Excellent shots - they are beautiful birds and we have many of them here in Kansas. When I drive to town (10 miles), I count at least 2 per mile sitting on the power-line poles.

Have seen some big ones in my trees and doing some photo analysis, I estimate a couple of them around 2ft tall - would guess their weight at 20lbs +

I know my cats don't like them - when they're in the area, the cats go inside -

My .02 worth -

If you must argue, remember that it is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument

If you must argue, remember, for onlookers, it is impossible to tell which one is the idiot.

I'm not complaining, I'm just asking... Issa is headline news almost daily because of his antics. IMO, I would post a more current example of how stupid he is...

What's the point of this link? It's old news - happened 32 days ago...

Ahhh, but slavery was common through out Europe back in the day, so it was not isolated as a US issue - it's just we made world news with the civil war and made for good topic at the morning coffee...

And the slaves who were "kidnapped", were taken by black traders who then sold them to black ships captains who brought them north to sell them to the black handlers / traders and sellers who would then auction them off.

Since this was common practice in Europe, and we migrated from Europe, we were just following traditions... And it was not seen as being wrong at the time...

Speaking of traditions, it is my understanding that "serfs" provided pretty much free labor to feed the coffers of the nobility in Europe much like the slaves in the Americas. So I don't see much difference between serf or slave - except the spelling and perspective...

History, or hindsight, is always 20-20, and as the English say - "It was not our finest hour". And unfortunately, slavery is still present in some parts of the world.

All we can do is live right, provide positive examples for our children and hope for the best...

left

Interesting article - thanks for sharing

Are you ready to shoot the first of 4 lunar eclipses of 2014???

This is the first of four consecutive total lunar eclipses this year, a series called a tetrad.

Info: http://thespacereporter.com/2014/04/spectacular-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-set-for-april-15/

Specifics / Time Chart: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2014-Fig01.pdf

If you haven't had luck taking the moon shot, here is one link (of many available) that is fairly informative: http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/779/how-to-take-stunning-pictures-of-the-moon/

May the night be clear, the winds be calm and the surrounding light sources be dark... Good Luck !!!

I have one in the back of my old chicken house - found out she's been stealing my cat food - had to increase from 3 scoops to 4 scoops so the cats get their share LOL...
Will be glad when the babies are grown and gone...

You could spend a year in Maine and not see everything - beautiful state - lived there 5 years at the Naval Air Base in Brunswick and didn't see all there was to see -

Fort Popham - about 15 min from Bath on Rt 209: http://www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/doc/parksearch/search_name.pl?state_park=&historic_site=40&public_reserved_land=&shared_use_trails=&option=search

Portland Maine - Fort Williams Park has the oldest light house in Maine - a photographers dream park: http://www.fortwilliamspark.com/

And don't forget the covered bridges of Maine: http://www.coveredbridgemap.com/me/

One thing to note - when the colors change, the state of Maine has a population growth of tourists that is in the thousands - many cruise ships arrive and the roads are bumper to bumper to the islands - you will be traveling on 2 lane roads and if anything happens on the road, you are stuck until it clears... generally that does not happen, but be prepared...

There are wool outlets in Maine and Freeport Maine is home to LL Bean so if you like to shop for outdoor clothing or equipment, you're in the right area.

There is a maritime museum in Bath, Maine that is extremely interesting - it does cost to enter but we enjoyed it... http://www.mainemaritimemuseum.org/

Aerial America by the Smithsonian Channel is an outstanding overview of the state and may give you some ideas on what you want to see. Here is their website for the Maine video (the lighthouse showing is the one at Fort Williams): http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/series/701/aerial-america/136451/maine#harbor-island-mans-inhumanity

Dining - we found that the small restaurants and cafes in the out of way places offered the best prices. It will be tourist season and the "choice" eateries will adjust their prices accordingly... However, there are occasions when one wishes to splurge a little and we found "A Taste of Maine" (http://www.tasteofmaine.com/) on the island was excellent - the food was great with a spectacular view off the patio.

Enjoy your trip...

I picked one up a couple of weeks ago - haven't been able to use it much yet so when the grandkids came to town this week, I took them to the zoo for a photo shoot. Used auto mode to test it out - I discovered shooting through fences can skew the focus but other than that, I was pleased with the results...
Here are a couple of shots. I resized with a 50% factor to reduce the image size (from 7Mb to 2Mb) but no other post processing - I put the focal length in the description to give you some perspective...

Robin in flower bed - focal 165mm

(Download)

Lion on rock - focal 52mm

(Download)

Lion on rock - focal 100mm

(Download)

Had to get my sister's wireless router working last night - luckily she had a Linksys model that would not kick me out when I made changes to the wireless section - found this application and thought it was great - so, if you need to remotely connect to another system or want to hold an on-line meeting, check this package out.

And best of all - it's free for personal use...

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

Check out the article in the Readers Digest:
http://www.rd.com/culture/case-peeping-photographer/

A photographer took photo's of a family without their knowledge or consent and then used them in an art gallery as a photo show - this went to court and the photographer won the first round - the case in still pending...

What is interesting is that this is in New York which I would take as implying that each state has their own laws around this.

That is the $64,000,000 question - and I don't have the answer...

I agree that with the economy the way it is, fiscal responsibility should drive the travel decisions but IMHO the current administration is not listening to the people - it seems they have their own agenda which no one is able to change. You could start a grass roots movement to remove them from office...