Turtle Pond

PRINTED ON METAL AVAILABLE VIA FAA

PRINTED ON CANVAS

PRINTED ON WOOD

In my blog post this past Friday (July 27), I stated that I had made an announcement in an entry here on Blogger that "Chris Deatherage, the man who edited and formatted my Words In Our Beak* book series uploaded some of my photographs, including a few of my kaleidoscopic images (that are also within one of The Color Gallery pages on my web-site, which he also designed) to the web-site for Fine Art America (FAA). He has now recently uploaded more of my kaleidoscopic works to FAA..."

In today's entry I'd like to talk about one of the prints, Turtle Pond, which is one of my kaleidoscopic images that he recently uploaded to FAA. It can be seen in the photographs atop this entry, which should give you a sense of how my photo looks when it is rendered on metal, canvas and wood (respectively).

In Honor of World Turtle Day

I've just learned that today, May 23rd, is World Turtle Day. According to Wiki, this holiday has been sponsored yearly since 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue "to bring attention to, and increase knowedge of and respect for turtles and tortoises, and to encourage human action to help them survive and thrive."

The picture featured atop today's blog entry is of a turtle at a lake just north of Strawberry Fields in NYC's Central Park, and he/she seems to be a perfect spokes-turtle for the occasion, given his/her quizzical expression. Turtles are often found sunbathing in this lake as they do their people-watching. This one was not camera-shy, another quality making him/her a great candidate for a spokes-turle on World Turtle Day (or any occasion for that matter). Other turtles – as is the case with yours truly — do not enjoy having their picture taken.

Turtle Pond Trivia & Sighting Turtle Trees

This past Saturday, I published a post re the numerous turtles I had encountered while at Turtle Pond (which is in Central Park) on that day. The aforementioned entry includes an array of photos of this creature basking in the sun on one of the "walls" surrounding this body of water.

Monday was unseasonably warm and when I returned to this place, a large array of this creature type was there and one of them allowed me to take pictures of the inside of his/her shell; as evidenced in the images atop this entry.

Saturday night's alright for posting?

Today I got delayed  due to preparing for upcoming meetings so this entry will be short. First let me say, I have been posting on this blog for nearly nine years and I've never published an entry on a Saturday night! Since that is what I'm doing now, I hope Saturday night's alright for posting which makes me think of Elton John's song, Saturday Night, and in honor of the fact, I've posted a You Tube Video featuring it atop this entry.

In any event, earlier today while in Central Park, I came upon numerous (probably hundreds) of turtles in Turtle Pond.

An Encounter with Central Park Visitors

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

Kaitlin, the one limbed Canadian goose featured in the image atop today's post is a bird I met her last Saturday when I was in Central Park and discussed her particulars in last Sunday's blog entry. I saw her again yesterday when I was walking through the park on my way to the Eastside.

Her survival skills of coping with a missing limb are to be applauded and I'm thankful she is still around to enjoy the lawn near Turtle Pond which is the same place that I saw her last week.

Theatrics by Mother Nature

The photo atop this entry is a view of The Delacorte Theatre (located in Central Park) and is a copy of an image on one of the Public Theater's  web-pages. The Public Theatre is the company who oversees productions at the Delacorte. "Since 1962, over 5 million people have gathered inside the Delacorte to experience world class Shakespeare and other productions at no-cost. The mission of The Public and Free Shakespeare in the Park has remained constant."

Saturday (Yesterday) In The Park

"Another day in the park... Everyday is the Fourth of July," are lyric lines from the song "Saturday in the Park," by the rock band, Chicago. I have quoted the song in prior posts here on Blogger when I've published an entry re my spending a Saturday in the Park, which is something I did yesterday.

I went to Central Park to see if turtles were coming out of hibernation on the third day after the official onset of spring in our hemisphere. There were only a couple of turtles swimming (such as the one seen in the image posted above) in Turtle Pond, which means many of them are still hibernating under the water; for usually that pond is oversubscribed with this type of creature.

I recently met a new (to me) bird type: Hooded Mergansers! (Tuesday's Truths WK 102)

This past Sunday when I was looking in the waters of Turtle Pond, I observed a never before seen by me bird type, a pair of Hooded Mergansers. This was my sixteenth new encounter (in this Year of the Bird) with avian creatures whom I've never seen before.

