Halloween Season!

Halloween is less than a week away (the eve of October 31) and colorful decorations – pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, wicked witches, ghosts and goblins – adorn every conceivable nook and cranny, indoors and out.

This post started out innocently enough: an image of a field of pumpkins – a natural landscape and logical follow-up to my last post on autumn landscapes in Central New York.

But later, en route to town via a shortcut, I passed a farmer’s roadside Halloween stand. Of course, I did a U-turn, immersed myself in the scene, and forgot why I was on the road in the first place. Fun!

Happy Halloween!!!

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

Autumn Landscapes in Central New York

Aided by warm sunny weather and the absence of strong winds and precipitation, fall foliage colors were brilliant last week. I love this season and cherish the moments when everything comes together – colors, lighting, moisture, stillness – to support the many “flaming foliage” festivals and “leaf-peeping” activities that occur throughout the Northeast. This type of ecotourism can be simple, cheap and highly rewarding outdoor recreation.

This year’s theme came to me as I drove the back roads of Central New York, admiring the rural landscapes that still characterize much of the region. These landscapes are not held in the public trust as “forever wild”. They are private lands, lands that are vulnerable to development and changing rapidly. Natural scenes with high visual quality are, in fact, an endangered resource that is disappearing virtually overnight. Hence, my theme: preservation and advocacy via a photographic record.

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

October Trout Water

Central New York is blessed with an abundance of wetlands and surface waters – and accessible public lands where these liquid treasures can be fully appreciated throughout the year.

One such place is Chittenango Falls State Park, a quiet, rural park with a cold, freestone stream and waterfalls within its boundaries.

 

 

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

Autumn Landscape

Photo by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

Egret, Immersed in Autumn

I watched patiently as this solitary egret, perched on a distant stump in a shallow pond, groomed in the morning sun.

After the longest time – I know it preened every single feather on its body – it glided into the water to hunt.

 

 

Speculating on this image, it appears that both the egrets bill and meal became entangled in a piece of submerged debris.

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.