06/16/2011 - Halls Mill Creek

Header image shows three osprey eagles, one sitting on the nest.

1) An osprey eagle clutching a limb with the near full moon in the background.

2) Big osprey eagle nest near the entrance to Halls Mill Creek with what looks like rain clouds in the sky.

3) Approaching sunrise over Halls Mill Creek.

4) Sunrise spectator with a big drop of water on its back. These type of bugs were all over the yellow pond lilies.

5) St. John's Wort was abundantly in bloom along the creek banks.

6) Less abundant along the bank of Halls Mill Creek was the swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosum).

7) I'm not sure what kind of bee or fly this is but based on its size and color, it looked like it needed to be left alone.

8) A dragon fly sitting on a plastic garbage bag. Speaking of garbage...

9) Welcome to Hippie Beach where there is not a single trash container, so, much trash ends up on the ground and in the water. (It is an unauthorized and unmaintained beach).

10) Speaking of plastic garbage bags, this photo was taken at the Interstate 10 Halls Mill Creek drainage ditch. Even though it looks like a photo from a third world country, it was taken in the Dog River Watershed. This ditch is coated with layers of plastic garbage bags. It has looked like this for a decade and slowly gets worse. What is it going to look like in 1000 years?

Some facts about plastic bags: About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute. A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down. Is your life too plastic? Bag it-1 and Bag it-2