Author | Lightnews

📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 18h

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Last summer, I had the opportunity to see some active wildfire control operations around Lake Chelan in Washington. Helicopters were using large buckets on cables to use water from the lake

#wildfire #helicopter #firefighting

A helicopter engaged in wildfire control operations

A helicopter engaged in wildfire control operations. In this picture, it's lowering a large bucket into a lake to pick up water

A helicopter engaged in wildfire control operations. In this picture, water from the nearby lake is being dropped from a bucket

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 19h

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Two insects visiting at the same time. (The second image is just a cropped version of the first since the little one is easy to miss in the full image)

#flowers #nature #pollinators #insects

A dandelion being visited by a couple different kinds of insects. One is much larger than the other

A cropped version of the other image to make it easier to spot both insects

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 1d

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He looks like he's giving a speech 🪶

#ducks #birds #wildlife #nature

Three ducks on the surface of a lake. Two are swimming calmly and the third is upright and flapping his wings. The lighting is less than ideal because they were in the shadow of a nearby tree

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 2d

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#ducks #birds #wildlife #nature

A duck swimming in a lake. Her reflection is partially visible in the water

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 2d

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A few bright colors on an otherwise dreary October day

#autumn #photography #landscape #trees #reflections

A view of trees across a lake. There's a variety of red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves mixed in with evergreens. The colors are reflected in part of the lake

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 8d

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#trees #maple #fall #autumn #nature

A picture of leaves in a tree. Most of the visible leaves are yellow with a little green still hanging around, but the main focus is on a cluster of reddish-orange leaves

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 11d

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Half Moon Lake in Eau Claire, WI 🪶

#wildlife #birds #nature #ducks

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 11d

Coon Fork Lake near Augusta, WI

A couple spots of fall colors were just starting to appear

#landscape #photography #nature

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 13d

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This was *supposed* to be for the birds

#squirrel #photography #wildlife #nature #squirrels #backyardphotography

A squirrel eating from a suet cake intended for the birds

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 14d

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Right underneath the bird feeder can be a good place to find a snack

I'd actually never seen a thirteen-lined ground squirrel in my area before this year, but I've seen them around my neighborhood several times over the past few months

#wildlife #squirrel #groundsquirrel #photography #nature

A thirteen-lined ground squirrel eating seeds the birds spilled from the feeder

Also a thirteen-lined ground squirrel snacking on birdseed

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 15d

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I was out testing a new lens a couple months ago and ran across a single duck wandering through a local park. It felt a bit odd, mostly because I never see them alone

This was just a few minutes after sunset

#birds #ducks #photography #nature #wildlife 🪶

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 17d

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Autumn is coming!

I took this last weekend near Elkhart Lake, WI

#photography #trees #maple #autumn #nature #fall

Looking up towards the sky. The closest tree is maple and it's partway through changing colors. There's another tree (birch? aspen?) behind that. Most of the other tree is out of focus, but part of the trunk is fairly sharp. There's blue sky visible in the background

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 17d

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#photography #bees #flowers #nature

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 26d

Coon Fork Lake near Augusta, WI just after sunset

#photography #nature #landscape

A picture looking across a lake just after sunset. The trees and sky are both reflected in the water so the top and bottom halves of the picture are nearly mirror images of each other

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 27d

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Just some bees visiting a few flowers

#bees #bumblebees #bloomscrolling #nature #photography #flowers

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 28d

These berries usually show up around late summer. Autumn is coming! 🫐 (and for someone who hates hot weather as much as I do, that's a good thing)

#photography #nature #berries #summer

Close up view of a branch covered with green leaves and small black and red berries. There are other branches and leaves out of focus on the background

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 29d

These weren't quite the type of flying things I was at the Minneapolis airport to see, but there were a surprising number of them around the parking lot 🪶
#birds #msp #photography

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · 29d

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#Moon #photography

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · Sep 26

Do you know what this is? (It looks generally like a chickadee to me, but if so, I don't think I've seen that particular species)

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · Sep 10

This road ends at the park where I was standing to take this picture. I was actually there for other reasons and didn't realize that the sunset would line up perfectly with the road until I saw it

#photography #sunset

A picture looking down the length of a road at sunset. There are a few clouds in the sky and the sun is lined up with the end of the road.

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · Sep 4

Enjoy! I had a vacation last summer in a remote spot with zero cell signal and no WiFi and it was one of the most relaxing weeks I've ever had

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · Aug 30

This robin stayed in the same area for a while but moved whenever I got close, so I was glad I had a 400mm lens with me. I think this was the only time I've seen one eat berries 🪶🫐

(Sigma f/5.6 400mm prime on a Canon SL3)

#photography #birds #robin #wildlife #naturephotography #canon #sigma

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · Aug 30

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Somehow I don't think *I* would want to go in that water... 🥶

This park is a popular spot for ducks. Sometimes there are dozens of them in what's actually a fairly small pond

#photography #nature #birds #ducks #winter #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography

Two ducks swimming in icy water surrounded by snow. They seem unaffected by the cold

Two ducks standing in icy water with actual ice just inches away. Somehow they don't seem to notice. They technically *could* be the same two from the other picture, but probably not (this one was taken a little over a month later)

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📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · Aug 30

Sadly, it's much less surprising when you consider the amount of time and effort that has gone into actively suppressing them

📸 @earlofphotos.bsky.social · Aug 30

Point 1:
It may not be practical for various reasons, but it seems like a good starting point is the actual local language(s) for each area rather than a nationwide standard

Points 2-3:
I'm glad you brought those up because they're *really* good points that probably would not have occurred to me

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