Saturday, May 15, 2010

Mama Bird Feeds Babies

Thought we had a grackle here, but it's just a common starling.  Darn.

All the same, it's been fun watching her feed the babies, in a nest in the side of our old garage.  One baby kept falling out of the nest... we put him back twice, but on the third day his luck ran out.  One of our cats must have found him.

I gave him a proper lil burial in one of my new flower beds.  Poor baby.



The babies anxiously watch for mum to come back with lunch... check out those silly lil tufts of hair on their heads!!  Do they look like geeks or what??

Mum's back with an exceptionally yummy bug for lunch!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

SkyWatch Friday: My First Tornado!

On Monday, May 10, 2010, around 4:30 p.m. Central time, I witnessed my first tornado as a Kansas resident.  This tornado was 1 mile south of where we live.  After the storm, we drove south and found the path of destruction right along the KS/OK state line. (See more photos on my regular blog... link to the right in my sidebar.)

This was not a huge tornado, but there were several other tornadoes to the south of us in Oklahoma, one large one near Medford (30 miles) and one with multiple vortices near Wakita (45 miles).  There was also a wedge tornado spotted in Hunnewell, KS, only 6 miles away. Both the Medford and Wakita photos/videos were shown on local and national TV stations.  I even had the honor of having several of my photos on our local Wichita TV station on Tuesday.



This first photo (above) is straight out of the camera; as you can see, the sky was light, and so was the tornado, so it's difficult to see.

After I adjusted the contrast, and added some post-processing effects, this is the photo I ended up with (below)... my son said it reminded him of the Wizard of Oz!  How appropriate, huh?



Next time (IF there's a next time!!) I will try to calm down and get MORE and better photos.  Needless to say, being this was my first tornado, I was flitting about like a nervous bird!!!  But I learned that a tornado goes by quickly, and you only have a few chances to get a good photo, so you better hurry up and focus and HOLD STILL.

Visit SkyWatch Friday to see amazing and beautiful skies from around the world this week.

Monday, May 10, 2010

The Quiet Before the Storm(s)


It's a quiet, foggy and misty morning in these parts today.  I took this photo about 2 hours ago... right now, I can hear the wind beginning to kick up around the house.  Our afternoon forecast is calling for a tornado outbreak, so I guess it's going to be an interesting day, huh?????