​Friday, 3:02 PM – the middle of November and it is a sunny 79 degree afternoon! Even the turtles came out to enjoy a bit of the warm spring-like weather!
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Walton County, Georgia

Tuesday, 8:38 AM - ​“Thunder” was turned in by his owner on a Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and I couldn’t get his photos posted before leaving. So he sat all weekend without any internet exposure. 
 
Monday morning was quite busy and all I had time for was a quick kennel photo to post to waltonpets.net.  But each time I’d pass through the kennels that day, “Thunder” would grab my eye with that sad, “Pick me” look. But I was still too busy with other duties to work with him.
 
First thing Tuesday morning, all else aside, I made time to work with “Thunder”. He was a perfect gentleman as he sat in his kennel waiting for me to put on his leash. Once we were headed outside, he knew it and lead the way! In his excitement he pulled quite a bit, but responded to a gentle tug and came at more of a heel.  He was so happy to get outside (probably to use the bathroom!).  It took a few minutes for him to see the sights and smell the smells before I could get his attention for a few photos.
 
I walked him to my “wood-line photo studio” behind the shelter. The sun was just coming up during the photo shoot (8:34 AM) but hadn’t yet come too far over the horizon, allowing me to shoot him in morning shade rather than afternoon glare.  Over the next ten minutes I took 42 shots, which boiled down to just 4 good ones for the website.
 
The first three shots were taken from a kneeling position to be on his eye-level.  I shot using my 70-300mm telephoto lens from about 15 to 25 feet away. This zoom lens isn’t really ideal for this light, but it is the only really good zoom lens I have right now. It produces some nice shots, but also adds some “noise” due to the higher ISO needed with a long lens in low light. My camera was set to a 1/200 second minimum shutter speed to reduce the blur from his movements and my unsteady hands. The white balance was set for “shade”, but later tweaked a bit in Photoshop (that’s the beauty of shooting in RAW).
 
After knowing I had what I needed, I switched to my newer 40mm macro lens for some practice and fun. Changing the angle changes the entire feel of the photograph. I stood over “Thunder” and got a few close-up portraits from above. The only one that turned out nice was one focused on his cold, wet nose… very cute! Using a wider aperture gives less depth of field and puts his eyes in blur, focusing the attention on his nose. That shot was taken at f/3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds to reduce some of the motion blur.
 
After his photography I brought him to the interaction pens to see how he was with other dogs. He was quite excited each time to see another four-legged friend. He immediately wanted to let the other dogs know he was the big man on campus with his posturing, but didn’t really show any aggression. (Not sure how he’d react if another dominant male challenged his ego, though.) Once introductions were made, he enthusiastically sniffed and pounced, all while wagging his tail. 

After that it was back into the shelter for heartworm testing, vaccinations and deworming; then into my office for photo editing and website posting. All in all, over an hour for one complete workup. Walton Animal Guild had offered yesterday to sponsor a neuter voucher, and "Thunder" seemed the perfect canditate for WAG pet of the week!

​Walton County, Georgia

​“There is a popular belief that the most interesting things in the natural world can only be found in faraway places or specifically designated areas. But a watchful eye, a little extra attention to detail, and a sharpened sensitivity can uncover a veritable Serengeti Park just beyond the bedroom window. All you have to do is learn to see.”
​-John Mitchell, A Field Guide to Your Own Backyard

Thursday, 8:43 AM - one of the first true chilly, windy mornings of the fall; when I left home at 6:30 AM there was actually some frost on the roof of my house and on the truck windshield. This is the signal that it’s time to fly… time for the winter waterfowl migrations. When I arrived at the shelter this morning, our first waterfowl visitors were on the main shelter pond: a Grebe and a male/female pair of Hooded Mergansers.

​Wednesday, 12:35 PM – a beautiful breezy fall day today; a mostly blue dome overhead with wispy white clouds trailing across the sky. The strong breeze has brought small waves blowing south along the main shelter pond; two Turkey Vultures appear to be riding high, soaring in the gusty wind currents. 

