Photo-a-Day Challenge

And, So It Ends

Goodbye 2021

Last week’s Photo-a-Day piece ended with a white Japanese Camellia and this one begins with a red one. The white and red trees are a few yards apart at the edge of a forest behind a client’s office. Camellias come in a large variety of colors, shapes, and configurations. I particularly like this pinkish-red one because of its lavender edges.

In the afternoon, long after the fog cleared, I went for a walk and found Cosmos, the white-tailed squirrel that lives in the subdivision across from our townhome. Although others have spotted him recently, I hadn’t seen him since the late spring.

I’ve been spotting is Little Blue Heron a lot recently but usually in a ditch fishing. Tuesday, he was hanging around a tree. A few moments after this photo, he snagged something wiggly from a low branch. It was an anole lizard. I was a little sad because I’m quite fond of lizards but we all have to eat, right?

Sprinkle warm days with chilly nights and you get fog. Tuesday was our foggiest morning yet.

Syau and I found this Muscovy on our Big Loopsy walk. He was next to a retention pond that rarely sports any ducks or birds. Last Muscovy I saw there was two years ago — a mother with several ducklings. This guy watched us warily and didn’t budge, which makes me think he’s protecting a nearby nesting mate. Here in Florida, our Muscovies are in baby-making mode. Since it takes about 35 days for Muscovy eggs to hatch, we’ll start seeing ducklings in January and February.

Because it’s their mating season, we rarely have Muscovy ducks show up for breakfast these days, and our Quacklings have scattered to other places, some in nearby ponds. Muscovies can procreate when they’re 6-months old. Our Quacklings are barely that, so I doubt if they’ll produce any eggs this soon. Muscovies lay 3 to 4 times a year, so the Quacklings will get plenty of chances in 2022 to be parents.

Thursday, I took a rare walk in the evening. The temperature was 78F with a brisk breeze. I caught the tail-end of the sunset when the clouds were Confederate blue and the sky was sherbet peach.

Despite 80-degree weather, I found 3 of our Quacklings at a neighborhood pond huddled together as if sheltering from a cold north wind!

Nearby I saw this red-shouldered hawk. Perhaps the Quacklings were grouped together as protection from him, although they are all now larger than the hawk. He may have been a threat when they were little ducklings, but he’s no real threat to them now.

I returned to the pond at the entrance of the subdivision where I first saw Hooded Mergansers and was surprised to find the male floating about by himself, his mate nowhere in sight. Perhaps, she partied too much last night!

I want to thank everyone who has been part of this Photo-a-Day Challenge in 2020 and 2021. I plan to continue and hope you will, too.

© Dennett 2021

In July 2020, I started the Photo-a-Day Challenge to help combat the virus blues. I take photos every day and choose one (maybe, two) to represent the day. Then, add a one-or-two-word descriptor and maybe, some narrative. A simple way to observe and preserve.

Want to join the fun? It’s all about noticing and appreciating your environment and sharing it with us, as these photographers and story-tellers have:

Erika Burkhalter / Eileen Vorbach Collins / Anne Bonfert / Sasha Meyer / Tracy Aston/ Lisa Bolin / Juan O. Aguilera / David Wade Chambers / June Nguyen / Mia Verita / Susan Alison / LensAfield / Barbara Radisavljevic / Diana Lotti / Barbara Dalton / Kim Zuch / K. Barrett / Sandra Barrett / Shruthi Sundaram / Gustavo Mendez / Olive Wilson / Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms)

(If you participated in the Photo-A-Day Challenge and your name isn’t listed above, please let me know.)

Please follow the Snapshot rules:

Lead with a photo/title and subtitle follow No more than 10 photos per post No more than 750 words per post Yes, we know that the photos are yours but you still have to state that they’re your work

And, have fun!