BACKYARD REFLECTING POND FOR BIRDS
It is now July 2021 and I just decided to create a reflection pond/ birdbath for the birds in the yard and use it for photographing the little song birds and whatever else may use it. I watched a few videos on YouTube and saw some great DIY ways to create and use a water feature for photography. What I decided to do at this point is order a pretty large potting tray with no holes to use as the pond.
Read MoreFIRST SNOW FOR HAMPTON ROADS IN 2021!
It has been about 3 years since Hampton Roads has received any measurable snow. Last big storm was the blizzard of 2018 where large portions of the area saw 8-12 inches fall. But on January 28th 2021, we would get a general 2-3 inches across the southside and into northeast North Carolina. It started in the early morning hours and continued to fall through daybreak until about 9am.
Read MoreROCKET LAUNCH FROM WALLOPS ISLAND
My wife and I were out tonight for dinner and as we were leaving I mentioned the rocket launch that was scrubbed last night, October 1, 2020. She reminded me that we hadn’t missed it tonight and that it was set to launch around 9:15pm. So we ran home and I grabbed my gear
Read MoreSHOOTING THE HEAVENS: COMET NEO-WISE
With 2020 in full swing and being a year of craziness, COVID-19 and lockdowns worldwide, we were waiting for something positive to happen in the early summer to change things a bit. The last several years we have had a few comets make their way through our solar system towards the sun with hope that they would make the swing around and make their way back out to space giving us a nighttime show to watch….but that just didn’t happen. The comets never survived the trip and burned up before coming out the other side.
Read MoreBACKYARD BIRDING WHILE ON LOCKDOWN / APRIL 2020
As lockdown swept across the planet the past few months, I continued to get out and shoot, working on my photography. I have never been much for backyard/ small song birds. I had always been drawn more towards the larger birds…birds of prey, such as eagles, osprey and larger wading birds like great blue herons and great egrets. But with the stay at home orders across the country, I spent more of my time setting up and shooting in the backyard.
Read MoreSOCIAL DISTANCING AND BACKYARD WILDLIFE
As of course we all know by now, nearly the entire world is on lockdown, unable to go many places other than work and the stores. I have continued to work everyday as my place of employment is in a semi-closure, but daily activities around the campuses continues. However, as spring has sprung, and the days have grown longer, the birds have begun to return to our feeders around the backyard and neighborhood.
Read MoreCHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA LIGHTNING 2005
For the first time this year, I was able to shoot some lightning photos with the Nikon D70. Having just purchased the camera a few weeks before. There were a few isolated storms in the area on Tuesday evening moving eastward in the early evening. From central Suffolk, a storm started to re-develop and began to look more impressive as it pushed towards the city of Chesapeake. I drove to central Chesapeake just north of the Chesapeake Airport, where is setup at a school on Cedar Road where the storm would pass just south of me
Read MoreAS AUTUMN ARRIVES
As we kicked off October, it was warmer than usual outside here along the east coast. However, evidence of fall was being seen as leaves have begun to change and fall from the trees. Late afternoon October 1st, I went to my backdoor to step outside and noticed at least a half dozen blue birds in the yard. Several on our feeders, and 2 on posts on our deck. We have been trying to lure them to the yard this year
Read MoreDAY AFTER DORIAN
Hurricane Dorian made his way along the southeast coast of the United States this past week making landfall along the Outer Banks of North Carolina over Cape Hatteras. Lots of damage to the Outer Banks but nothing devastating like the Bahamas thankfully. For my area here in Hampton Roads we received tropical storm force winds with some gusts nearing 70mph.
Read MoreHURRICANE DORIAN WEAKENS AS HE STALLS... ALL EYES ON THE MID-ATLANTIC FOR POSSIBLE LANDFALL?
Hurricane Dorian has weakened this morning and afternoon as he has slowed to a crawl or stalled over the Bahamas. Winds are now down to 145mph still making Dorian a very powerful category 4 hurricane. This afternoon officials along the South Carolina and North Carolina coastal areas are beginning mandatory evacuations. North Carolina has just said as of tomorrow at Noon, Dare County will begin those evacuations. The forecast calls for Dorian to possibly be a cat 2 hurricane as it approaches the Carolinas later this week. The NHC forecast track has shifted each advisory closer to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, keeping the eye just offshore but the core of the hurricane would certainly cross portions of the coast starting Thursday and Friday. Please follow the official forecasts at the National Hurricane Centers website.
