I went for a drive today ...

[Steve]

Yes, sorry to say, it was a drive, not a ride.

Still stuck here in Mississippi, my motorcycles are at home, nobody close enough that will let me get my fingernails dirty on their bike, so I pointed the van in a generally southeasterly direction and fired up the GPS, with the intention of following some green lines.

For those not familiar with Garmin's colors, primary roads (Interstate and US highways) are red, State highways and the major county roads are black, the rest of the roads are green. I have had widely-varying qualities of road, following those green lines, today there were some that actually had yellow lines down the middle, many that were too narrow for a yellow line and there were also several miles of gravel road (good thing I had a van, not a bike).

Along the way were some rolling hills.


And some tall trees.


I saw a swampy area that looked like it needed to be captured on 'film'.
Here are a couple of close-ups of some flowers.




You can see both of those flowers as I zoom out a bit.


Then I zoomed out a bit more and shot several pictures that I stitched together to show a 180-degree view of the swamp.


to be continued ...

[Steve]

A little bit later, I saw another swamp area that I thought looked like it also needed to be captured on 'film', so I backed up and parked in front of it. As I was stopping, some motion caught my eye, it was a large bird that was flying to the other end. No problem, this was just a good excuse to climb into the middle seat and exercise the telephoto on my camera, while using the van as a blind.

Here is the swamp.


Took a while to find the bird. Although it's not in this shot, here is the same shot that shows where he was.


OK, finally, the bird.


After sitting there for several minutes, the bird felt comfortable moving back, closer to the middle.
I was lucky enough to capture it in flight. (Not easy with a 48x zoom.)


Here is where he landed.


Moved one more time. Harder to photograph with backlighting.


Yeah, he was watching me, too.


He finally flew off once again. I waited another ten minutes or so, but did not see him return, so I left too.


Now, how many of you have ever seen a PINK fire truck? (<-- click the link)

Apparently it is a group of fire fighters that are dedicated to raising awareness and some funds for breast cancer awareness.
I happened to see the truck, so I caught up to it and snapped a couple of shots.




Not sure if you can see it in these shots, but all of the 'smudges' on the side of the truck are autographs and hand-written wishes, evidently from donors and/or survivors.

Stuff like this you just don't see from the freeways.

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[cowboyup3371]

Did you ever figure out what kind of bird that was? I'm thinking some kind of hawk as well but not sure.

[Charlie G]

Thanks Steve for the pictures.

cg

[Mrs. Steve]

I was home yesterday with the motorcycles but was unable ride because I was 'enjoying' a cold rainy day.
The sunshine, great roads and the weather warmer look much more enjoyable, even if you had to be in a van.

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[Billy Ricks]

I'm not sure where you are in Mississippi but if you are anywhere near Jackson there are a couple of nice parks to visit. LeFleur's Bluff is one and the other is Mississippi Petrified Forest. The petrified forest is near the college Jerry Rice attended.

http://mississippistateparks.reserveamerica.com/ms/Lefleurs_Bluff/Campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=MS&parkId=155844

http://www.mspetrifiedforest.com/index.php

[Steve]

I'm in Meridian, about an hour and a half east of Jackson, for the rest of this week. I might check them out next weekend on my way back to the desolate Delta area of Greenville. One possible route there (to Greenville) would take me, via freeway, through Jackson, but there is a nicer, shorter, more scenic route that I took last weekend, I might just do that on the way back, so I can see the other side of those trees.

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[willie]

Did you ever figure out what kind of bird that was? I'm thinking some kind of hawk as well but not sure.

FWIW The 1st thing that came to mind was Peregrine Falcon. But I could be way off. Regardless, GREAT shots!
Willie

[Steve]

FWIW The 1st thing that came to mind was Peregrine Falcon. But I could be way off. Regardless, GREAT shots!
Willie

The little bit I know about birds, the falcon is an aerial predator. That is, it attacks smaller birds by diving down on them from above. This bird was definitely not going very high, I never saw it above the level of the surrounding trees.

I was thinking more along the hawk line. The first that came to mind was "red-tailed", but I don't see those particular markings. Looking through some large bird identifying pictures, one possibility is a Northern Harrier Hawk or a Red Shouldered Hawk.

I have just been looking through allaboutbirds.org to get some ideas. A red-tailed hawk typically circles slowly, high over a field and attack in a slow, controlled dive with legs outstretched. That's not what this one was doing.

Not much was said about the red-shouldered hawk, other than it is common in the East, and is most-often found in woodlands, near water. That's where this one was.




The Nothern Harrier Hawk favors open grasslands and marshes (BINGO!!), and hunts by flying slowly, low above the ground, looking for rodents (Cha-CHING!!).


It would have been in its winter habitat, but it's not out of the question.


Any other educated guesses what it was?

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[Guest]

Steve , you need to beg , borrow or steal a bike and go for a ride .
You're taking pics of pink firetrucks , old mate .
Someone give him a fix or we might lose him .

Cheers , Simon .

[Steve]

So, ... when is the last time you saw a pink fire truck?




Apparently you have either made it home safely or are at least someplace where you have internet access.

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[Redman]

....
....
One possible route there (to Greenville) would take me, via freeway, through Jackson, but there is a nicer, shorter, more scenic route that I took last weekend, I might just do that on the way back, ...
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Steve,

Naches Trace Parkway?

If so, Stop and walk some of the trails that are the actuall original path, the "Trace". Hard to image that the trail is worn into the ground that deep just from people walking, but was lots of people for many years.

If you are not refereing to Naches Trace Parkway, look for it on a map. Is kinda intersting road and some intersting places to stop. And goes thru some cyprus swamps (which you seem to like).

Dave

[Steve]

I traveled a good portion of "The Trace", as it's known down here, a couple of months ago, last time I was here. I did a loop that covered the southern portion of it and stopped at every opportunity to see what the attraction was. Unfortunately, I only had my cell phone for a camera, but I got what I could. When I moved from Greenville to Meridian, the first part of last month (about 200 miles), I took a small detour to meet Raistian77 on the way. Took "The Trace" almost to its northern end, then headed up to Raistian's place. The next day I headed back down to Meridian. Total trip: 824 miles.

This time I brought parts with me to repair an older camera, so I have better picture-taking capability (evidenced by the pictures above), but I'm not sure that "The Trace" holds enough interest to do it in a van, by myself, again. Maybe when I have someone along to share it with, preferably on two wheels.

Oh, the Natchez Trace Parkway will actually cross my path at pretty much right angles. I would have to do another small detour to drive on it again.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

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[Guest]

So, ... when is the last time you saw a pink fire truck?




Apparently you have either made it home safely or are at least someplace where you have internet access.

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Arrived home on Sunday (here) at about 2.00pm .
Smashed .........
I don't know how Deb went to work the next day . Legend . But I already knew that . We're both in a sort of stunned mode , still , 2 days later .

We need to knock up one of those "beam me up Scotty" jobbies , old mate . 14 hours in a plane sucks . There'd probably be a quid in it to .

You're right . I've never seen a pink firetruck before . What sort of fires does it put out ?

Cheers , Simon .

[Steve]

You're right . I've never seen a pink firetruck before . What sort of fires does it put out ?

Did you click on the link?

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