​Election day, 12:56 PM.  A gorgeous, breezy, mild, mostly-sunny, 64° afternoon. Having just finished my first marathon on Saturday, my normal lunch break treadmill sessions are on hold for at least a week. So I had plenty of time for an easy walk behind the shelter. Approaching the upper pond, a Great Blue Heron is fishing, but moves off to the far end of the pond as I approach. If I only had a longer lens I could have captured the beauty. 

I sold my first stock photo today on Dreamstime.com! The photo was from 2013 of a Great Egret that allowed me close approach on the upper pond behind the animal shelter. I remember sitting for at least twenty minutes watching this beauty preen in the warm sun.  

The sale gives me only a $2 credit, but perhaps it is a start toward purchasing the Manfrotto tri-pod I'd like for the shelter photos, and the 200-500mm lens I’ve been dreaming about for wildlife photography.

Thursday, 8:13 AM -  Just for fun, my coworker had set out his goose decoys that he had been busily touching up with fresh paint the last few days in anticipation of goose season. The next morning, I heard quite a bit of “honking” as I walked from my office to the kennels.  Seventeen Canada Geese had alighted onto the shelter pond and were dabbling with the ducks on the far end.

According to an online dictionary, a gaggle is a term for a flock of geese that is not in flight; in flight, the group can be called a skein. A gaggle is greater than or equal to five geese.

​I slowly walked around for a photo and a bit of observation. While kneeling and enjoying a study of their feeding behavior and interactions, a Kingfisher rattled off overhead, circling the pond.
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​Walton County, Georgia

Wednesday, 12:26 PM - Exploring the woods near the shelter today, I came across this macabre spectacle: a Chupacabra snarling at me from a pile of stone debris and briers. I snapped this photo just before fleeing for my life!

El chupacabra (translation: "goat sucker") is a creature unknown to science but responsible for killing animals in Puerto Rico, Miami, Nicaragua, Chile, and Mexico (… and now Georgia!). The creature's name originated with the discovery of some dead goats in Puerto Rico with puncture wounds in their necks and their blood allegedly drained. According to UFO Magazine (a very credible source) there have been more than 2,000 reported cases of animal mutilations in Puerto Rico  attributed to the chupacabra.

(Spoiler alert!: this is actually a mummified roadkill raccoon that was most likely scraped up by a Walton County Public Works crew and tossed out on a pile of debris behind their complex.)

Tuesday, 6:21 PM - With the girls’ cross country season over and our church haunted house outreach completed, I finally felt like I had an evening to relax. Sitting on the back patio under a slowly fading, calm and cloudless azure dusk, and comfortably enjoying a short-sleeve seventy-three degrees, my eye was drawn to a break in the wood line at the back of my property to see a doe running in the meadow. Heading to the left (westbound), another deer, this one a decent young buck, was close in tow. About 45 seconds later, almost comically, the doe runs back by heading the opposite direction… and he is chasing right behind her again! I run inside and grab my camera. Sure enough, within just a few moments, she runs by again, this time right to left, and he follows behind panting. You could almost hear her shout, "Leave me alone!" I managed to raise my camera and fire a burst of shots as he passed the clearing. Not the greatest photo, but a rack of antlers a bit larger than those I typically see in our neighborhood is discernible. 
 
With it being so warm lately (continued record high temperatures for this time of year), and being a tad early in the breeding season, I was surprised to see this young buck rutting already. According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, “the timing of the rut, or breeding season, for white-tailed deer varies locally, especially in southern climates like Georgia’s. During the rut, the desire to breed causes deer to become more active compared to the rest of the year. Bucks move more and become less secretive.”  The Georgia rut map indicates the peak deer movement time in Clarke County is November 10 to 16. This guy is getting a head start!

​Athens, Georgia

Sunrise 7:53 AM, Sunset 6:40 PM 
​High 79°.
Waxing crescent moon, 4% illumination.

Tuesday, ​8:34 AM – it is a bit too cool for my short sleeves. The sun is just barely above the horizon; tree tops glowing a faint orange, but all else below is still in the blue-hued shadow of dawn. Jays are squaking all over; House finches catch the rising warmth from the tree tops; a Red-bellied Woodpecker sounds off and is soon mocked by a Mockingbird; a Song Sparrow lets out a morning chorus; lots of other dainty pips and cheeps throughout the trees. No critters are at the upper pond.
 
Walton County, Georgia