Woodlands Observed

Click cover to see a preview & thumb through online

The Last Maple & The Golden Ginkgo

The fall color is rapidly going at McKendree. Here is the last Maple in the Woodlands and the Ginkgo at the Highland View entrance (on Hermitage Presbyterian property).

I just made a photo book of the Woodlands (our park) with images from all four seasons and lots of wildlife photos. Thumb through it at http://www.blurb.com/b/4711611-woodlands-observed-3

I call it Woodlands Observed.

Plastic toys instead of trees for kids?

http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/adventure-ethics/hey-kids-nature-is-boring.html?231174731&utm_campaign=googlenews&utm_source=googlenews&utm_medium=xmlfeed

URBAN FORESTS MAKE CITIES MORE RESILIENT TO A CHANGING CLIMATE

See the Outside article at http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/outdoor-adventure/politics/urban-forests-make-cities-more-resilient-to-a-changing-climate.html

Good common sense for a healthier world!

Fall Color

This is a farm near Adams, Tennessee, East of Clarksville

I drove up today to photograph Dunbar Cave & Point Royal State Parks

A beautiful day!

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Galapagos Tortoise

One of our two Galapagos Tortoises at Nashville Zoo

which are 21 years old, mere children with a life expectancy of 180 years!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Adding a little life to the purple verbena in my front yard

Great Blues and Whitetails at Bledsoe Creek

My latest state park visit was last Thursday at Bledsoe Creek near Gallatin, TN

Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly (male)

Great Blue Heron catching a fish in Cumberland River backwaters

White-tailed Deer fawn

And another whitetail!

Common Whitetail Dragonfly (male)

Snug

I spent most of the morning with bio-facts at the Giraffe exhibit

but it was this pocket-camera shot of a Caribbean Flamingo

that charmed me most today

Stones River Greenway

Biked my usual 6 miles on the greenway this morning.

Parts of it are like going through a deep forest alongside a big river.

Calming and beautiful.

This afternoon I'm heading for another state park which will mean more photos!

Surprise Tulip Beauty

Working on the computer and stumbled on this photo

made in 2008 at Falls Mill, Belvedere, TN

I have a lot of photos like this I intended to print

but didn't! Can't print them all!

Cedars of Lebanon State Park, TN

Being a short drive from Nashville, it has all the things people like for vacations with recreation, a huge swimming pool, multiple campgrounds, cabins, a lodge, etc. But the most significant thing to me is their multiple nature trails in both forest and cedar glades with some rare flowers found only here. I spent yesterday morning walking in the woods and glades (flat dry meadows) photographing flowers and butterflies. Here's just 3 of the photos. To see more go to the gallery for this nature walk

Tiger Swallowtail on possibly "Beaked Corn Salad" flower

Spicebush Swallowtail in field of Glade Wild Petunias

Some kind of Fritillary or Crescentspot Butterfly

on a Tennessee or Eggert's Sunflower

A Walk on the Wildside

I finally did a little 28-page, 7x7 inch photo book on my June trip to the Zoos in Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus and The Wilds of Eastern Ohio. It was a great trip with three wonderful zoos and the best Safari park yet - well, maybe equal with San Diego's but larger than theirs. I made 1600 photos, mostly of animals and this only shows 28 of them. You can thumb through it digitally online for free with no obligation to buy. That's one of the reasons I use Blurb.com for my self-published books. Enjoy! And go take your own "walk on the wild-side!" 

And oh yes - my fuller gallery on this trip is at http://www.pbase.com/charliedoggett/ohiokentucky_zoo_trip

Farewell to Chris Kline!

Fellow nature-lover and Nashville Zoo Docent Supervisor is leaving us to become a fishing guide in Oregon. We will greatly miss him and some of the docents participated in a Farewell Party Tuesday night at the Sheraton Music City Hotel. I took photos and prepared a little 7x7 inch paperback photo book for him about the event. You can thumb through it for free in my online book store with no obligation to buy.
http://www.blurb.com/b/4436368-docent-s-farewell-party

Or if you prefer online photo galleries, see the same photos at http://www.pbase.com/charliedoggett/zoo_events_chris_kline_farewell

Finding Nature in Places Less Visited

I have just remade my personal website with a different software called Joomla! I like it and especially like  this article with its "new look."  Check out my new site and my travel adventures!
http://174.120.5.218/~cdoggett/joomla/index.php/travel/places-less-visited

Nashville Zoo Exploration

This is my favorite biofact cart to use as I work at the Zoo almost every Friday morning. Here I hid it in the bushes while I ran to the bathroom. It really made the exploring kid painted on the side even more adventurous as he seems to be peering through the jungle. I really enjoy talking about nature and our zoo animals with visitors every week and hope I help a few people appreciate nature even more. This photo was actually made a week ago yesterday when I worked at the Eurasian Lynx exhibit where I particularly enjoy showing our full-body Canadian Lynx pelt and partial body Bobcat pelt. You do know that a Bobcat is a Lynx? 

