Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.
This young doe that only recently lost her spots looks hungry. Her ribs are showing, not a good sign as we move into Autumn and then Winter.

David's Images of the Day Photoblog
This young doe that only recently lost her spots looks hungry. Her ribs are showing, not a good sign as we move into Autumn and then Winter.

I found this Tree Fungus/Mushroom on a fallen Birch tree while walking through my backyard. This was one of the trees that came down when the power company cleared the lines following a wind storm in March 2010 that is slowly decomposing. Not surprising the decomposition has accelerated with all of the rain we have had recently.

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When the conditions are right, you can see the Milky Way in New Jersey. Two views, a 5 minute and 15 minute exposure.


I am back in New Jersey after a short trip to San Francisco. I hate flying and this trip was bad. I spent 4 hours in the plane before taking off in Philadelphia (we did get back to the gate for a short stop to avoid the 3 hour federal regulation rules). Ultimately it took 12 hours from the time I left my office to get to the hotel in San Francisco. I hate flying, and would rather drive. For the return flight, the airline decided there were too many empty seats and substituted a smaller plane (and bumped 20+ passengers). ARRG! I just wanted to get home, and was not interested in a $400 future credit. Ultimately I got a seat on the original flight. It was a middle seat, and I had to force the armrest down to separate me from the over sized person next to me oozing into my seat. I hate flying. I hate flying. I hate flying.
Big Spider. I saw this “what I consider a giant” spider above my front door. I went in the back door and got a Nikon D3 camera with a 200 mm lens (I didn’t want to get too close) and a SB-900 flash. It was not as big as a tarantula, but pretty close. I’ve never seen a spider this big in New Jersey before. I don’t know what type of spider it is, but I have not seen one like it since then.

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Dall Ram standing on the side of the road in Denali National Park. Even while on the bus we were able to get incredibly close to the wildlife. Also, the colors are already changing as this was the second to last week of the season before closing the park for winter.

Back to the present, the Delaware River has gone above flood stage at the Lambertville – New Hope bridge that I usually cross every morning. I had to take the US 202 bridge to cross the Delaware River, and I could see water almost up to the road bed of the the Lambertville – New Hope bridge. The USGS site shows the river peaking at about 16 feet, with flood stage at 13 feet. This is 3 feet higher than my 29-August-2011 post showing the Lambertville Station Inn after Hurricane Irene. The road was blocked so I could not get down and get some pictures near the Inn, but expect that there is water running under the Inn today. The ground is so saturated after Hurricane Irene, that the last several days of heavy rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee is causing even more flooding.