Halloween Day

I love the lacework that left after the leaves fall. That's the Walnut Street Bridge in the distance.

I don't know what this is, but it's pretty peeking up through the dying grasses.

These are one of two last flocks hanging around the breeding island in the City of Elmira.

The windfall looks desolate in the winter, but there is life all around and inside it.

A view of the progressing of fall, green to yellow to bare, all set off by the levee.

Don't you just love the lacework? The birds move in an out of it, never missing a beat, never getting snagged.

Storms moving in from the West, coming down from the Great Lakes.

Finally, only the Mallards are left of all the ducks. They are safe from hunting season for now.

pb

Little Pond

Query

Which Chemung River fish grows over two feet long, has thin tiger stripes (vertical, not along the length of its body) and hangs around in the shallows, hunting among the rocks.

I don't have the answer, and the river itself wouldn't sit still long enough for me to take a shot of it under the water.

It appeared to be silver colored with black thin vertical stripes.

I had to laugh, because two fishermen were moving here and there, up and down the river, without catching a thing. They were leaving, hiking back to the street, when I saw the big striped fish.

The fish was very leisurely poking around the larger rocks, flipping its tail out of the water. I took several pictures. When I got home, we figured it wasn't likely to be a perch, because of the size and shape. Not any sort of carp or catfish, because it was very bony.

Guess I'll never know, but if I were a fisherman, I know where I would throw a line.

pb
Little Pond

The fog ruins photos

I wanted to see what these were, so I shot them and checked when I got home. The geese are already done raising their goslings, so the ducks are now everywhere.

Notice how there is nothing, just nothing, in the background. The fog does that in the sunlight.

It's interesting how the rising mist is invisible to me, but not to my camera. Most of my photos were ruined.

The further away the kayakers got, the more the pictures were whitened by the fog.

Most of the time, there was no blue sky at all, but the sun was working its way through.

I love mirror type shots of the water, but I had to wait an hour for the sun to burn through enough to make them.

Even then, the clouds hung over the river. My face was slightly burned by the sun and fog. How strange, especially after a whole week of working in a windowless room!

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Little Pond