05/30/2012 - Moore Creek

Header image is a sunset photo of a Father and his Daughter, both on stand up paddleboards also known as SUPs.

A large computer monitor rots in Moore Creek.

A horse with no name munching on greens.

Looks like Chimney Swifts but that is a guess. Some of them were wanting to be fed but it looked like Mom and Dad were ignoring them on purpose. If they are old enough to fly, they are old enough to get their own food.

Obligatory photo of a bird with trash in the background. It is a yellow-crowned night heron.

Conveniently trapped collection of plastic garbage under a private dock from a past heavy rain, ignored as usual. Mobile doesn't care what is in the water.

07/28/2011 - Dog River Sunrise Pedal

Header Image is a photo of the sunrise on Dog River.

1) Pre-sunrise.

2) Clouds to the west lit up by the rising sun.

3) To the east, not looking good.

4) Back to the west, a rainbow.

5) A line of clouds went by and the winds went from calm to blowing hard.

 6) It is raining by the trees on the horizon - time to get out the umbrella.

7) Little storms were popping up all over.

8) Later on when the rains stopped, a heron was seen scrounging through the trash for food.

9) A cluster of fruits on a Sweet Bay tree (Magnolia virginiana).

10) The horses were having grass for breakfast.

06/09/2011 - Moore Creek

"Man is a blind, witless, low brow, anthropocentric clod who inflicts lesions upon the earth."

---Ian McHarg

Header photo - a horse and a bird having breakfast together.

1) Sunrise at the entrance to Moore Creek.

2) Moore Creek has some reptiles larger than I thought it had. This alligator had to be about 7-8 feet long. <Update: This alligator is now dead. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources killed it for eating a dog which should have been fenced in or on a leash to begin with.>

3) End of the line on Moore Creek at the waterfall.

4) In behind the sheets of cascading water there are plants growing.

5) Some type of Rush backlit by the sunrise.

6) Every time I stopped to take photos and brushed against vegetation, ants found a way onto the kayak. Thankfully they are not fire ants.

7) Horses are majestic animals that I love to watch.

8) The reddish bird was quite beautiful. Anyone know what kind of birds these are?

9) The realities of Moore Creek are sad, hence my pome:

10) Yucko!

PLASTIC LITTER

Oh scummy tides, of plastic litter,
sticking out like a sore thumb,

Lining shorelines everywhere,
makes man look awfully dumb!

American waterways,
idiots shed their waste on thee,

And hide from the truth by denial,
from polluted creeks to the plastic sea.

05/16/2011 - Moore Creek

Header photo - image of a long-jawed orb weaver spider.

1) A bit foggy sunrise on Moore Creek in the Dog River Watershed.

2) One of the few places you can paddle and see horses is on Moore Creek.

3) Calliopsis or Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) is a common wildflower.

4) A rather uncommon wildflower is White Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata f. albiflora or just Pontederia cordata "Alba"). This is the first one I've ever seen.

5) An insect in the process of molting as it squeezes out of its old body.

6) It's a yellow-crowned night heron.

05/01/2011 - Sunrise on Dog River

1) Wonderful sunrise on Dog River.

2) This beautiful looking horse just would not come over to the water's edge no matter how I tried to coax it over. As if it speaks English...

3) As the snowy egret flew across Moore Creek it scared a school of minnows.

4) Spring is the time of year when baby peepers occupy Mom's time.

5) Vibration waves on the surface of the water.

6) The vibrations were caused by this insect.

7) Speaking of insects, they were plentiful this morning - this is a Katydid on a fern leaf.

8) An opportunist spider lurking on a Lizard's tail flower.