Take a Hike! – A Wild Weekly Photo Challenge

It is a fairly cool morning as we head out for a hike outside the town of Red River New Mexico. We drive for a bit until we come upon a small sign on the side of the road that designates a hiking trail. Parking the car, we grab bottles of water and our cameras.

This looks like a good trail.

The trail begins

“Where will this take us?” we wondered.

The smell of the forest could only be described as green. Little butterflies flit around settling on the leaves of nearby plants.

A butterfly in the forest

We come to a bend in the trail that allows us to see the mountain views that surround us.

The mountains surround us

The trail takes us down a gradual slope where it opens up to a stream where lovely golden flowers raise their faces to the sun!

We find water and wildflowers

And the trail takes us further into the forest.

The trail takes us further

We stop for photo opportunities.

My husband on the trail

We come across the stream again and we cross the water.

Crossing a stream

Lovely flowers surround us. No wonder the butterflies abound in this place!

Pretty flowers

It is time to go back. What a lovely hike we have just had. Now it is time to sit and take a break!

Sitting down at the end of the hike!

Thank you to the folks at LetsBeWild for their photo challenge #33 – Hiking! Please feel free to leave me a comment on their site! You can get there by clicking here!

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a great Friday!

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Illegal Use of Your Blog Content

I am always curious how people find my blog and I take a look at the search terms in my statistics to see how it is that they find me. A couple of days ago, while looking at the search terms I Googled one particular phrase that led someone to my page. I just happened to look at the “images” and found one of my photos leading me to a website that was using one of my photos as their own. You might remember this photo from a post I did in March of 2012.

Toby #1

I was astounded when I saw this, and immediately looked for contact information on their site and graciously asked them to remove my photo as they did not have my express written permission to use my photos as is indicated on my blog page. They ignored my request.

So, I next turned to the WordPress Support Forum and the folks that responded to me were most helpful. What I want to share is the information passed on to me by helpful members of the WordPress community.

I needed to find out who was hosting this website so that I could contact them directly. I was directed to this website that can help you figure out who hosts the offending site: Who is Hosting This?

I was also directed to information that would help me with this issue. Here are a couple of links to articles that were very helpful! These articles are chockful of very useful information!

From the site “ManoloFood.com” I was directed to a really good article entitled: Whine Journalism and How to Bring the Splashback

From WordPress, more great information: Content Theft and What to Do

I have been contacted by the hosting website of the offender and had to send them a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) notice, which I have done. This is a letter to the web host that you sign under penalty of perjury. It indicates the site illegally using your content and you add in the link to where your content was stolen from. It asks for the hosting website to immediately remove or disable access to “the infringing material.”

Currently, the offending site does not have any photos showing on the page where my photo was illegally used. I am hoping for a quick resolution of this violation.

A huge thank you goes out to Raincoaster, Happiness Engineer MacManx, and TimeThief!

Hopefully my fellow bloggers and followers, this will not happen to you. And if it does, I hope that the information passed on to me and included in this post will help you!

Have a great Thursday and thanks for visiting!

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Do You Do the Flamingo?

No, that is not an error in the title of this blog! And, there is actually no dancing involved, OK, maybe one dance shot! This post will feature some amazing shots I was lucky to get of Flamingos at the San Diego Zoo! It was our first stop when we went with Russel of Russel Ray Photos! Again, thank you Russel and Jim for such a lovely day!

What was really cool about seeing these lovely, colorful birds, was that they were nesting or preparing their nests…So, without further ado, I hope that you love these photos of this lovely bird!

So, do you do the flamingo? Here is one doing that lovely dance!

Let’s Dance!

And, let’s sing!

A duet!

These lovely birds mostly breed in the Galapagos, Columbia and Venezuela, and some lesser known places. And, they breed at the San Diego Zoo too! Here are a couple of shots that we were lucky to witness of these birds nesting!

Nesting

More of the nesting birds

Periodically they take a break to snooze.

Resting bird

Or they converse with one another about the work being done.

Having a conversation

When they raise their heads, they have lovely profiles. Don’t you agree?

A lovely profile

And they often look at the visitors and I swear I could hear this one asking a question!

Are you looking at me?

It is their feathers that are so incredible what with all their color and patterns!

Beautiful feathers!

Flamingo feather patterns

They also stop often to do a bit of housecleaning!

