Steven Helmer Publications

So, I made a small mistake today. I wasn't planning on going for a walk at lunch because it looked like it would rain. However, the sun came out and I decided to go after all. Since the walk wasn't in my original plan, I didn't bother charging my camera battery. But, I thought there would be enough juice left in it so I didn't worry too much about it. As it turns out, the battery was lower than I thought it was and, as a result of that, I ended up missing a couple photos because I had to turn it off to preserve what battery life it had left. Despite that, I did manage to get a few photos today. Here are some of them:

I had planned on posting these yesterday evening. But, I wound up being at the ice rink 3 hours longer than expected and, by the time I got home, I was ready to eat dinner and go to bed. I took advantage of a sunny and warm (but not too warm) day to get my walk in and these are some of the photos I was able to get yesterday.

It was a bit overcast today, making it a little difficult to get some photos because of the lack of light. But, the part was almost deserted so I was able to go for my walk without a lot of people scaring photos away. My big surprise of the day had to be a painted turtle I encountered on one of the trails. Not only was it an unusual spot for it, the turtle made no effort to get away from me as I walked past it. I'm wondering if maybe it was making a nest or something. Here are some of the photos I took:

It's pretty hot and humid out right now but I still managed to get my full walk in today (making sure to hydrate before and after). Surprisingly, I really didn't see as much as I thought I would. I figured birds, rabbits, etc. would be scarce because of the heat. But, I thought I would see a lot more turtles and snakes than I did (just one snake and one really small turtle). Despite that, I did manage to get a few photos today:

In addition to the little turtle I spotted while walking on one of the trails, I was relatively successful finding other critters to photograph as well. Here are some of the photos I was able to take:

I had some errands to take care of yesterday and didn't get an opportunity to go for a walk as a result. However, I was able to get out today and enjoy what is going to be one of the few remaining warm days. In fact, I even took an extra 15 minutes. There wasn't too much overly unique on this walk today. Eventually, I'll start seeing more migrating birds. But, for the most part, it's just bugs, frogs and turtles at the moment. But, I enjoyed my walk and that's all that really counts in my opinion. Here are some of the photos I was able to take: I was kicking myself after this photo because, I was so focused on the caterpillar, I missed the fairly large garter snake sunning itself a few feet away from me. And, of course, as soon as I noticed it and turned to get the photo, it was gone. To add insult to injury, the caterpillar photo ended up being a little out of focus. I'm patting myself on the back a bit with this one. I norm...

The weather was somewhat interesting when I went for my walk at lunch today. It kept clouding up like it was going to rain then, just when I started to think I should head back to my car, the sun would come back out. It was also very windy out, making it somewhat difficult to get photos because many of the critters I normally would see were hiding and the wind was strong enough to keep me from even getting a decent photo of the late-season sun flowers that are blooming right now. I did, however, still manage to get some photos while I was out. The best of them are below:

My lunchtime walk was somewhat uneventful today. I saw an interesting bird. But, it flew by too fast for me to get a good enough look at it (or a photo of it) so I could identify what it was and, other than the usual frogs and toads, I didn't see much else. I did have this dragonfly buzz by me, however, and, mostly because I thought it looked interesting, grabbed a photo of it when it stopped to take a break.