Friday, June 10, 2011

Moving into Summer

By the calendar we still have a few days to go but with the heat wave that has settled across our region it feels as if summer is already upon us.  I haven't shot much lately and have spent very little of the long precious evenings on the computer.  Other task such as lawn mowing, planting and weeding our vegetable garden along with other interest like fishing or reading a good book on the deck as the sun creeps below the horizon has kept me outside enjoying the warm weather as this year's cold wet spring becomes a memory.

With the onset of summer the yucca highlighted by the setting sun is nearly ready to bloom; a reminder that summer is nearly here. 

After all of the frenetic mating activity among the local Wood Ducks that I photographed early this year a recent visit to the wetlands revealed the fruits of their labors. 

Growing like the proverbial weed this years hatch of ducklings are doing very well.  The ducklings spend little time with their mothers now dispersing throughout the marsh to forage alone or in pairs.  Although this habit does not allow the ducklings the advantage of having a watchful adult maintaining a lookout for danger it does reduce the likelihood of a predator being able to capture multiple ducking in one attack. 

Considering how quickly this duckling went from calmly feeding to fleeing at the click of the shutter from about fifteen yards away it doesn't appear to require the attention of an adult to keep it safe.

10 comments:

Arija said...

Nice shots considering that ducklings swim like lightening.

I wonder who the brainless idiot was who decreed that your summer starts in July. How can you have a mid-summer festival t the solstice when it is still spring?

Joop Zand said...

Hello Coy

again very nice pictures, specially the first one.

Nice work !

greetings, Joop

Les Barr said...

I, also, have not been out with the Camera that much either. Weather is just too darn hot, as you know. However, I was out fishing on Thursday, before it got too hot, and took the camera along. Didn't catch a darn thing! See my Facebook page.

Les

photowannabe said...

Ah, I'm so glad you have taken advantage of the nice weather and justed enjoyed yourself. That's therapy for the soul.
Love the silhouetted Yucca shot Coy.
I'm so happy that Chad is back blogging a bit. Fun to reconnect.

Montanagirl said...

Good for you for taking advantage of the nice weather and doing things besides sitting at a computer! We just got back from 10 days in Alaska meeting our new granddaughter for the first time. It was hard to leave her.

Elaine said...

Beautiful shots, as usual! It is hard to spend time at the computer when there is so much to do outside. Summer is so fleeting....

Unknown said...

Love how the light catches the yucca like little jewels.

Lois Evensen said...

Great images. :)

Anonymous said...

You will be happy to know that it is cold here today. It is 68 degrees at 4:00 PM here so you should get some of this by tomorrow.

Enjoyed your photos in the post.

Meggie said...

The goslings in my area seem to stay close to the adults until they are all feathered in. Nothing cuter than a waddling little one.