Friday, May 11, 2007

Images This Week

Monday 5/7 I took this image of a Goldfinch, I swear the bird was only two inches in length. My books say they should be 5.
Also Monday, up in Terra Park, there is a flood control pond with a bunch of reeds growing. It is a favorite hangout for ducks and geese. I got this picture of a duck.

And then I got lucky and caught these ducks while taking off, you can decide if it is a good image or not.



Tuesday, I walked down to the creek to see if the flooding had subsided. It hadn't, but while down there I spied this Meadowlark. I am not quite sure if it is the Easttern or Western variety, maybe someone out there can tell me.

I then saw some geese on the greens surrounding Terra Park Pond. It sort of a dike built around the pond. I usually circle the pond once and then walk back to work.



Wendesday, I walked down toward the creek to see if it had improved. It hadn't.




And then to add insult to injury, I spied this duck swimming over what should be the trail.




So I then walked back to Terra Park and spotted this deer.




I apparently spooked him and he took off. I got lucky and got him in motion. Lucky because, the action on the camera is so slow any action images are pure luck.

And this in my opion is the best image of the week.







Saturday, May 05, 2007

Late April

April 24th - 25th it rained in the Des Moines (and all of central Iowa) area. According to Iowa State University we got 2.7 inches over the two days. This of course had a negative effect on my excercise program since it flooded my walking trail. I work in a Johnston (A suburb of Des Moines, IA) and right behind my employer is a very nice bike and walking trail.

These images were taken on April 26th.


If you look at just below the trees, there is a thin strip of water. This is the creek that has overflowed. This is looking down from my employers property toward the North East, which is considerbly higher then the walking trail.

These two pictures are looking to the south east of my employers property, the flooding is much more prominent here.

Since I wasn't going to be able to walk on my favorite trails, I decided to walk over to Terra Park, which is about one half mile from where I work. I found the two signs in the following pictures kind of amusing. The following three images all were on the south edge of the park.


Thursday May 3rd, I was able to get down to the creek and take a few pictures.

This tree was aparently ripped out by the root and is now in the middle of the creek.

Sand has been deposited from the creek up onto the trail.

This had been dry woodlands, now it is a wet mess.


Theese two images show the prarie just to the west of the creek. Notice how the grass has been ripped up and deposited around the tree trunks.