According to a number of sources, including Wikipedia, where a page states, "The hooded merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) is a species of small duck. It is the only extant species in the genus Lophodytes. The genus name derives from the Greek language: lophos meaning 'crest', and dutes meaning diver... both sexes have crests that they can raise or lower, and the breeding plumage of the male is handsomely patterned and colored. The hooded merganser has a sawbill but is not classified as a typical merganser. Hooded mergansers are the second smallest species of merganser, with only the smew of Europe and Asia being smaller, and it also is the only merganser whose native habitat is restricted to North America."

I have a long lens on my camera, but not long enough to get great pictures of the male (black on head) + female (brown on head)! Still I did enjoy seeing them swimming in Turtle Pond and you can see them in the picture atop this post.

Wildlife and trees provide inspiration for my kaleidoscopic images. Tuesday's Truths WK 89

Welcome to the eighty-ninth segment of my Tuesday's Truths series where I will be reminding you how certain wildlife (such as the turtles featured in the mini video atop this entry and in the photos directly below),

provided the inspiration for my kaleidoscopic image, Turtle Pond.

Mixed Company and Other Central Park Stories (Throwback Thursday)

This past Tuesday I published an entry here on Blogger that featured a Mallard swimming with turtles in the area of Central Park known as Turtle Pond. I'd like to use this throwback Thursday to refer to that posting by adding this Mallard seemed to enjoy being in  mixed company of turtles and fish, as evidenced by the pictures atop this entry, which I took this past Saturday when I took a walk in the park.

Sunday's Sentiments: Catching a Dragonfly (and other beings) On Camera

ANOTHER DRAGONFLY IS FEATURED IN VOL 1

ANOTHER DRAGONFLY IS FEATURED IN VOL 1

ANOTHER DRAGONFLY IS FEATURED IN VOL 1

ANOTHER DRAGONFLY IS FEATURED IN VOL 1

"Yesterday a child came out to wonder Caught a dragonfly inside a jar..." are a couple of lines from Circle Game, a song by Joni Mitchell. These words are on my mind as I write this, because Friday, when I went out to wonder, specifically in Central Park, where I had gone for a morning walk with a mission of observing dragonflies through the long lens of my camera, I caught a dragonfly.

Yesterday wasn't a good one for a fish in CP!

As I was crossing Oak Bridge in Central Park in the early evening yesterday, it was especially peaceful because the guy who normally disrupts the sound of birds singing by playing show tunes on his loud instrument (while sitting on this bridge) was not there. I was blessed to spot a lone Great Egret (who can be seen in the image directly above) making his/her way in a seemingly methodical manner as he/she walked across the lake.

Friday Follow-Up: "Saturday in the Parks"

Hello dear reader, and welcome to my third and final follow-up to my 10-19-2019 blog entry, Saturday in the PARKS. As some of you may recall, in the aforementioned entry, I discussed the fact that that I would be spending part of my morning in Brooklyn's Prospect Park and then part of the afternoon in Manhattan's Central Park; and I promised to follow-up on October 25th 2019, with the hope that a few of my observations are inspiring to you.

However, as I said in this past Wednesday's blog entry, I've decided to split that content into a few (three) entries, rather then make one lengthy posting. The aforementioned posting discusses an aspect (an encounter with a bird whose ID determination caused a "controversy") of my October 19th walk in Central Park.

Then in yesterday's entry, I discussed my walk in Prospect Park and included a promise that I would talk about other aspects of my 10-19-2019 Central Park walk on Friday, October 25th 2019... so here I am to do just that, beginning with my sighting of a fast moving red dragonfly (seen in the picture atop this entry).

Turtles Go Bananas for Bananas

Last In a recent posthere on Blogger, I discussed some reasons that turtles pile up on top of each other as I've seen them do when I am in Central Park. A few days after I published that entry, while taking a walk in by the park's lake, I saw these creatures partaking in another activity which I have witnessed them doing on a few occasions: they were eating bananas, which they throughly seemed to enjoy as evidenced by the pictures atop this entry.

International Skeptics Day 2019 ETC

I am featuring this October 2018 image of a turtle in Central Park as it seems to me that the turtle featured in it (where he/she is lounging upon a rock alongside the lake in Central Park) may have been feeling a little skeptical, which would have been apropos for this day of January 13th, as this is one of two days that a holiday known as International Skeptics Day is celebrated. I guess there are so many creatures as well as humans are skeptical that it requires two separate holidays!

Hey! Hey! Hey! It's #WorldTurtleDay!

Today's post is dedicated to World Turtle Day, which is a holiday that has been celebrated on the twenty-third day of May since 2000. According to Wiki it is sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue and this event "is celebrated around the globe in a variety of ways, from dressing up as turtles or wearing green summer dresses, to saving turtles caught on highways, to research activities. Turtle Day lesson plans and craft projects encourage teaching about turtles in classrooms."

