Supercool Lightning

Last night around 9:30pm I noticed a lone streak of lightning. I started watching my weather and saw a large cell forming a few miles outside of San Marcos, Texas. The dogs and I drove back out and got ready for some, hopefully, awesome lightning.

As you can see, God put on quite a light show for me to show you.

Here are a couple shots of what I got. I hope you enjoy. Feel freel to leave comments here as well.

Lightning

Here are several shot of tonight's lightning.

In one picture is me, the intrepid lightning photographer. I'm so orange as well as several fireground objects because of a street light bouncing on it.

My 2 Dogs and a Toad

I guess my dogs were hoping the toad would become a doggie Prince :)

It was a moist night after some rain. These shots were taken in total dark but used a flash.

I did not let my dogs pick the toad up. I didn't want the toad injurred but more worried about the toxins the toad excretes. Do not let your dogs eat a toad and be sure to wash your hands after handling a toad.

Ducks and Ducklings (not chicks)

I went to the Guadalupe River this afternoon where it crosses I-35 in New Braunfels. I found two different mom ducks with their broods. One brood had older and larger chicks then the other brood.

My Dog's Again

Sunflowers and a Bee

Moon, Big Dipper, Scorpius and Jupiter

Here's some pics taken with my Nikon dSLR

The moon is a Waxing Crescent, about 8 days old.

Scorpius and Jupiter

Jupiter is the bright star-like object in the left-side but midway height.

Big Dipper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dipper)

More Lightning

Lightning Storm

What a neat night it was. It was storming and I could see the Doppler showing the rain leaving the area. I wanted to scoot out to see the lighting as the storm moved away. I could see a lot of lightning illuminating the clouds. I couldn't see any bolts but the cloud were really illuminated.

A lot of the lightning was above me but I couldn't hear much thunder. I turned on the radio to a weak music AM station. Lightning causes interference on AM frequencies. I wanted a faint signal with music so I could have music with lightning blasts. It was like watching professional fireworks and experiencing the booms. The radio allowed me to experience the lightning in an awesome way. Frequently, a large blast of lightning would occur but the radio told the rest of the story. After the large lightning illuminated everything, smaller lightning would occur and I couldn't see it but I sure could hear it. It was an awesome night with lightning all around me.
After a bit, I saw some lightning bolts way in the distance. I hopped into my truck and started tracking the storm. I drove to a high-spot a few miles outside of the city of San Marcos. I may have been in the city limits – not sure. I was watching the storm light up the clouds and saw quite a few smaller cloud-to-cloud bolts.

I took pictures of the illuminated areas showing the outline of clouds. In these pictures, the sky is totally dark at about 2 to 4am. Any light in the clouds is from the lightning. Look and you'll see some bolts.

One picture looks like a hand with a ball of lightning within its palm. WOW! I first thought of the hand of God sending lightning out. I can only imagine what it was like with the Tower of Babel.

The picture taken of the long bolt going almost vertical from ground to cloud was taken while the camera is sitting on my truck dash. It was raining and my wipers were going but with a lengthy exposure the movement of wipers had no appreciable effect. Now I know build a dash-mount camera support.

When lightning is close and severe, I'd prefer to be within the truck with its grounding effect from any lightning strikes. I have a camera bracket for mounting onto a partly open side window but then rain comes in and on the camera. So, I need to assemble a small self-supporting tarp to mount to the truck-cab roof to keep rain off. Of course, many times its not raining for lightning pictures since the lightning is moving off with the storm. Sometimes the rain is still coming down though.

I hope you enjoy these. I will continue to get more as the storms come through and in my travels as well.

Pretty Butterfly (unidentified)

Closer Looks at a Squirrel

Here are several pictures of the same squirrel. Between eating and drinking, the squirrel decided it was time for a rest on the edge of a bathtub used as part of a water fountain.

Most people have seen squirrels but I thought these were cute. I hope you enjoy.

Woodhouse's Toad - I think

It rained earlier in the evening so I went looking around everywhere for toads. I figured toads would be eating somewhere.

I was talking to a friend when I found this big fella. It was flattening itself against the parking lot. When sitting normally it was some 4 inches tall and 4 inches or so from snout to the rear. I picked it up knowing that it would urinate on me and also that there are glands that secrete a pseudo-poisonous material. So I held it in such a way that it urinated and didn't get on me. It was funny because I was telling my friend what would happen as the toad did its thing.

WARNING

Toads can secrete a litquid from glands. This liquid can cause medical issues if it gets into your bloodstream. Be sure to wash hands thoroughly before rubbing eyes or other mucous glands. Please read the various warnings about handling toads. I don't want to scare you from handling toads but be aware.

I think this is a Woodhouse's Toad.