PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Wildlife Between Sunrise and Sunset
Week 166 of the photographic documentary of my daily life
Just like the deer in the photo above, the year is racing toward the end. Few days are left and our season in German is finished. While fall is shining with glory gifting us with summery temperatures and golden sunsets, I’m looking forward to the next episode in our lives.
Work remains now far in between and instead of being productive with writing and working on my books, I hang around in bed doing nothing. I tell myself I need those days as well but it’s just a lazy excuse.
Apart from my unproductive behavior, I’m going on daily walks embracing the sunshine and wildlife that’s out and about. Mostly birds are accompanying our adventures across the fields.
David did hurt his back helping the boss do some fixing work around the airfield on Wednesday and lay flat for most of the week after that. The only thing that felt good was walking and stretching.
And so we started daily walks again up to two hours strolling across the countryside. On Thursday, we startled a few deer lying in a field of wildflowers when walking along the farm roads. Luckily I had the camera around my neck out of the bag and could quickly snap a shot of the beautiful creature hastily running away.
That evening I was surprised to see a strawberry as I was watering our plants. The strawberry pot hadn’t given me many fruits this season and I certainly didn’t expect one so late in the year.
But she was yummy!
Friday morning same haze was lying over the fields when I woke up just before sunrise going to the bathroom with my eyes still half closed.
On Saturday, some clouds were covering the rising sun as I got up for a busy day at work. Since David was out, we were one instructor less and split the workload between the remaining three.
On Sunday, strong winds were challenging us and while the ground winds were still acceptable, we faced a massive freefall drift with 50 knots plus at 10,000 feet and above.
I could see the strong upper winds already when I got up in the morning and watched clouds hide the rising sun within seconds. Reading the weather is one of the side effects of being a skydiving instructor. It’s fascinating.
On Monday, I woke to some lightly lit upper clouds in the morning. The airfield was deserted. Most people were off or hiding in their trailers.
As David was slowly but surely feeling better, we went on longer walks through the woodlands surrounding our home and across the surrounding fields.
I had stopped to take a picture of this ladybug and just noticed at home on the screen it wasn’t one. Does anyone know what little insect this is?
A few meters further I noticed what appeared like wild snapdragon flowers. They were tiny compared to the blooming flowers I know from our garden.
While I use my mom’s knowledge to identify birds, I do have a plant identifier to help me with flowers and I was surprised to see how right I was. While the flower is known as common toadflax, another name is indeed wild snapdragon.
I was chasing a bee around the flower heads trying to capture her as she was drinking the next article of one of the blossoms.
On the following morning, I captured two birds I sent to my mom. The first one she quickly identified as a red kite. Two of these majestic birds were circling above the woods as we turned around from our walk.
The next one was sitting on the pole in front of our trailer. One of many falcons we have hunting in the area. Hunting for mice which we have this year in abundance.
It’s a common kestrel.
That Tuesday afternoon still, I drove to my grandma who was disappointed David didn’t come along but a 3-hour drive one way didn’t sound good for him as his back hurt the most while seated.
I stayed for the night as her birthday was Wednesday. She turned 85 and celebrates the big day on Saturday when I will have to work and miss out on the party.
I decided to come instead during the week when she will have a lot more from me than at the party where she will be overwhelmed by four children, eight grandchildren with 3 great-grandchildren, and everyone’s partners.
My Grandma’s sister was staying with her for a few weeks as well and so the three of us spent some quality time together.
While my grandma had several phone calls during the morning, I sat on the floor in her living room pointing the camera at the bird feeder. I didn’t get any of the songbirds as they were too quick on grabbing a seed but captured a blue tit as he was devouring his feast sitting on a branch just meters behind.
This has been my weekly photo essay. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.
Dennett / Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian / Shell / Ivy / Lisa / Lynne
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