Saturday Songlines

All these Saturday photos were from my morning trip to the Wacissa, today. I arrived at the headwaters with my coffee and sausage sandwich from the Wacissa shop early and the mist was still fogging the river. Two fellas were getting ready to dive Bluesprings. The birds are very plentiful in the early morning and I immediately saw a bald eagle rising from the mist as I shot down the headwaters.

The house has been crowded and noisy since my prodigy arrived home and I needed some peace and communion. I headed into a small spring on the west side of the river at one point this morning to stay quiet and to see if the pileated woodpeckers would come to me. They did, as you can see. I also heard a noise and turned around to see this little raccoon. I threw him some clementines but he was too timid to snatch them up.

I felt another presence and looked up and right above me was this great big owl, surveying the spring. I was hoping to see an owl and he was magnificent. We shared the spring for a long time and then he went off down the river to watch the raccoon, who had scurried away. I actually saw many pileated woodpeckers and took a number of photos but since they look so much alike I won't put too many up.

Kinda like the old joke (from David Guest) about the penguin who goes into the bar for a drink. After a drink or two, he asks the bartender, "Have you seen my brother?" The bartender says, "I don't know, what does he look like?"

I am hoping that one of these woodepeckers will be an ivory bill so I follow them about with my camera which I am beginning to learn how to use properly, as you can see. It did help to click the AF/MF button on the telephoto lens to AF which I had not done yesterday although I had done it correctly in the past.