Pic(k) of the Week: Feed the Ducks

Come feed the little birds,

Show them you care.

And you'll be glad if you do.

Their young ones are hungry

Their nests are so bare.

All it takes is tuppence from you.

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,

Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.

The birds in the water are a mother mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and her ducklings. On land, the larger, braver bird (feeding to the right) is a Moscovy duck (Cairina moschata), native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Small wild breeding populations have established themselves in the United States.

The photo is unposed. None of the participants knew they were being photographed.

Avondale Lake: City of Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA. 6 June 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Percussionist in the green

Percussionist Gaurav Malhotra performs during the Decatur Arts Festival. We don't see his face...but we can almost hear his all-important hands in action.

Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 4 May 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Live. Laugh. Love.

Just a happening-to-be-at-the-right-place-at-the-right-time moment.

The shot is unposed; I think this is a jewelry artist who had just finished using a mural as a product photo backdrop when she turned toward me. The pastel of her clothing seemed to complement the pastel of the mural; "Live. Laugh. Love" was the phrase on her hat. The image isn't askew; it's the city street that was on an incline!

Photo taken during the Decatur Arts Festival in the City of Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 4 May 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Creek chiaroscuro

Creek chiaroscuro.

Suburban wilding.

Look and listen.

Rapids on Burnt Fork Creek in Mason Mill Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 21 May 2024.


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Pic(k) of the Week: Stay in your lane, buddy!

An eastern box turtle on the trail (literally).

Three Creeks Trail in Ira B. Melton Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 21 May 2024.

Terrapene carolina carolina — commonly known as the the eastern box turtle— is native to the eastern United States. It is a subspecies within a group of hinge-shelled turtles normally called box turtles. While in the pond turtle family, Emydidae, and not a tortoise, the box turtle is largely terrestrial.

Eastern box turtles have a high, domelike carapace [upper body shell] which is normally brownish or black and accompanied by a yellowish or orangish radiating pattern of lines, spots, or blotches. Skin coloration, like that of the shell, is variable but is usually brown or black with some yellow, orange, red, or white spots or streaks. This coloration closely mimics that of the winter leaf of the tulip poplar tree.

Box turtles are slow crawlers, extremely long-lived, slow to mature, and have relatively few offspring per year. These characteristics, along with a propensity to get hit by cars and agricultural machinery, make all box turtle species particularly susceptible to anthropogenic, or human-induced, mortality. In 2011, citing 'a widespread persistent and ongoing gradual decline of Terrapene carolina that probably exceeds 32% over three generations,' the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded its conservation status from near threatened to vulnerable.

— Wikipedia.

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