Up, Up and Away Continued

Up, Up and Away

3,000 miles later I am home from my trip. I started out heading for Minnesota to find graves of my gg and ggg grandparents. Then I headed south to Missouri to find the grave of another gg grandmother and finally to a dear friend house in Illinois. While in IL there was a Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Centralia where my friend lives. This was the 21st year for the festival. I took alot of pictures because they were all just beautiful.

 

They inflated the balloons on Friday night and then lit them calling it "The Glow." They could not fly them Sat morning because there had been heavy rain the night before. Many people gathered to watch the event.

As they were blowing up the balloons Sunday morning I was able to catch a few with reflections in the catfish pond.

  

 

 Before long the balloon's air is heated enough and off they go into the sky. That is when they are really beautiful. They flew on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. Tomorrow I'll show you some of my favorite shots.

Away Traveling

Hi friends. I've been traveling in the Midwest - a little birding, genealogy and seeing a close friend.
Went to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge and saw a couple of Sandhill Cranes and a Trumpeter Swan among others. I'll post some pictures when I return around the 24th.

Looking forward to the BwBTC outing next weekend in Rhode Island. If you live in New England and are interested in a birding outing with other birders hop on over to Dawn's Bloggy Blog for details.

Birds in Reflection

I love pictures that have the subject of the photo also seen in reflection. (Wasn't quite sure how to word that) Anyhow, these are a few shots I got at Jamaica Bay from the East Pond early on a Sunday morning.

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs and Semipalmated Sandpipers

Wilson's Phalarope

Glossy Ibis

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Cape Cod Memories

On the first day I was in North Truro on Cape Cod we took a walk on one of the well known trails. This is the Pilgrim's Heights Trail. On one of the side trails you come to a spring where the Pilgrims first tasted fresh water.

We visited the Pilgrim Monument. This is a tower build to commemorate the Pilgrims landing. It was built 100 years ago. I liked this view taken looking down from the winding staircase that you climb to the top. This was about half way.

At the end of the first day we went to
watch the sun set at the end of Great Hollow Road. There were these three cottages. I liked it because it just looked wild, with the long grass at the edge of a cliff over looking the ocean. The sunset wasn't spectacular but the setting was.

However as far as sunsets go the following night's surpassed everything! We ate supper on the beach and drank in the sunset for dessert.

Sunset from Herring Cove Beach Provincetown, MA

  

Hydrangeas taken in front of Fanizzi's restaurant

Lacecap Hydrangeas

                

Sunset by the cottage at the end of Great Hollow Road

 

Lighthouse in Hyannis Harbor

This was the last stop on my trip to the Cape. I have a few more pictures from the Fishing Pier at Chatham and some birds from South Beach..for another post. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the weather of August.

Birding N Truro and Wellfleet - Cape Cod

Feeding a Black-capped Chickadee in Beech Forest Trail.
I spent a few days in N Truro on Cape Cod with a friend last week. It was great fun and we saw a variety of birds. These are just a few for now.

Tufted Titmouse (juvinile I believe)

Chipping Sparrrow

Orchard Oriole

Saltmarsh Sharp-Tailed Sparrow

Eastern Phoebe

Male Northern Cardinal without head feathers - the naturalist who lead our walk said it probably had head mites. Can you see the ear?

Green Heron- This was the first green heron for me, but before the walk was finished we stopped in at the pond again and there were 4 of them!

The birds I saw on the Cape before and not including South Beach - * the ones with the asterick after it were life birds for me:
Wild Turkey with 3 chicks
Carolina Wren *
Green Heron*
Short Billed Dowitcher *
Field Sparrow *'Saltmarsh Sharpe-Tailed Sparrow *
Lesser Yellowlegs
Great Blue Heron
American Goldfinch (male and female)
Blue Jay
Red -breasted Nuthatch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
Ruddy Turnstone *
Red-winged Blackbird (male and female)
Cedar Waxwing
Chipping Sparrow
Orchard Oriole * (male and female)
Eastern Towhee
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Least sandpiper
Semi-palmated Sandpiper
Willet
Piping Plover
Semi-palmated Plover
Bank Swallow *

I'll post about birding on South Beach in a couple of days. Actually didn't get as many good photos but saw some great migrating shore birds.