Justfolk's photos

About twenty years ago, we were in St. Pierre for a few days' holiday. One foggy, misty morning, we were walking to a local bakery to get something for breakfast when a man burst out of his house onto the street still dressed like he was in bed just a moment before. He stretched his body and, with his arms up in the air, he said to us and anyone else in earshot, "Quelle belle brume!" I like the fogs here, too, like this one, this afternoon.

It was wet underfoot.

I'm just showing off now. We don't always have much warm weather this late in the autumn. But today it is 18 degrees C; that's 64 degrees on the old Fahrenheit scale. Not bad for November 17th. And this is what some flowers on our back deck look like this morning. Being in the middle of the North Atlantic has its advantages.

The nearest intersection with a traffic light to my house, not quite ten minutes' walk. Just before supper time two nights ago.

A few moments later, the crow on the left had four peanuts in his mouth, and he took off to eat them in privacy, away from the paparazzo.

The temperature was warm, about ten degrees Celcius (like, fifty in USA degrees) which is not bad for mid-November. We saw blooms still on lots of flowers, some geraniums and a hollyhock down the street, for instance. There was quite a bit of local traffic here, so it took several shots before I got one without cars. The camera was pushed up against one of the posts holding the railing in place.

The blue jay had loaded up -- with a peanut in his craw and another in his prow -- and, when I was ready to take his picture, he left.

I'll get tired of these armchair birding shots soon enough. But, in the meantime, here is another picture taken through my back door window. Each day, I put unshelled peanuts out and, within a few minutes, the blue jays and crows come for their treats. Our cat and the next-door neighbours' dogs pay rapt attention but the birds know how safe they are.

The crows have been getting friendlier since I've been feeding them peanuts. This one was pacing around, wondering whether he should jump down even closer to the door to get his peanuts. He did eventually; nothing seems to put a crow off for very long.

Another view the same afternoon, three days ago, when a pretty big murmuration of starlings kept swooping around overhead while I was waiting for my wife to pick me up.

The starlings have started mobbing for their Get-Outa-Here flight. This was just one of the groupings I saw while waiting outside work for my wife to pick me up. In total there were about three times this number of birds flocking around. Using a technique of counting birds I learnt from an old birder friend several decades ago, I estimate there are about five to eight thousand birds in this picture.

Two crows outside my window, horsing around with each other.

Two jays this morning. The fellow on the left was much more adept at turning the nuts to get one down in his crop and a second in his beak than the other fellow was.

Having learnt the bluejays are not using up the supply of peanuts, the crows have been hanging out, waiting.

The foremost ten metres of a 52-metre fishing boat, tied up on one of the calmest nights of the fall. Its on-line registration says it catches tuna, but I have no idea if that's so.

It's a day late, but I liked the picture I took yesterday at work when I saw two of my co-workers dressed up for Hallowe'en.

What is the plant on the left -- a yarrow, maybe? The one on the right seems to be a thistle. This 45mm lens is very lovely. Excuse the over-sharpening in places.

One of the neighbourhood crows, checking out the morning scene in our backyard a few minutes ago. This Tokina 300mm reflex lens gets close, and is very light-weight, but it is soft.