House cleaning

Did you like this series of photos? I would love to hear from you!

Now go and have a great Wednesday, and, again, thank you for stopping by!

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Other Zoo Views – Part II

For this second series of photos…well, let’s see where the San Diego Zoo takes us, shall we?

Now, I need to let you know that I love cats! Small, big, and bigger! Check these lovelies out! We happened upon the leopard enclosure at dinner time…One of the big cats was vocal, which this photo shows of this big cat talking!

Are you listening to me?

And this next photo, feeling that all of the creatures on this earth should never be caged, can’t you hear what I heard as I looked at this beauty?

Wishing there were no bars…

Royalty exists at the zoo. Can you just picture the crown on this cutie pie?

Such a regal face!

And, Santa’s reindeer are there too!

Santa’s Reindeer

Right behind those lovely reindeer, comes this amazing creature! There was a baby, but even with a docent there, they could not clear the way for good photos! However, this is still a good shot! Check out the eyes…

Cute and Adorable!

You know that I love textures and patterns…Now you might have a fear of snakes, but the skin on this snake is pure beauty!

Beautiful skin!

Right behind the snakes was this lovely tarantula! If you have a fear of spiders…you are warned!

One heck of a huge spider!

Now for cute and cuddly looking…

The Wild Boar!

And for the more cuddly than this one…here is an “Awww” photo!

The Koala

One final shot was a lovely bird, who will be featured in another post, with glorious colors and a huge beak!

Pretty bird!

I hope that you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for a post on the White Pelican, who is not only regal but a beauty too!

Thanks for stopping by and see you later!

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Pretty Feet Contest Winner 2013!

I just know that you are dying to know who won this contest! Are you ready for the results?

In third place, with the most beautiful toenails…

The Elephant

In second place, with dainty feet for such a big girl…

The Lioness

And number one…

The Zebra!

Many thanks to all who voted for me!

Thanks for participating, and for stopping by today! Stay tuned for Part II of the San Diego Zoo!

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Other Zoo Views – Part I

I wanted to take today to share with you some other photos that I took at the San Diego Zoo. There was so much to see, and I took so many photos…where do I begin? Shall we walk through the zoo together?

Do you remember the movie “The Lion King?” Well, I was able to capture some photos of some of the cast. Let’s start with that cute Meerkat who was named Timon…

Timon

And the Warthog was named Pummba, remember?

Pumbaa!

Then there were the three hyenas. Laughing little fellows! Check this one out!

That was very funny!

OK, aside from “The Lion King” characters there were some pretty cool animals. One of the most striking things was one of the first sights: It was a dog who was best buddies with a cat. Not just any cat, but a Cheetah!

An unlikely friendship

Did you know that there really is a Cheshire Cat? No, really there is! While I did not catch it smiling I did capture its tail!

The Cheshire Cat

Some of the faces of the creatures that we saw were very expressive. See what you think.

Are you looking at me?

You smell funny!

What’s doing?

Others are a bit more laid back.

No chance of getting cold with all this fur!

Nap time!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I took a lot of photos! So, stay tuned for Part II!

Thanks for the visit today! I hope your day has been excellent!

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Escape to… A WordPress Photo Challenge!

Escape can mean many things, and this is the subject of this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge! One can escape from the tedium of every day life, or escape can be just a release, or to get away from danger. For this week’s challenge let’s escape to…

One of my favorite ways to escape is to go on a fishing trip! I sure wish I was on this boat!

Gone fishing!

Sometimes one needs a break from day to day life. What could be better than a friend calling and saying, “Hey, let’s go fly somewhere shall we?”

Getting away for a while

How would you like to have your own private island to escape to?

A place to escape to

Sometimes one just needs a change of scenery, so they escape the confines of one area and head out to another!

Heading out

When we look around us the earth shows us the release of pressure. This results in steam escaping the earth…

Steam escapes the earth

Pressure can cause other things to escape, like the juice of grapes going through a press.

Juices escapes the press

In my own backyard, escape can be getting away from danger.

Running from danger

Where do you like to escape to? Checking out some of the other posts on this topic, check these escapes out!

Through My Lens
Bob’s Wife
Hope the Happy Hugger
Rolbos
Progress by Accident

Or you can check out other posts by clicking here!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope that you enjoyed this post!