Read MoreDORIAN A CATEGORY 5 THIS MORNING! WINDS OF 185MPH
As of this post at 1pm, the center of extremely powerful hurricane Dorian is beginning to move over the northwestern islands in the Bahamas. Grand Bahama island is up first as the western eyewall with those incredibly high sustained winds of 185mph move over the island. With that wind speed, Dorian is setting records. It is the strongest in terms of winds in the northern Bahamas on record.
Read MoreDORIAN NEARING CAT 5 INTENSITY! TRACK FORECAST PROBLEMATIC FOR ALL THE SOUTHEAST COAST!
As this will be the first public post I have shared for the new site, let me welcome you to my new site and blog. This will mainly be a photography blog, but during times of hurricanes, severe weather and snow storms, I will write my thoughts here.
Now as of the 11am advisory, the NHC has a shift in the track of hurricane Dorian to missing Florida to the east with the worst of the storm staying just offshore. The peninsula would still feel some pretty good effects of winds to hurricane force in gusts and heavy flooding rains. The winds would also have a prolonged effect onshore bringing in storm surge all up and down the Florida coastline. Watches for Florida could come at the 5pm update later today. Please heed the watches and warnings if you are in the path, and make the appropriate preparations. As far as the forecast track goes, it brings the hurricane to just offshore the Florida peninsula and then to just off the southeast coast of the Carolinas nearing Wilmington. This does not mean it will be making landfall in that area. The forecast is going to change several times as they NHC hone in on the exact track. And remember, a hurricane is not a point on a map. It’s a massive, large system with effects extending outward hundreds of miles, while the worst weather is centered around the eye or center of the storm, place away can see tornadoes, flooding rains and hurricane force gusts.
As far as the intensity of the hurricane right now.. We have a cat 4 hurricane with winds near the center at about 150mph with higher gusts. Thats a sustained wind, which is an average of the wind speed over a minute. so to get that 150mph, you can imaging the much higher gusts within that minute. Very dangerous and destructive to say the least. The appearance on satellite imagery is impressive. The eye has cleared out and we have the stadium effect which shows indeed a powerful hurricane. There really is not much in the path to help weaken Dorian either. Low wind shear, very warm waters and a general favorable environment. One closer to the coast, we would see frictional effects from land, possible upwelling of cooler water as it slows, and any other number of things that could help weaken it. As well as the hard to near impossible to predict ERC (eyewall replacement cycles).
So, for now, we continue to wait and see what happens through the weekend. I do not make forecasts here. I am not meteorologist and don’t pretend to be. I just update what the condones are and what the models seem to be showing and leave the forecasting to the professionals. I may give my thinking and thoughts from tie to time, but I will always refer you back to the experts at the NHC. I will update again later this evening. And please save the link to the site and the blog and pass it on!
HURRICANE DORIAN STARTING TO STRENGTHEN THIS MORNING, EYES FLORIDA PENINSULA
Hurricane Dorian this morning is still a cat 2 hurricane on the saffir-simpson scale. Winds as of the 11am advisory are still 110mph. However, there are signs that it may start a strengthening trend that should bring it to a strong and dangerous cat 4. The atmosphere around the hurricane are starting to become favorable with an upper level low to its west starting to pull away.
Read MoreTROPICS COMING TO LIFE, DORIAN NOW A HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC
Hurricane Dorian has been making his way westward through the day passing Puerto Rico to the east of the island after forecasts called days ago for it to pass to the west and or directly over the island. Condition appear favorable for slow intensification the next couple of days as it approach the Bahamas and the east coast of Florida. NHC forecast has it as a cat 3, major hurricane
Read MoreVirginia Storms and Sunset
On August 20, 2019 we had afternoon storms that fired in the area around Hampton Roads. I went out to “chase” the storms but wasn’t having much luck as I went deep into the city of Suffolk and southward to near the North Carolina border. I had pretty much started to give up for the day when another cell developed over Wakefield and was slowly pulling northeast. So I decided to head back up Rt. 13 to Rt. 58 where I jumped on I664 and headed to the northern portion of Suffolk to and area and neighborhood called Harbour View which is along the Nansemond River.
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