Don’t forget to send me your good wildlife or landscape photos. We have some nice landscapes today courtesy of reader Tom Hennessy from Virginia. Do enlarge them: some may be suitable for use as computer “wallpaper”. His notes:
In your latest post requesting wildlife, you also mentioned landscapes, so I thought that I would pass some along. These were taken over a couple of days in October in Shenandoah National Park, which is about 90 minutes from my home. I went to the park before dawn so I could get photos of the sunrise over the Shenandoah valley, then I hiked to a waterfall (Doyle’s River), and stayed around for the sunset along Skyline Drive. I especially like the shot of the moon and a planet just as dawn was beginning to break. I hope you enjoy these.
And if you have a mammal jones today, here are two cute bunnies (actually desert cottontails or Audubon’s cottontails, though they’re not in the desert at the moment). Species: Silvilagus audubonii; photographer: Stephen Barnard from Idaho.
This one looks a bit disgruntled.
From Wikipedia:
Unlike the squirrel and chipmunk that eat sitting up on their hind legs and can hold food with their front paws, while spinning it in circles to devour it quickly, the desert cottontail, like all cottontails, eats on all fours. It can only use its nose to move and adjust the position of the food that it places directly in front of its front paws on the ground. The cottontail rabbit will turn the food with its nose to find the cleanest part of the vegetation (free of sand and inedible parts) to begin its meal. The only time a cottontail uses its front paws to enable eating is when vegetation is above its head on a living plant. The cottontail will lift its paw to bend the branch to bring the food within reach.
Beautiful.
Wow. Gorgeous landscapes. I love the mountains in Virginia, but have not been to Shenandoah yet. On my to-do list!
And cute bunnies!
That’s actually the same rabbit in both photos. It lives right outside my house. Deets tries to catch it every day, but it’s wise to him.
Nice landscapes.
Our d*g has a similar relationship with a rabbit which stays, quite calmly, just a little beyond the electric fence to our yard.
My dog has a similar relationship to rabbits in my yard. It’s actually amusing to see her run one way in the dark and not notice the rabbit hop calmly under the evergreen tree.
My friend’s not-so-bright Basset hound used to pass right by the bunny several times while following its track with nose to the ground. Very linear-thinking pooch.
My dog is too preoccupied with barking at the dogs in a 20 mile radius to notice. Yesterday, she was outside angrily barking at the gunfire of hunters.
I hate when people fire off guns around our house because our d*gs go crazy too. barkbarkbark. So much for quiet country livin’!
Wunnerful wabbit fotos!
The landscapes remind me of a hiking trip during college years. We climbed the mountains in Smokey Mountain National Park and took in the vista. I’ll never forget it.
Great Smokies are adjacentto my home stomping grounds. Glad I have gotten in what hiking I have there. Have seen beautiful moonrises there, Halley’s comet. Most fortunate that the Park was established, holding off encroaching crass commercialism (including that resulting from its establishment).
Beautiful pictures. I did not know that bunnehs could manipulate things with their nose.
Da-a-amn, Tom, those are some gorgeous pics. No wonder John Denver wanted those country roads to take him home.
Beautiful beautiful Shenandoah!!
One of my favourite word triggers… always takes me back to John Denver…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN86d0CdgHQ
The landscape pictures are gorgeous – props for getting there in time to catch such beautiful views. The first one is just sublime.
Gorgeous is the word I came up with too! Let me add an absolutely stunning!
Bunnies are always nice to see with their built-in cute factor.
Gorgeous landscapes and a very cute bunneh!
Jerry, I’m glad you’ve started posting landscapes, especially shots as stunning as Tom’s.
Bunnehs in snow always make for splendid photos.
Stunning and beautiful shots!
Really nice photos.
The blend of light and shadow over those forested hills is beautiful.
It’s really good to see more landscape photos being shown as part of the readers’ wildlife series!
OUTSTANDING shots of Shenandoah. One of my two favorite places on the planet. I saw the pix before looking at where they were from, and thought Shenandoah immediately, but figured they probably weren’t.
Several yrs ago = last time I was up there, I went up to the lookout beside Big Meadows Lodge (always forget if it’s Mary’s Rock or Blackrock) for the sunset, an experience which was ruined by some Baptist youth group that was already up there $ whose leader kept repeating that they had to praise Jesus. For what, exactly, was unclear. I somehow managed not to start a scene, but was sorely tempted.
Great Shenandoah shots. I’ve been there numerous times, and recall a few great sunrises. I probably have some slides somewhere, it was before digital cameras.
What stunning landscapes, Tom! Love the way you’ve captured the full earth-shine disc on that waning moon!
RE the bunneh–never really noticed they had such long whiskers!