Today’s frames come from two trips to San Angelo State Park in 2018 and 2019. The state park organizes various hikes and outings which my wife and I occasionally attend.
Feathered Fence
This frame was taken on the Turkey Day Hike in November, 2018. Someone stuck this feather in the barbed wire near an opening in the fence. You can just make out the cattle guard in the lower left hand corner of the photo. My extensive research, thank you internet, has led me to conclude that the feather is from a wild turkey. There are wild turkeys in the park (I’ve seen one in my yard in town.) so this is not too surprising. If you are curious about feathers you might check out: The Feather Atlas, or Waking Up Wild.
Flower I
Ohhhhhh! Here’s a pretty flower! In May, 2019, the state park held a Silver Bluebonnet event. The “Silver” part meant “for seniors” and the “Bluebonnet” part was in honor of the flowers that were blooming. After an extensive consultation (five minutes, my attention span isn’t what it used to be) with the only flower book I own, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Flowers, Eastern, Knopf, I can safely say that I have no idea what this flower is!
Now Those are Some Horns
San Angelo State Park is home to longhorn and buffalo herds. Here is a longhorn.
Flower II
Ohhhhh! Here’s another pretty flower! This might be a Canadian Thistle (thanks, Audubon Guide). Corrections welcomed.
Flower III
Ohhhh! Here’s a bunch of pretty flowers. These might be Garden Coreopsis. Or not. If you know, drop me an email.
Bonus Frame – Iron Buffalo
You’ve heard of the iron horse (steam locomotive)? Well, here are some iron buffalo. Although I’ve posted shots of real buffalo, these are iron cutouts, rusted to perfection. From a distance, in the haze, in a tiny photo, these sort of look like real buffalo. Better than nothing, I guess, if you have your heart set on seeing buffalo.
These photos were taken with Canon 6D and 6DII cameras. The lenses were Canon 24-70mm f2.8 zoom (feather) and the Canon 100-400mm f4-5.6 zoom (all the rest). The images were processed from RAW files using Darktable, which is free software available for Windoze, Mac, and Linux.
I think I like the long horn guy the best, but the comments are the greatest. Ohhhhhh! What a pretty flower!