I've written about World Turtle Day in prior entries here on Blogger, including posts you may reference by clicking here. This year I am honoring the day with the photographs atop this entry featuring turtles who appears to be drumming their nails on a sidewalk in Central Park.

Their nails seemed unusually long to me, but I have learned that turtles (unlike humans) do not need to have regular man/pedis —  at least the ones in CP.

Pet turtles will require having their nails trimmed but in the wild, turtles and tortoises walk or exercise enough that their nails will naturally wear themselves down to a manageable length.

Seeing what looked like drumming, prompted me to research the activity of drumming one's nails and the web has a lot to say about this including a page called Changing Minds, where the following is proclaimed.

A Few Interesting Facts About Cormorants (Tuesday's Truths WK 146)

CORMORANTS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME 3

Nine days ago on September 29th 2019, I published an entry about a lone cormorant who was spending time atop a that's rock within Turtle Pond. The other day when I was in Central Park, I stopped by that same area only to find area he/she was still atop the rock (at least I think the creature was the same one, and nearby birders seemed to think so too). The bird had company this time, as you can see from the image atop this entry, a lone turtle joined him/her on the rock. I found myself intrigued by the cormorant's beak that has a sharp hook at the end (check it out in the image above).

Monday's Musings (8/13/2018)

My sister snd her son (James Miranda) were in NYC for a few days last week and he wanted to see The Plaza Hotel, so at my suggestion, we walked through a portion of Central Park and headed towards the Gapstow Bridge to give him a scenic route of getting there.

An image of this famous bridge (which was taken from a web-page) can be seen atop this entry. The text accompanying states the following:

"Curving gracefully over the neck of the Pond at 59th Street, Gapstow is one of the iconic bridges of Central Park. It is the second bridge on the site. The first, a much more elaborate wood and iron bridge, designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, deteriorated and was replaced in 1896. The bridge offers postcard views of the surrounding cityscape. Facing south, you can see the famed Plaza Hotel and distinctive New York skyscrapers rising from above the Park's trees. Look southward in the winter and you'll see Wollman Rink's twirling skaters; in the warmer months you'll see the colorful amusements of Victorian Gardens."

Friday Follow-Up

MORE INFO IS AVAILABLE ON FAA

This past May, Chris Deatherage, the man who edited and formatted my Words In Our Beak* book series uploaded some of my photographs, including a few of my kaleidoscopic images (that are also within one of The Color Gallery pages on my web-site, which he also designed) to the web-site for Fine Art America (FAA). He has now recently uploaded more of my kaleidoscopic works to FAA and those images can be seen in the screen-shot atop this entry. If you want to view them on FAA, please click here.

Large photographic prints of all of these images were featured in two different art exhibitions in NYC, one of those exhibitions earned me a radio interview with John Montone of 1010 WINS.

Reunited with Turtles

TURTLES ARE THE INSPIRATION FOR ONE OF MY KALEIDOSCOPIC PRINTS

TURTLES ARE THE INSPIRATION FOR ONE OF MY KALEIDOSCOPIC PRINTS

TURTLES ARE THE INSPIRATION FOR ONE OF MY KALEIDOSCOPIC PRINTS

The turtles seen in the pictures atop this entry were seen by yours truly when I ventured out into nearby Central Park this past Sunday for the first time since March (at the initial time Governor Cuomo shut down New York and advocated for people to shelter in place).

I have been heeding the governor's plea for people to shelter in place in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) ever since the eve of March 21st and did not go out (with the exception of walking a few blocks to the postoffice, walking a few blocks to a bank and walking a few blocks to check the status of a local laundromat, which is two blocks away).

However, I had to go out on May 11, 2020, to my orthopedist as I was past my need to follow up on the injury I sustained to my Greater tuberosity this past January and two days later, I began physical therapy at a facility in my hood.

Other than the aforementioned occasions, I've not been outdoors except to water my rooftop garden and to stand in it when participating in nightly #ClapBecauseWeCare sessions (tributes that honor first responders, healthcare professionals and essential workers who keep people safe during the this COVID pandemic).

Under normal circumstances, I spend time in Central Park on countless occasions enjoying the array of flora growing there as well as seeing the many varieties of dogs, and observing wildlife, including numerous bird types, fish and turtles.

The ones included here were spending time in the lake as well as in Turtle Pond and seemingly not concerned about social distancing.