Local wood carving show....

I really haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but October was a busy month full of things that had us running in many directions.  I've had out-of-town company, we've had health problems with Mike's parents requiring a lot of running around, a sick cat, and just life in general getting in the way of photography.  

I did manage to go to a local Wood Carver show while my sister was visiting.  

(I apologize for the clutter around these.....it was hard to single out the carving from the other stuff on the tables)

 The bird carvings were my favorites, of course!  Here is a selection of the ones I liked.  The owls were outstanding and this one won an award.

 An award winning duck.

 The details of each bird are amazing and a carefully created background is part of each carving.

 I believe the carver of these is Joel Slaton.  Beautiful work.

 This carver had a nice display of the steps in carving a bird.   Ken Alvey is the carver of these and many of the birds I liked best.

 The details of the feathers is really wonderful.

 I really liked this pair of owls.

There were plenty of things besides birds, and I may do another post with some of the other stuff.

Great show!

George Rogers Clark Memorial at Vincennes, Indiana.......

Saturday, I didn't have much birding opportunity, but we did spend a part of the day in Vincennes, Indiana promoting the Kairos prison ministry.  Since the site for the street fair where we were, was right next to the George Rogers Clark Memorial, I walked over to take some photos.  Of course with the government shut-down the memorial was closed, but the outside is rather beautiful and the location along the Wabash River is outstanding.

 A nice long walk way among trees to approach the monument.

 A closer look.....

 .....and some detail shots.

This monument is located on the site of Fort Sackville along the  Wabash River.  Clark and his men liberated the fort from the British during the Revolutionary War, and secured the area that eventually would be part of the Northwest Territory and make up the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

This was a sign that the Daughters of the American Revolution erected on the site long before the monument was built.

This is actually the front of the memorial:  Conquest of the West, as it says along the top.

Behind the site is a beautiful view of the river.....up river.....

.....down river.

Way beyond the arches of the bridge, I could see a Great Blue Heron.  Aren't zoom lens wonderful??

And right on the river front is a statue of Francis Vigo, who was an Italian-American who helped provide Clark and other Americans with information about the British. He also helped found Vincennes University.

A moody photo of the steeple of the Catholic church next door where the street fair was.

And just to get in another bird.....I took this Starling at a stop light a couple days earlier :-)

Egret at the wetlands....

We stopped by the wetlands yesterday and I was surprised to see this egret!  I've never seen one at the wetlands before.  Don't know if it was just passing through, or staying for awhile.  Will have to go back and check sometime soon.

I think it is the Great Egret....black legs and black feet.

 When we first spotted it, it was sitting on the top of a very small tree at the edge of the water right below the roadway.  Didn't seem to be bothered by the noise or by the bus load of kids that were visiting the wetlands for the day.

So beautiful and clean white.

 Later it was in the pond stalking little fish and other goodies.

 A strike...whatever it was catching was pretty small and I couldn't actually see it.

Swallowing something.

As we left the wooded area later, we saw two deer hiding in the trees.  I've only seen deer at the wetlands once before, so this was a day for the unusual.  Two Great Blue Heron went swooping by overhead, but didn't land where I could get any photos.  Not too many turtles out this day.  Only saw a couple butterflies in the meadow area.  A time of changes.