Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day!

January 21, 2013

My Dad just told me…today is Squirrel Appreciation Day! And because I’m such a fan of these little scavengers, I thought I would share some of my favorite personal encounters with squirrels.

My favorite story is when I was taking a golf ball around the city of Chicago for photos and the squirrels were adventurous enough to come up to the golf ball and play with me! We pushed the ball back and forth. I wish there had been a videographer with me on that day. Happy Sciuridae!

Right before he leapt onto the bird feeder…

Cautiously approaching my golf ball…determined it wasn’t food and pushed it away!

Project : Empathropomorphic

October 15, 2012

It’s a project that requires a bit of explanation, but the intent should become clear very quickly. It is a collection of objects, plants and animals that I’ve encountered. And for them, I am supplying a voice (or perspective) with short poems or conversations accompanying each photo.

Empathropomorphic – it’s a compound word that I’ve defined as “the understanding and sensitivity to the feelings and thoughts of objects that have been (or are commonly) defined using human attributes.” It’s created from the combination of empathy and anthropomorphism. The definitions of each individual word are included on the main page of this gallery-style project.

I hope you’ll visit and enjoy empathropomorphic.com and I will hope to hear your feedback!

Session Favorites : Nancy & Friends

July 3, 2012

This past weekend I spent an afternoon with Nancy and her three beautiful gentlemen: Troika, Syrinx and Figaro. Each with a musical name and a lot of personality! Troika is the oldest at age 19 followed by Syrinx, 17 and Figaro, 10.

Here are some of my favorites from the photo session with Nancy.

Summer is here : Hello, Dragonfly

June 21, 2012

This morning, I noticed a dragonfly hanging out on an interesting architectural detail (looks a little bit like a nose) of a building in my neighborhood. I had my camera handy, but needed to make a quick lens swap before attempting to grab this little dragonfly’s portrait. I figured he would fly away before I made the switch, but I was lucky – he stayed in place long enough for me to investigate.

And for a little more detail:

Bird Watching

April 4, 2012

For the past two days, I have been watching falcons. Specifically, the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group’s Peregrine Falcon Web Cam. (Thanks to Cara Smith for sharing the link.) It’s fascinating to peek into nest life with young, fluffy falcons sheltered and fed in turns by their parents.

The Peregrine Falcon is a large bird of prey – they hunt small mammals, small reptiles, or insects. Falcons mate for life (unless their partner is killed) and they nest on cliff edges or tall buildings.

How many young do Peregrines have?
A female peregrine usually lays 3 or 4 eggs, occasionally 5. The eggs are slightly smaller than a chicken egg, and are mottled with a dark, reddish-brown pigment. The female falcon will do most of the incubating, which averages about 33 days. The male will incubate the eggs while the female flies off to eat food he brings her.

I always find whatever the birds are doing is very interesting. Spring is a fun time to see them developing nests, hunting for food and raising their little ones. Here are a few of the birds I’ve seen so far this spring.

Squirrels

January 25, 2012

Unlike puppies and kittens, squirrels aren’t universally adored. It seems to be a tie between people who think they are annoying, and people who think they are cute. I am on the side of cute for most critters, so I have a hard time understanding the other perspective. (I admit, I would not call a spider “cute” though.)

So when I am walking around Chicago parks, I like to follow the squirrels around and see what they are up to. Sure…it’s mostly about food, but they do make time for play and occasionally they are as curious about me as I am about them.

Their agility and resourcefulness make them one of my favorite critters, so they are often the subject of my photos. My favorite squirrel playtime involved a golf ball. As part of a gift for my Dad, I staged a golf ball around Chicago and I couldn’t resist getting the squirrel perspective.