Dick Peschke Photography

Kathy has been telling me – for what seems like years – that she has seen Black Squirrels on some of her trips to Lincoln, NE. Of course I was never with her during those sightings. She would take me – and my camera – to the locations where she had repeatedly – so she said – seen these elusive animals. Never a sighting. 

Well, that all changed Sunday. On our way home from church, I asked Kathy to navigate us to “the location” for Black Squirrels. When we got there – even though I was driving, she made me wear a blindfold because the location is so secret.  We got there and… no Black Squirrels. I was prompted to park for a few minutes to see if anyone would show. Sure enough, after a minute or so I heard Kathy say, “There’s one!”

He was busy burying nuts for the winter. I drove slowly up to the curb where he was hard at work and got several clicks before he ran up the tree and stretched out on a branch to survey his work.

Black Squirrels are a melanistic subgroup of the eastern grey squirrel and represent 1 out of 10,000 squirrels in North America. This makes them “rare.” Most Americans have never seen a Black Squirrel, as reported by sources on the internet.

The high winds the last several days have completely stripped the trees of their colorful leaves. The trees are bare now. While the leaves were not as colorful this year because of the severe drought in Nebraska, what color there was was beautiful – especially in the late afternoon sunlight.

This tree (a cottonwood) is in our yard between the house and the lake. It is the same tree that holds my squirrel feeder. Not sure where this squirrel was headed, but when I stepped out on the deck to take his picture, he froze in place. Since I am usually chasing him and his buddies from my bird feeders he tends to adjust his behavior when he sees me.

Drive for an hour in any part of Nebraska and you will likely see at least one Windmill. Most are installed in the middle of fields to pump water into tanks for grazing cattle. (Sidebar: Today there are a number of Wind Generators popping up in the state – maybe that is why we have so much wind… with all these wind “generators” generating wind. :grin:)

Most of the existing windmills are built from metal, but occasionally we drive by one built of wood. Again, they are usually in the middle of an open field. This picture is of a windmill that is nestled amongst a number of trees. I wonder which came first, the trees or the windmill.

One of our stops in Yellowstone was at the Lower Falls in Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. As we walked along the pathway to “Artists’ Point” I noticed this scene. I don’t know how long this tree has been here – quite a while I bet – but it was not about to give up and die. Its roots are now out in the open, but they reach back into the ground and it continues to grow. Nature is so fabulous and so interesting, if you pay attention.

Everyone was focused on the falls. I was focusing my camera in the opposite direction. I have read this advice before, but it rings true again and again. “Take time to turn around and look behind you.”

Equal time! My Grandson’s picture has already been posted. It would be terrible if Grandpa (a.k.a. “Papa Dick”) didn’t give equal time to my Granddaughter. So…

With a pile of rocks between me and Cora, a game of Hide-and-Seek was on. The objective was for her to hide so I could not get her picture and I was to try to get in a position to take her picture. She is very quick! I’m not! I was not about to climb on the rocks for an air assault, so I moved left-right trying to catch her when she popped her head out. I did get a few fuzzy, out-of-focus shots, but usually my clicks were too slow and she was gone.

Then, all-of-a-sudden, she bolted from behind the rocks for the car. This sure was fun and it was good practice for tracking & photographing moving animals/birds and getting them in focus! I need more practice.

Tobin? He stood on top of the rocks and tried to give Cora’s position away.