mad seagull

I don't live in Monmouth County anymore, but my parents do, and I visit them, and sometimes there are nifty things around here to photograph. So I'm going to add a couple unofficial not-updates (since OTDP is very clearly "no longer updating"). :)

After my last post (August 17, 2008), I moved to Chicago for two years, and then back to north Jersey. I'm still there, and I've been running New Providence Daily Photo for a year and a half (welllll... a little over a year). It's sort of the bastard stepsister of Monmouth County Daily Photo.

There's nothing like NOT living on the shore to make you appreciate it!

Is OTDP still on your RSS feed? Do you still even have an RSS feed? If so, how are you doing?

(FYI, I will probably not continue updates for this clone of the blog; for Jersey shore photo updates, check Monmouth County Daily Photo [on Wordpress] or New Jersey in Photos [on Tumblr].)

pidgins

Pigeons in the Asbury Park Casino.

Rather than thinking something normal, like "Huh, we usually see more mourning doves than pigeons around here, 'cos these parts aren't too urban," I keep thinking something more along the lines of "Bet those pigeons don't speak Pidgin."

geese

Why did the geese cross the road?



...well, wouldn't you want to hang out with your friends?

beach finds 2

It's a little long to have come from an Eastern Goldfinch; I'm not quite sure what sort of bird this feather comes from.

the fair! (3)

Remember Bwana Jim? This is one of his armadillos.

They're apparently pretty unfriendly critters, but they are SO CUTE.

mourning dove

We've been having a bit of a drought around here. It's not a worrisome drought yet, since we got an awful lot of rain this past winter to fill our reservoirs, but the plants have been generally unhappy. (Our entire lawn has turned a lovely shade of crunchy brown.)

This morning, however, it rained! The plants were ecstatic, and the mourning doves seemed to be enjoying themselves, too. (This afternoon, though, Monmouth County is back to its original state of hot, dry misery.) Speaking of mourning doves, by the way, I am NO NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER. These photos were all taken through a dirty rain-spattered window.

Don't mourning doves usually travel in pairs, you ask?

Yup. They sure do!

Here are a couple more photos, 'cos even though I try to bring an editing eye to this stuff, sometimes I really can't narrow it down to less than four. (There were originally about 24 shots. Give me some credit for trying!)

dinosaur 2!

Dinosaurs roam in Sea Bright--and they deck themselves out in Christmas lights.

(This is the best front-yard ornament EVER.)

shed

Bug molts lying around don't gross me out as much as they could, mostly because I've had hermit crabs for about 15 years, and they molt 1-2 times per year, so I'm used to seeing hairy disembodied exoskeletons lying around. (but not for long, 'cos the crabs eat the exoskeletons shortly after molting to reabsorb the chitin.)

...I mean, don't get me wrong, even after 15 years, I find that picking up a disembodied hairy leg is still kind of gross... but it's probably significantly less gross than it would be if I HADN'T been exposed to it for 15 years.

saddle up!

Rick's Saddle Shop in Englishtown. I always used to be hugely amused by the Purina logo when I passed by this place... but then I discovered that Purina makes more than dog & cat food. Whups.

fireflies!

You may or may not be able to see, but this nightscape is full of FIREFLIES! (Or whatever you call them. I grew up calling 'em "lightning bugs" but slipped into calling them "fireflies" at some point. Either term is acceptable around here.)

Some of those fireflies might be the same ones, as this photo is actually a composite (of like 10 of the FOUR THOUSAND PHOTOS--okay, more like 40-- that I took. I've been trying to photograph these guys for a few days now, but my camera's longest shutter speed is 4 seconds [and highest decent ISO is 200], which... just wasn't enough. Google confirmed that this is a supremely tricky task that's virtually impossible with a shutter less than 60 seconds. So I gave up and cheated).

TURTLE CROSSING

Why did the turtle cross the road?

To get to the Shell station! AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

ANTS

Ah, summer is in the air! The birds are singing, the rainshowers are unpredictable, and... the ants are swarming.

birds of state

I think I'm still the only official City Daily Photoblog based in New Jersey, so I suppose it's necessary to include a little education about the entire state once in a while. :)

The Eastern Goldfinch has been the official state bird of New Jersey since 1935. Nobody knows why.

fishie!

Another Monmouth County weathervane, but this one is a fishie on top of Matawan Presbyterian Church.

Okay, fine, so it's a SYMBOLIC fish, but fish is fish.

festive geese

Okay, so I forgot that yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. It wasn't until I went into the student center, bought some coffee, and read a sign saying "Just because it's St. Patty's Day doesn't mean you should drink and drive" (or something to that effect) that it even occurred to me. Too many holidays! There's Daylight Savings, then Pi Day, then Palm Sunday, then St. Patrick's Day, then St. Joseph's Day, then Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and Easter--all in the span of two measly weeks!

ANYWAY.

These are some stone geese right by a street sign.



The geese were wearing Christmas attire up until this week. But now, as you can see, they have gotten with the times.

loosey goosey

I may not have mentioned Canada geese before on this blog, but... there are a LOT of them around here, especially wherever you find open fields. (I presume this is not unique to this area, though.) I personally have often seen them in middle school/high school fields, cemeteries, and on the way to Monmouth U. (Traffic is often paused for a moment on one of the back roads [near a horse farm] as we all wait for the damn geese to cross the road.)

Three things I can tell you about Canada geese:
1. They are CANADA geese, not CANADIAN geese.
2. They have no fear of cars.
3. They poop a lot.

(This photo was taken in Thompson Park.)

finches

The finches that frequent our feeders flew away, fearing my footsteps.

Thankfully, they didn't fly too far, and I have a 10x optical zoom on my camera.

Unfortunately, I have no lens hood, and things (like snow) get on my lens very easily.


P.S. The goldfinch, as seen in the middle of the photo, is the New Jersey state bird. (Officially, anyway. Many people contest that our state bird is the mosquito.)

P.P.S. Look what I made! :)

feeshie!

Feeeeeeeeshie feesh!

This particular feesh is a Grey or Mangrove Snapper, according to a sign on the wall above its aquarium.

Where did I find this funny fellow? There is a saltwater aquarium in the middle of the biology hallway of Edison Science Hall (of Monmouth University). From what I've been told by passing professors who like to educate me when they see me ogling all the crabs and feeshies, most of the critters in this aquarium come from the professors' own expeditions.

(Also according to the sign above the aquarium:
FAMILY: Lutjanidae
RANGE: Massachusetts, USA to Brazil; Bermuda; Caribbean Sea
HABITAT: estuaries, rocky habitat, coral reefs, mangroves, enters fresh water
DIET: shrimp, crabs, squid, small fish
SIZE: to 89 cm TL, 20 kg)

riddle me this

Today was such a nice day! 'Course, I might be in a minority of people in NJ who call an overcast 55-degree day "nice," but regardless, I felt like taking a stroll around Monmouth U's campus.

This is the head of one of the two (fairly small) sphinxes guarding Wilson Hall.


(P.S. Did you know that an acceptable plural for "sphinx," other than "sphinxes," is "sphinges?")

aorta

For those who are squeamish, LOOK AWAY! Click here to get away from the grossness.



I dissected a cow heart today.

This photo was taken looking down the aorta.

'slike open-heart surgery, 'cos it's a heart and it's open! Except not.