Picture-A-Week 2023 - Week 01

[pierces]

Pictures taken between Monday, January 2 and Sunday, January 8.

 

Shiny new year! Shiny new opportunities for shareable photos.

 

Happy New Year, all!

 

 

Rules: See above

That's it. This isn't a contest.

All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising).

Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize.

The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays.

Post one. Post many. Up to you.

Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

[zackiedawg]

Usually I don't get around to photos in a 'week' thread until after that week passed, since most of my shooting would fall on the weekend.  But given Monday was a holiday from work, I managed to hit the wetlands on Jan 2, 2023.

 

Starting out with a well hidden Wilson's snipe, shooting into the sun.  I was lucky and got him raising his head to look around - otherwise, it just looked like a rock in the grass:

 

A pied-billed grebe - this time a peaceful one just hanging out in the shallows:

 

A ruby-throated hummingbird enjoying the firebush selection:

 

A male red-bellied woodpecker in perfect light:

 

A black-and-white warbler hunting around the trees for bugs:

 

Purple gallinule with those giant legs and feet to climb around the reeds:

 

Anhinga, in the classic drying pose:

 

Big male green iguana, in orange mating colors, having just run off another male:

[dileep]

 

[pierces]

Son Dan has referred to a few of our gifts we have given him over the years as "something I didn't know I wanted until I got it". This Christmas, friends Ron and Peri got me a destination tracking map of the world that I would never have looked for or bought if I stumbled upon it. It really is something I didn't know I wanted until I got it. For thirty years, Kim and I have made cruising our primary vacation activity. The time spent this week pushing tiny pins into a map reminded us of all the places we have visited, many of them multiple times. It also reminded us that there are still places we want to see and sent us to the internet to research dates and prices for some of them. A few pins will be revisited this year, but next year...

 

Past and Future

 

 

 

 

Dave

Edited January 8, 2023 by pierces

[ski ww]

Lots of room for more pins. Enjoy placing pins in those blank spots.

[zackiedawg]

Well I actually shot on one of the first days of the week for a change, but as usual, the weekends are when I get out to the wetlands - so I can bookend this week with shots I took on Saturday, January 7th:

 

Drying anhinga:

 

Relaxed looking wood stork, just hanging out:

 

Great blue heron, all stretched out to land:

 

Wood stork, coming in on final approach:

 

Osprey. with a chunk of fish:

 

Closeup of a female anhinga, just starting to get her breeding colors:

 

At sunset, the black-bellied whistling ducks heading off to their nighttime spot:

 

At the same time, dozens of glossy ibis are streaming in from elsewhere, as this wetland is THEIR chosen nighttime roost:

[boeckli]

Trying out camera on new phone

 

 

 

[Oakman58]

The Diamond Princess arriving in San Diego with the Disney Wonder already in port.  What a mess embarkation was for our cruise on the Diamond.