Beyond the Tree

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Donnie and I were out and about this morning after we dropped off the boys at school.  There's a small pond near Cary Crossroads shopping center where I get my frappe at Coffee & Crepes, and I asked Donnie to take me over to it.  It was a foggy morning, and the light around the pond wasn't the best. However, I got really excited when I saw off in the distance what I was pretty sure was a pair of hooded mergansers.   With encouragement from Donnie that we had time and that it was safe to walk around the pond to get a better shot, I started to move closer hoping that the ducks wouldn't take off before I got a decent shot.  I ended up being able to get pretty close, and after adjusting the contrast on the shot and cropping, you can get a pretty good look at the ducks.

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Maybe they will stay on the pond for a few weeks and we can go back on a sunny day to try for an even better shot.  Still, I've gone all winter hoping to even see hooded mergansers in our area and struck out, so this is great for a November sighting and shot.  These guys migrate here right about now and will leave again in the spring.

My daily is a shot of the pond from the side closest to the road looking back to the other end where the ducks were.  Donnie and I were amazed at how the oak still had so many leaves on it when so many of the other trees have quickly lost their leaves this week.

I'm going to save a shot I took of a church near Jordan Lake later in the day to possibly share tomorrow.  But, I have a few other shots I'll include in my post today.

I thought the textures and colors of this shot taken near Jordan Lake were pretty neat.

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And I liked the dazzling sun in this shot.  I couldn't tell if it was a man and wife or father and teenage daughter but the fact that they had the dog out on the boat (Lake Wheeler) with them was really sweet.

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The boys both drew turkeys in art class this week.  Joey had to do a special writing project for his class, and he chose putting together his Thanksgiving menu.  All his work except of course for mom printing out those pictures circa 2010 and 2009.  I was really impressed with Johnny staying in the lines on his coloring too.

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We ended up at Chick-Fil-A last night, and here the boys are using an app on Donnie's iPod Touch to dress pictures of the boys up as cow characters.  Too cute!

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The Great Blue Heron and Lake Crabtree and I need to have a talk about how he's going to pose for me without flying off!  This is twice I've had him in a perfect spot, apparently his usual spot, only to have him fly off.  Frustrating!

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It's amazing to me as I look in my daily gallery over the past month just how much the pictures have taken on an orangish and brown tone.  As we move towards Christmas, the lights and colors of that season will start to appear.  I look forward to it.

A special thanks to Donnie for taking me all over the place yesterday to pick up my spirits and find photo ops for me...