south of Cape Town is named "Danger Point Lighthouse." This picture was taken in Hermanus, to the east of the cape, but the size of the waves and the turbulence was a message about what it would be like to be out in the ocean here.

To me, this Hepatic Tanager is an interesting picture, because it illustrates the conflict about taking pictures in the bright sunlight. While colors are bright and vivid, you also get shadows. As you can see, this picture was taken in the middle of the day by the way the shadow sits on the bird. On the other hand, this was taken in Patagonia, Az during our travels and I was having a hard time believing that I had a Hepatic Tanager in my viewfinder.

Little Egret, Garden Coast, South Africa

Out of focus natural ground cover.

Pole Creek fire, South Sister, Oregon

American Robin, Elk Lake, Oregon

When I needed to have something typed accurately, I told my secretary to do it. I can't to that now that I'm retired. But, I'll try leaving a space after text in the future, because the program does mangle text and pictures, and there doesn't seem to be any way to go back and fix it.

The program left out "rumped" for some reason wen it split the text from top to the bottom of the picture.

Three Sisters and Broken Top from Sparks Lake, Oregon (taken from the Ray Atkeson Trail)

Yellow- Warbler

Here is one more picture of Antelope Canyon. The Navaho have built metal stairs and ramps for hikers to get around the different levels so it is not physically challenging to get through the canyon. The ladder in the picture gives some scale to the size of the canyon. In some places, the "slot" at the top is only a few feet wide. During the monsoon season, the canyon can fill up with water. Not a good place to be then. The Navaho dump truckloads of sand into the slot to make the floor passable for tourists.

Pied Kingfisher at Lake Panic in Kruger National Park. Not sure what kind of fish, but it was having a bad day. The Kingfisher was smashing it against the log.