Yesterday I worked in the African Savannah with the Lion and Zebra pelts and the Eland Skull. With the Lion pelt I also do a brief talk on "Predator-Prey" and how some animals with different abilities help each other to warn when a Lion is coming. And of course Africa is always fun for me! 

Backyard Wild Turkey

Thanks to Debbie (daughter of Ruth next door) for calling me when she saw this hen.

Click to Enlarge 

State Parks Trip

As part of my effort to visit all 53 state parks, I finished off all the West Tennessee parks last week and have a sample photo of each at http://www.pbase.com/charliedoggett/travel_state_parks_west
Eventually I will have a gallery for each individual park with many more photos! But for this nature blog, I thought I would share two of the wildlife photos made last week:

Dragonfly at Big Cypress Tree State Park

Butterfly at Natchez Trace State Park

Baby Blue Birds

Baby Blue Birds

Iris Time!

Irises standing tall in the Woodlands

Front Door Wreath Babies

One of my neighbors, Frances Carver, has a bird nest in the spring wreath on her front door. I tried making several shots with my pocket camera and none are very great, but this shows two of the three "babies" who should be flying out soon.

Rainy Day Green

The overabundance of rain has made our Woodlands bright green

Backyard Bunny

Is he the one eating my Marigolds? Neighbor says there is a groundhog.

Oh Honey! That tickles!

Hyacinth Macaws at Nashville Zoo yesterday

I also got to take a group of preschoolers from Crieve Hall on a tour

Trees

 

I biked up the Stones River today, saw the river, kayakers, and lots of people all the way to the Percy Priest Dam - but my favorite site was these two trees at the dam! Later I drove to Mt. Juliet for dinner and photographed an old barn and another tree - but these two trees are still my favorite photo of the day. Truly, I have never seen a poem as lovely as a tree! 



Green Fire

Just watched the one-hour version of this great film on

Aldo Leopold and his concept of a "Land Ethic"

on NPT our local PBS station

For someone who died in 1948, he is really contemporary and cutting edge! And on the eve of our Earth Day Celebration at Centennial Park, Nashville - it was soooo appropriate! I liked it so much and what the man did for conservation (as much as John Muir) that I ordered one of his books:

Dogwoods Blooming!

They are literally all over our campus - beautiful!

Colors of Spring

Thousands of violets and dozens of squirrels!

With forsythia still blooming in background

Violets Everywhere!

At my Maple Tree this morning, but they are all over the yard like a purple meadow!

Also I biked 10 miles on the Stones River Greenway today with many wildflowers everywhere. 

Spring has Sprung!

Peaceful Memory of Yellowstone

I made no image today, so I'm sharing one of many I made on my Yellowstone National park trip a few years ago. It is still my favorite park thus far and I hope to go again.

Concert in the Trees

After a morning at Zoo for meetings and afternoon of planting more flowers, I just sat awhile on the deck and listened to the many birds singing in the dozens of trees surrounding my place. Wonderful! And I didn't even make a photo!   :-)

Catching a Frog!

Saddle-billed Stork at Nashville Zoo today

Northern Cardinal Female

They seem to get more beautiful every time I see them or try to photograph!

Cedar Waxwing

I've been told that they will come to my neighbor's holly in flocks and strip off all the berries. Well they have come but not taken all the berries yet. And they stay high, are skittish and difficult to photograph. So these have been blown up until they are grainy and not in good focus. But this is the best I could do with my simple 300 mm lens.

Biking to Percy Priest Dam

This afternoon I biked 6 miles (3 to and back) from Lebanon Road to Percy Priest Dam on the Stones River Green Way.

The boardwalk is a picturesque portion, but so in the forest and the meadows!

Double Roots! Nature is fascinating!

Arriving at Percy Priest Dam

Beautiful Yard Work Day

Cleaned up and started getting flowerbeds ready but all I planted in the ground were some cheap marigolds. We could still have another freeze! And if we do, I can bring these potted flowers inside from my deck..Getting in the mood for spring and summer.

Winter Gray Slow to Green

I did the 2-mile walk around Couchville Lake in Long Hunter State Park today. It was cool but nice, though not much greening or wildflowers in this cedar glade yet. Glade Cress was the only significant wildflower.

They along with a few flowering trees and the red dirt was the only color today!