LEAKY BEAK - A young Cardinal drinks from the bird bath. Birds drink by dipping their beaks into the water then tipping their heads back. This youngster is just getting the hang of it.

Pete Rose

OFFA' MY CLOUD - Female Finches get territorial with each other on the finch sock.

YOUNG SAPSUCKER - A young male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on a snag off of the yard.

And- we (you and I) are fortunate to have knowledgeable POTD viewers such as Meade Cadot to help me take the "I think" from yesterday's butterfly photo and allow me to correctly identify the butterfly as a Red-spotted Purple Butterfly. Thanks Meade!

me

DEER BUDS - A young male deer, sporting sprouting antler buds, helps himself to new foliage on the Fringe tree in our yard. Deer are attracted to the landscape plants we have introduced into the forest setting (our yard).

THEY'RE BAAAACK - Herons staking claim on a nest on the beaver pond. Winter storms have not been kind to the heron nests on the area ponds - so arriving birds are claiming the available nests.

OLYMPIC DRUMMING - One of the cultural sights of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea was ceremonial drumming at a temple near the Olympic Media Center. I spent a month in Seoul during the 88' Olympics working as a digital scanner operator for the Associated Press. Digital scanners were being used by the AP for the first time at those Olympics - to scan film to create digital files for AP to transmit, without the need to make photographic prints.

LIAR'S BENCH - Gentlemen swap stories on a bench in the center of Petersburg, Indiana in this photograph from 1977, when I was a local newspaper photographer in southern Indiana.
 

ROCK ON - Kenny Loggins rocks out in the late 1970s. I took pictures at many of the concerts we went to.  Loggins & Messina recorded seven albums from 1972-1977 and were part of our 70s music scene.

HOLY PLACE - When I worked for an Israeli company in the 1990s, I got the chance to visit Jerusalem several times. Each tour of the old city included a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - said to be the site where Jesus was crucified and the site of Jesus' empty tomb.  The control of the church, in an understanding dating back to 1757, is shared among several Christian denominations, including Greek Orthodox.

HISTORICALLY TALL - In the 1980's, the World's Tallest Woman was Sandy Allen of Shelbyville, Indiana. I photographed Ms. Allen at Grundman's Shoes in Vincennes, Indiana, where she got her custom-made shoes. Her height, at 7 feet 7 inches, was due to a tumor in her pituitary gland. Ms Allen held the title of Tallest Woman for the last 16 years of her life. Sandra Elaine Allen ( June 18, 1955-August 13, 2008), once the World's Tallest Woman.

World's Tallest Woman Sandra Allen visiting Grundman's Shoes in Vincennes

CHARLIE HUSTLE - With his characteristic head-first dive, Pete Rose slides into second base during a St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies game in the late 1970s. In 1989, after an over 20 career as a player and manager,  Rose was penalized with permanent ineligibility from baseball amid accusations that he had gambled on baseball games while he played for and managed the Cincinnati Reds. The ineligibility has kept Rose from the Baseball Hall of Fame and continues to be controversial.

Pete Rose

ARREST DANCE - I was a photographer for the Fort Lauderdale News in 1975 when police were sent to the New River in the center of town for a man swimming in the river. When the police (and I) arrived on the scene, the man had removed his clothes and was swimming nude. There was no explanation for why the man had removed his clothes - but his arrest made for a funny newspaper photo - but it WAS in Florida.

MARCH MADNESS - I was a newspaper photographer in the 1980s in Indiana - the home of basketball hysteria - where it wasn't unusual for kids to be out shooting hoops in their snowy driveways. 

My beautiful picture

TERRITORIAL KERFUFFLE - Canada Geese defend their end of the beaver pond from another pair. After a lengthy exchange of honking and squawking, one pair of Geese ambushed another pair. A great deal of honking and splashing ensued. I could not tell which pair made a noisy retreat to the other end of the beaver pond. 

Massage Parlor Bust, Fort Lauderdale

KODAK Digital Still Camera

WATERFALL - Fall water on the brook from the beaver pond.

COUNTRY ROAD - take me home!

ABOUT TO FLY - Milkweed plants produce distinct seed pods in late summer. Typically, these pods are horn shaped, or otherwise long, narrow and tubular. Pods are filled with seeds and floss, a material attached to the seed that allows it to travel on the wind, similar to dandelion seed. The Milkweed we planted on the roof to attract Monarchs, and other butterflies, is off to be milkweed elsewhere.

HAZY DAZE - Monadnock Mountain in a Fall day haze.

ALWAYS A LADY - An American Lady, aka American Painted Lady, Vanessa virginiensis is a butterfly in the Brushroot Family. They are migratory - so we won't be seeing her around much longer.

LIKE MAGIC - A Merlin hunts from a perch on the beaver pond. It is hawk migration season - so this one might be just passing  though.