Skywatch Friday.....(double post day)

(Double post.....Be sure to see my nature post below)

Man-made "clouds" against the heaven-made clouds

This is basically steam released by the power plant after calcium has been added to the coal to remove the sulfur. It results in big piles of calcium sulphate ash like in the picture below. (My husband took me to see this, since he has been doing some engineering work there recently) I know that everyone won't find it beautiful, but it is "home grown" energy rather than foreign oil.

ADDITION: My husband has added this information in the comments: "You didn't mention that the calcium sulfate ash is now being recycled into filler material for such things as concrete and drywall, so other materials don't have to be mined for those purposes."

These stacks are near Mt. Vernon, IN along the Ohio River south of where I live.

The bottom 2 pictures are more smokestacks on the way home from Olney, IL last Saturday.....

.........near Princeton, IN along the Wabash River.
Looks pretty much the same, no matter where you see them!

Wetlands wonderland.....

Had a great visit to the wetlands today except for it being hot and sticky. I was sad to see that my duck group....the "Seven Sisters" ....has been reduced to only 6. One of the black and white ducks was missing. I've been watching these ducks for several months so they feel like old friends.

They were sitting in the shallow water preening and I liked the way this one looked with the reflection in the water.

A pretty little butterfly or moth or whatever on the yellow flowers......very scientific.

2 bees on the white flowers (I hope no one reads my blog to learn what different plants and creatures are.......I'm not much of an educator :-)

Very tiny yellow fungi of some sort.....it was too far away on a log in the water for me to get a close look. It stood out by it's color only.

A dragonfly that I hadn't seen there before.....finally identified it as the Common Whitetail female. Becky, at Woodynook recently posted one, so that helped!

I like getting a really close look at the wing mechanism and the colors when I can. This one landed on the path right in front of me and sat, so it was easy to take photos!

I loved this little Song Sparrow......who obviously had a nest nearby....and look to his lower right and there is a female dragonfly sitting there with him! I'm surprised he didn't eat it!

I liked this "two branch" position!

It was just a very cute bird and I liked all the pictures :-)

Head tilt......listening?? Watching the sky????

The digital close-up is not perfect, but I just love this pose!

Looking back........Summer 2007

This post is actually very depressing for me! I had lots of beautiful hummingbirds last year and this year I have had none......nada......nil......a few brief fly-bys.

Same feeder, same food, same spots in the trees. Nothing.

I didn't happen to take any pictures yesterday worth posting, so I will just show what I WISH I was seeing out there this year.

Surprise visitor......

Some of you see warblers all the time......but I don't!

What a nice suprise to be watching my "bird tree" and suddenly this lovely little Yellow Throated Warbler stopped by! He is so pretty.....I hope he comes again!

I only got a couple of pictures, but I was thrilled to get that.

My Hairy Woodpecker really wanted to pose for me.....

......so I let him pose all he wanted!

The red feathers on top of his head seemed a bit sparse.

My sunflowers have a steady stream of bees on them!

I haven't had a chickadee pose for quite a while and am only sorry that the light was getting dim and I had trouble making him stand out better even with a little adjusting. Look how tiny his claws look and then go back and look at the Hairy again!

I liked this shot just because it shows how very small the Downy is in comparison with the big ash tree he is on! I was lazing in the hammock and this is a different view then I normally have of this tree!

The downys and nuthatches and the squirrel really like this suet feeder and I can see that I need a new suet cake for it! Often there are 3-4 trying to get to it at once.

Sandy's horse drawing...

Sandy in her art blog has posted a lovely horse sketch from looking at my little horse in yesterday's post! Check it out! Good job, Sandy!
ANOTHER ATTEMPT LAST NIGHT