Nature Notes and Our World Tuesday: November ends

Hard to believe that November is drawing to an end.



I can see signs of fall ending all around me.



I love the way these mushrooms are growing so bright and shiny against the tree.



I don't think I've ever seen so many cormorants together at the lake like this.



Now that most of the leaves have dropped it's easier to spot the birds in the trees and I like the way the evergreens behind them make a nice backdrop.



I thought I was only photographing a few leaves hanging on the tree below but after downloading realized that two of the leaves were actually little birds.



The warbler was hiding in a bush below.



There were lots of American Robins in the trees and I photographed the one below in my pecan tree.



My oak trees are the only trees in my yard that still have leaves but they are dropping pretty fast (I took the shot below mid week).



I think the ice I knocked out of a bird bath below looks like broken glass.



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Today's Flowers: Flower Hunt

There were so many flowers when our weather turned cold that it took a while for all of them to turn brown and die.



I went on a hunt early this week to see if I could find any remaining flowers in the garden I walk in frequently.



At first I thought all I'd find were berries and brown flowers.



I was amazed to find the little flowers hiding in the bush above.



I was even more surprised to see how much color the flower below had left.



I'll end with seasonal berries.



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SkyWatch Friday and the Weekend in Black and White: Happy Thanksgiving

It's been a black and white kind of week so I'm combining sky watch with my black and white post.

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Nature Notes and Our World Tuesday: mid to late November

Fall is drawing to a close in my neck of the woods with my oak trees changing and dropping their leaves fast.



I was starting to get a collection of ice circles on my deck from emptying out the frozen water from bird baths until Sunday where the temperatures got high enough for most of them to melt.



I can't remember if I've ever posted this carved saying which is on a wall in the garden where I frequently walk during lunch.



I usually eat lunch at my desk while I work and then go outside and walk when the weather is suitable.



When I refer to a lunch walk, that means that the break part is walking while usually the eating part is working.



It was pretty nippy this week when I was walking because not only were the temperatures around freezing on the days I walked at lunch, the wind made it feel even colder.



Mind you, I'm not complaining and when I think about what many of the states in the U.S. are dealing with in terms of big November snows, it's been down right pleasant here.



The early part of the upcoming week will have spring like temperatures and rain before it turns cold again and returns to sunny days later in the week.



The late flowers mostly turned brown by the end of last week but still a bit of color left.



I love how feathery the bare trees look when they first drop their leaves.



I'll look forward to watching the fairly recently planted trees grow in the downtown park over the upcoming years.



I am glad that I can find nature within a hop skip and a jump of the office buildings I work in.



I used the plural because I work in one building and have some meetings in another building across the street and there are two others I occasionally go to within a city block.



The house I often photograph is next to the old manufacturing and warehouse buildings which were renovated for offices by the company I work for. I wouldn't mind working in that house but it is used by another business with smaller space requirements.



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The Weekend in Black and White combined with Today's Flowers

The frigid air this week was too much for the mums and pretty much all the flowers. It occurred to me that these mums which were bowed down low and began to turn brown with the cold snap would still look good in black and white. It is interesting to me how you can't even tell they are browning without full color. I always think mums are for the optimist where I live because the odds are it will either get too hot if they are planted too soon or they will get frozen if planted too late. These mums were planted in a public garden on the late side and the buds barely opened before they were frozen.




Click here for the weekend in black and white and here for Today's Flowers.

SkyWatch Friday: Dancing clouds

The past couple of days the wispy clouds have been dancing.



Almost like veils swirling across the sky.



The leaves are dropping fast with the cold and wind.



Some trees that changed late never got much color just turned brown and dropped.



We've had a pretty fall so I'm not complaining it's just an observation that some trees changed late and then the leaves dropped but plenty of others gave a pretty display.



I love late afternoon light this time of the year.



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Nature Notes and Our World: mid November

I always enjoy photographing ice that I remove from the bird baths in cold weather.



We still have a lot of fall color but it's changing very fast and lots of leaves have dropped.



I'm going backwards through this past week with the first shots being weekend ones and the end of the post is earlier in the week.



Our fall color is always protracted with the earliest leaves changing months before the last one in central NC where I live.



By the time my oak trees (shot below) change colors it is usually late fall and they don't last long at all before dropping.



I took the next shot in my driveway photographing above my neighbors roof tops across the street.



I love the tree below which is around the corner from my house.



The next tree is one I can see from my deck which is at a neighbor's house on the street parallel to mine.



I spotted the hair stylist display on a break from work.



On another work break, I spotted the bluebirds calling to each other (one on the sign one in the bottom right corner).



That looks like a possible nest from last spring below.



The American Robin was sunning on railroad tracks.



We're starting to have bare trees which I love.



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