Unto Dust...

Often, I'll decide to keep a cool looking botanical specimen around once I've photographed it., especially if it is somewhat unique. After all, they are fun to re-photograph, and you never know if you will ever come across a better example. So, I'll seal it up and add it to the collection of dead things scattered around the studio. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that with this mushroom, as its stench was simply overpowering. So, after a few shots, I chucked in into the undergrowth from whence it came. 

Death becomes them

Our house has a plethora of windows and a very open floor plan, enjoyable for us, but a condition which can be pretty confusing and dangerous for birds. In fact, I've gotten used to hearing the periodic thud of a flying bird crashing into one of our windows. Usually, the victim recovers almost immediately and flies off to wherever it was going. Sometimes it takes them a few beats to recover, and once, a poor stunned bird took over an hour to regain consciousness and fly away. I've only ever seen one bird die from crashing into one of our windows.

The crash sites can be beautiful to photograph, as in the case of the image below, which I made yesterday.

The wind was blowing pretty forcefully, accounting for the motion blur, and transitory condition of the scene in front of me. Gone now.