north carolina

Sneaky Cardinal

So lately we have had some pretty awesome birds hanging around the yard. We have the Hawks which I posted about earlier this week, a few sneaky Cardinals and I even spotted a Wood Pecker today but wasn’t able to capture any decent shots of it.

Here are a few of one of the Cardinals. He was hiding so it was hard to get a clean shot and my editing skills aren’t at a high enough level to edit out all the branches and other distractions.

I am still happy with them and have more and more respect for wildlife photographers as I continue to photograph these birds.

Ohh and Oshie still could care less about the birds…well except for Turkey which he has been enjoying for the past two days. 😉

November 27, 2015 2

Red Shouldered Hawk..I Think

Hey look! A post that isn’t about Oshie. So we have a few hawks that have been hanging around the neighborhood lately. I am not sure what has drawn them in but there are at least 3 different hawks that I have seen flying around or perched on trees in the morning. There is one hawk who always perches on the top of the same tree looking into the sunrise. He or she appears to be the biggest of the bunch and is the easy spot for me to try and photograph. I say try because the lighting is terrible at the time of day that they are out and my camera equipment is not professional and neither are my skills yet. Even with my Tamron 70-300mm at 300mm I have trouble getting a decent photo and to top it all off the little bugger keeps an eye on me and takes off any time I get within 100 yards or so. Anyway here is the best shot I was able to get so far. Nothing special and I had to crop like crazy to make it presentable.

Ohh and Oshie could care less about the hawks.

November 24, 2015 0

Drool

Dogs drool and we all know this. Of course there are some breeds that drool more than others like Bulldogs, Mastiffs and Newfoundlands. While Oshie doesn’t drool nearly as much as those breeds, he does have his moments. Typical of the Golden breed, he loves all things edible (and sometimes not edible) and you better have a towel handy to wipe off your legs if you are eating around him. The drool is almost immediate and the longer you ignore him the worse it gets.

Something I have noticed is that he often drools even when there isn’t food around. This usually occurs when he becomes focused on something. It is almost as if he completely forgets to swallow. I believe that I actually read that somewhere too. It was something about how dogs drool when they focused on something because they can’t handle swallowing at the same time. Not sure how true that is.

Our furry friends can also drool due to a condition known as hyper-salivation. This can be brought on when food or a treat is present or by fear and anxiety. If a dog has this condition they produce excessive amounts of saliva. If you notice your dog drooling a lot more than normal you might want to schedule a visit with the vet.

Drool is a part of your life if you own a dog and you learn to expect and accept it. We certainly have and we know to keep a wipe ready if we have food around Oshie.

Anyway here is a shot of Oshie staring intently at something outside beginning to drool. I wonder if he was just day dreaming about what Mom and Dad were going to have for dinner that night.

November 23, 2015 2

Here in NC we have these little Lizards (see picture below taken in our driveway).

I am not sure of the name of this lizard and I am too lazy to look it up but they are cool little guys. Most of them are pretty small maybe 2 to 3 inches long from the tip of their snout to the end of their tail. I have seen a few that are larger (probably closer to 5 inches total length).

These lizards like to hang out on our back deck because it gets plenty of sunlight during the day. They hang out on the table and chairs, inside the propane cabinet of the grill and on the railings. Anywhere they can lounge in the sun you will find them.

A few cool things worth noting about these little guys is that they can change color to blend in with their environment, they are fast and they lose their tails as a defense mechanism.

Now on to the title of this post…Oshie loves chasing them. Any time during the day that he goes outside he looks for them on and around the porch. Ne never has much luck catching them and even if he did he would try to play with them like he does every other living thing. It is pretty funny to watch him chase them.

Here are a few shots of him “stalking” one that he saw the other day. As usual he didn’t even come close to catching it. The lizard actually ended up using his head as a soft landing as he jumped off the table. This made Oshie thrash his head around trying to get at the little guy but in the blink of an eye he was off Oshie and well on his way to hiding somewhere under the deck.

Here are a few more shots. One of these days I will get some video. As always thanks for checking us out!

Beach Bum

Over the weekend we finally had some decent weather! Nancy and I decided that we should head to one of Oshie’s favorite places…the beach. We hadn’t been since earlier this summer and we knew he would really enjoy it. A little before 9AM packed the SUV and headed out. After a short pit stop for some coffee we arrived at the beach. Thankfully other than a handful of people fishing we had the beach to ourselves. This meant that Oshie could roam free and we wouldn’t have to worry about him running up to random people (apparently even a happy friendly Golden is scary when he comes barreling at you). It didn’t take long before he was rolling in the sand turning himself into a Golden Churro. He had a blast and thoroughly exhausted himself. Once we got him home we gave him a bath in the driveway to get all the sand out of his fur and there was a lot of it. A half hour of drying a brushing later and he was ready to crash for the rest of the day.