Praying Mantis

   This charismatic little guy crawled up the back step when I was letting the dog in this morning. 

  It shows a remarkable number of different expressions despite the exoskeleton. 

Looking for a swim?

Looking down his antennae at me.

   Because of the lack of rain lately I haven't had to cut the lawn in a couple of weeks.  I didn't think the grass was so long that a 3-inch long insect would have to scale the blades to see above the canopy.

He sees something.     Where?

Over there.

Bath time.

Removing the spider webs.

Pelicans in better lighting (with video) 7/17/2014

  I photographed the American White Pelicans at Pt. Mouillee again this morning.  The birds were closer and the lighting was better.

"Then the teller said  'Do you want that in large bills'"

Great Egret which stand 40" tall, dwarfed by the Pelicans

No idea what's in there.  A turtle? A kitten? 

Pelicans at Pt. Mouillee 7/16/2014

   Over the past month up to 62 American White Pelicans have been seen at Pt. Mouillee State Game Area.  This morning after I got off of work I had about an hour to seek them out.  They weren't hard to find.  From the Roberts Rd. parking lot it was about a one mile bike ride to the first group of 23 that I spotted on a tiny island in the Lead Unit across from west of Cell 2.  Later I saw 12 more in Cell 3.

23 Am. White Pelicans

Ready for takeoff

Note the morsel being inspected by the Pelican on the island

A shotgun shell?

Flight shot

Landing being judged

What the...?

Can you tell what this is?

Hint: it's an eye

 Zoom out a little....

Hint: it's native to planet Earth., despite its otherworldly family name

Yellow face and purple legs

Posed on a Coneflower (not eating because it has no mouth)

Large wings

Body about 2" long

Wingspan about 5"

  It's a female Imperial Moth (Eacles Imperialis) a member of the Saturniidae family of large moths.  Her tattered wings have ended her flying days but she's still laying eggs.

Eggs on a Maple leaf

Red in the morning, blah blah blah

   Tuesday morning, just before sunrise, the eastern sky morphed from gray to an artist's palette of pinks, blues and every shade in between.  Of course the colorful dawn glow was a harbinger of rainy weather, that moved in over the next couple of hours.   The incoming clouds snuffed out every trace of color before the sun even made it to the horizon just minutes later.

View from space?

   Tuesday night, an errand that I attempted to run to Grosse Ile on my way to work was thwarted by two trains and boat-triggered bridge opening. I aborted the mission before I got to the island and found myself with some time on my hands, as I had left home early and was only slightly detoured.  

  As I got closer to work I noticed that the moonlight in the clear sky overhead was illuminating some clouds over Lake Erie and northern Ohio that had their own internal light source.  So with my few extra minutes I was able to fire off a few photos before my shift started.

   Not sure if any of my photos are worth a thousand words but the photograph below may be worth a dozen or so for each of the potential cropping options.

First crop....eliminated ground clutter

Tight crop reveals stars of Sagittarius

Teapot asterism

Works as a vertical also

    This next photo reveals lightning tentacles reaching for the stars.
                                      
   They become more apparent in tighter crop