Ok….I run out to the store this morning. For a split second I had a thought run through my head that I should bring the camera. Then I thought, nah! So I drive down my street. I notice how gorgeous the light is, how blue the sky is……and there’s three caracara and one vulture. All three were ADULTS….hey, I like the juvies but the adults are so much more beautiful.

I’m now mad, and say to myself, “I friggin knew it!”. So I got to the store, I drive back home down my street and they’re all STILL THERE. I get to my house, unlock the gate, drive up the driveway, go inside, grab the camera, go back outside, get back into the jeep, drive down the driveway, open and shut the gate, get back out to the street where they were and NO ONE is left except this vulture who had this raccoon breakfast all to himself. Needless to say, the ONLY one happy was the vulture.

So… this photo could have many titles. Like…

“Heather should follow her first instincts.”
“Don’t leave home without your camera”.
“Vultures are happy when the caracara leave, Heather is not”.
“Damn that Murphy’s Law”
“If you’ve got your camera, and the GOOD birds have gone, take a shot of the junk bird anyway”.

I also failed at shooting the lunar eclipse last night.  I DID set my alarm, and I DID get up.  I took the puppy out to go potty, looked up at the really cool orange moon during mid-eclipse and decided I was too tired and too cold to go get the camera so I went back to bed.  I did shoot a couple shots of it BEFORE the eclipse….

I took the camera out yesterday when we let the dogs loose in the yard, they had a great time exploring our five acres.  Earl especially LOVED it!

We don’t let them loose all the time.  When we take them out to go potty we usually walk them on leashes.  Sounds crazy right?  Well, we live in an extremely rural area, and there’s just too much trouble for them to get into…even in our own backyard.  Now that it’s cooling off the poisonous frogs will slowly go away and the snakes are not around as much either.  So we’ll be able to let them loose more often.  Duchess has a high prey drive and will go after anything that moves fast, and Earl is led around by his nose…I call it his super sniffer…he sniffs EVERYTHING.

Catching up with Duchess…she’s 9 years old now, I can’t believe it!

Earl is led by his nose….

And… my favorite shot from yesterday…

We’ve had Earl a few weeks now and he’s doing great.  He’s now a little over 6 months old and right around (if not slightly over) 70 pounds.  He should mature around 165 pounds, or at least that’s what I’m guessing.  We’ll find out soon enough because he’s growing so fast

Looking at all those pictures yesterday after I took them reminded me of Gunther.  Our Great Dane we had to put to sleep this past summer.  I found an old photo of Gunther running and put it next to Earl’s photo…it’s funny how they look alike (at least in the ears department).  I miss Gunther so much, but Earl is stealing my heart <3

Every year I AVOID shopping on Black Friday…I just can’t handle the mayhem, lol.  So, today I went out to photograph wildlife.  I brought our new pup, Earl with me and he had a good time looking out the window at all the cattle and birds.

The lighting wasn’t great, it was really cloudy and overcast but I still had a good time and got a few shots I liked.

Happy Fourth Of July!  I’m actually a ‘Daughter Of The American Revolution’!  John Crosier was my 9th great grandfather, he was born in Dedham, MA in 1754, he was a minuteman, he was at Lexington and Concord, he was at the Battle Of Bunker Hill, he was at The Battle Of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. And he spent the winter at Valley Forge. (Quite the busy man!)  He got a pension in his 50’s and moved to Euclid, OH from Peru, MA.  Since he was married several times and had quite a few children…my mom calls him the ‘Mel Gibson’ of the family (like the movie, The Patriot, lol).

I hope everyone has a great day today!