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Life’s a Beach! – A Wild Weekly Photo Challenge

Today we spend some time on the beach! Yes, those folks over at Let’s Be Wild have chosen this as this weeks subject! They are correct when they say that beaches come in all shapes and sizes and textures as you will see! Ready to go?

On the island of Hawai’i the island is mostly surrounded with black lava. Interspersed with the lava one does come across light colored sand that makes for an interesting contrast!

A white sand beach at Honaunau Bay on the Island of Hawai’i

On the southern coast we had to stop to see this amazing black sand beach! Just in case you did not know, the black sand sticks to your feet a bit more than just a regular beach! The colors in the water is dark due to the lava beds beneath the surface.

The Black Sand Beach on the Island of Hawai’i

At the northern end of the island we stopped at Spencer Beach. This beach is quite a contrast to the black sand beach with the waters gleaming in an array of greens and blues! The rocks in the foreground are one of the many fishing traps made by King Kamehameha’s people.

Spencer Beach

Here is a close up shot of the sand on the beach were we stayed in Kailua-Kona. If you look closely you will notice sea shells and broken pieces of coral!

What makes up the beach where we stayed

One of the local birds stopped to take a rest on the beach. With the rough sand this bird still looked comfortable!

A bird resting on the beach

Heading to Cabo San Lucas, the beach in this photo can only be reached by boat!

The beach at Cabo San Lucas

There are long stretches of beach there which this photo shows!

Another beach at Cabo

Down in Puerto Vallarta many streams run off from the mountains and find their way to the ocean. We came across many of these and here is a shot of one of the folks with me jumping the stream!

Jumping a stream on the beach at Puerta Vallarta

In my own backyard is South Lake Tahoe. In the area of Emerald Bay is the Vikings Holm which has a huge expanse of beach between the house and the water. Here is a winter shot of that beach covered in snow! There were some adventurous folks who made the treacherous trip down the mountain to get to this beach for a walk!

A snow covered beach

Be sure to check out some of the other entries! Please feel free to leave me a comment on their site by clicking here!

I hope you enjoyed spending some time on the beach with me! Now go out and have a lovely Thursday and thanks for taking the time to stop by!

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Flowers at the Zoo

At the San Diego Zoo, not only is there an amazing array of animals and trees, but flowers too! They filled every available corner of the zoo. I am unsure of the names of most of these, but I still wanted to share these anyway. Are you ready to check them out? Let’s go!

In the area where I photographed the Mandarin Duck, there was this tree that was just glorious with its shades of pink, yellow and orange.

In the pink!

Birds of Paradise were everywhere!

Bird of Paradise

This water lily was most striking!

Water lily

There were some pretty unusual flowers too! This next shot reminds me of a brush.

Brush like

We came across a tree that had orchid-like flowers.

Clusters of lavender and red

Here are flowers that remind me of fried eggs! I do know that this is a California native.

Fried eggs

Then we came upon an odd looking, hairy and sticky flower!

Odd and sticky too!

Spiky flowers were everywhere, and here are two different varieties.

Splash of orange

Spidery

This last photo is of a shrub that I have seen in Arizona. It has no leaves and is topped by an amazing red flower.

Vibrant red

I hope that you have enjoyed these photos! Have a wonderful Wednesday, and thank you for stopping by today!

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Barking at the Zoo!

As you might have figured out by now, I love the textures and patterns that can be found in tree bark. The San Diego Zoo has an unusual array of shrubs, trees and flowers. So for today, I thought that I would share with you some of the amazing bark that I captured while visiting the zoo! Shall we take a look?

Let’s start with the amazing bark on the Sycamore tree. I love the contrasts that can be found on this tree’s bark.

Sycamore

The Eucalyptus is best known for its peeling bark, each shred showing off the inner beauty found at its core!

Eucalyptus Bark

Another shot!

After visiting the elephants we came across this tree. I am not sure what the name of it is, but I can say that this tree was definitely looking at me! It kind of looks like an owl doesn’t it?

Eye see you!

I also came across a tree with a lovely rust colored bark. There was an interesting knob on this tree that caught my eye!

Knobby

Then I found this one that actually had spines!

Spiky bark

Tree barks are mostly shades of brown, gray and rusts. But I did find this one with a green colored bark!

Green

Stay tuned for some of the amazing flowers I discovered at the zoo! Now go out and have a great Monday and may the week be a good one for you! And, of course, thank you for stopping by!

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