During a recent trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, we decided to climb Abrams Falls Trail. You may know about this trail, It is a 5 mile round trip in an area close to Cades Cove. At the end or top of the mountain is a small but not particularly spectacular water falls. We arrived at the top ready to take a time out and enjoy the surroundings and the beautiful day.

I was looking at the falls as a person stepped across a number of rocks till he reached the area directly in front of the falls. He took out his fly casting rod and for the next ten minutes or so began to lay his line into the basin of water coming off of the falls. So for those ten minutes, I was able to “shoot” away trying to get a shot of his line curling up behind him just as he jerked the rod down to get the line to the desired spot.

As quickly as he arrived, he was gone. A woman near by began to take pictures of the waterfall. Then she announced to those around her that it wasn’t fair for someone to take up a position in front of the falls and stay so long when people like her were waiting to take pictures of the falls.

Celebrating the yesterdays of theater in Jackson Ward, these two murals were completed in time for the 1st Friday Art Walk, June 10th, 2011. They are located at N. Adams and Broad Street, in the Arts District of Downtown Richmond, VA. Altria, Venture Richmond, HandsOn Greater Richmond, Johnson Inc and the well known local artist, Ed Trask were drivers behind the project. It was part of a “Clean Up America” effort. The artists including the native of Jackson Ward, Sir James Thornhill and three others from VCU worked together to execute the design of lead artist Hamilton Glass.

Near downtown Richmond, VA is a Great Blue Heron Rookery with more than 40 nests. Now that the chicks have arrived, the parents are catching and delivering the food to the chicks. The Great Blue Heron “dines” mainly, in this area, on fish from the James River, which runs right along side the Rookery.

Recently, I walked along the “Pipeline” which is across from the Rookery, and watched as heron fished the area. When I first spotted the heron in the picture, he was standing motionless, with the neck extended at an angle of about 45 degrees to the water’s surface. Only the head and eyes moved to locate the prey. When the prey came in close, the heron slowly folded its neck back and moved into the water and caught the prey in its bill. The fish was swallowed outside the water, using deft movements of its head to turn the fish so that it could be swallowed head first.

I was photographing The Great Blue Herons along the James River when I began to notice this Osprey flying back and forth in front of me, gathering sticks for its nest. What was interesting about this Osprey was that it didn’t stop to pick up sticks, it plummeted down into the trees and snapped off a stick and carried it back to the nest.

This Osprey, pictured with its talons in the ready position, is just about to grab and break off the next stick. Ospreys, unlike the Bald Eagle, are meticulous nest builders. Every stick is in its place. But like the Bald Eagle, the Osprey builds a stick nest and returns to it year after year. The Osprey in the picture, is doing a bit of renovation on the nest which was located on the top of the railroad bridge. By placing the nest at the top of the bridge its predators, like the raccoon, won’t be able to get to the eggs in the nest.

At the Great Blue Heron Rookery in Richmond, VA., which is near the “Pipeline” and close to the downtown area, there are 48 or so nests and I was able to observe and photograph The Great Blue Herons flying continuously in and out of the tallest trees to their waiting partner, carrying nest materials. The nests are mainly made of sticks and they are now under full construction. A few have been completed and there may be a few that have laid eggs by now and the twenty-eight day incubation period, for them, is underway. I noticed that one of the male birds, pictured in this blog, was leaving the nest in the same way each time, doing so by dropping down to pick up sticks on the ground. Notice the wings acting like air-brakes to soften the landing as he threaded himself through the tangle of branches below.

While traveling through rural India, en route to Jaipur from Delhi, we made a rest stop at this McDonald’s which was located somewhere in the middle of nowhere. As we approached, I was struck with the juxtaposition of this scene. The new with the old. A local from the nearby village was hanging out with Ronald.