Stones River Battlefield Revisited

An early morning of clear skies and crisp temperatures led me again to the "Battlefield" to see what wildlife I might encounter. If I was a hunter, I'd have a nice buck but he was too quick for the camera with too much underbrush for a camera to "shoot" through. I did manage to startle him into running and he ran right through the field next to the Visitor Center where the on-duty park ranger had a better "shot" with his camera and managed a nice picture of him bounding through the field. He posted the picture on the Stones River Battlefield's Facebook page. Hey that was supposed to be MY shot!
I did manage to get some pictures of some other things of nature, including some pictures of a much less timid doe. Hope you enjoy!

THE END!

Stones River Battlefield

I know the nice warm days of Autumn are soon to be gone but today I took full advantage of the gorgeous sunny day to grab my camera and head out for a hike. The sites, sounds and smells of the woods awakened my senses to the beauty all around. The wind whistled in the trees. The leaves swirled all around and there was the pungent aroma of dry leaves and the musky scent of the forest. I heard the scampering and twittering of squirrels and birds as they rummaged through the underbrush and on two occasions, there was a quick snort and the hoof beat of deer as they startled and  ran for cover deeper into the woods and away from the trail. They left me scrambling to ready my camera only to have them disappear completely from sight before I even had it powered on.  

The trees shown here show the result of some of the damage from a tornado that ripped through the battlefield a few years ago. There was a lot of damage to trees throughout the park as well as many homes on the path the tornado cut through the city of Murfreesboro.

Long Hunter State Park

Spent a nice afternoon with a photography club group for a picnic and photo shoot. My first thoughts while gazing around for something to photograph I thought there's not much to look at now with the peak of the changing leaves over. However, I realized with the changing seasons, the textures of the land and water become even more apparent.  The first thing to catch my eye was this cute duck who I've been told is the "resident" duck and is always around.