And the Moon

As I got home, I looked up at the sky and again, I like the way the moon looked.

Sadly, it was about that time when it looks black no matter what I do.  Especially if I don't want it to look like a gaseous blob.

Sunset Flights

I decided to head back to the airport on Wednesday night.  I was hoping to catch the Frontier Airlines plane.  I like their livery.  It is one of the more unique liveries out there.

 First up is an A321 coming in from Minneapolis.  I liked the colors in this picture, so I used it.  It was getting close to dark though.

 The more traditional angle for my picture.

 This is another A321 but this one was coming in from San Diego.

 This plane was listed as an MD-81 on FlightRadar21 but it did not have an origin.  After posting this on a Michigan Spotter's group, it turns out that it was the Detroit Tigers' plane returning from Kansas City.

 An Embrear 175 coming in from Indianapolis.

 This is one of the planes that I was wating for.  It is the Frontier Airlines plane that was flying in from Denver.  It is their orca tail.  I like the fact that they have different animals for each plane.

 A Boeing 717 returning from Dallas.

 The 757 was one of the other planes I was waiting for.  I like the colors of the sky for this one.

 I always like this angle.  This plane was coming from Seattle.

 It was followed by another 757 that was arriving from Los Angeles.

 This 737 was coming in from San Francisco.

 I decided to stick around a little longer to catch a pair of 717s.  First one was from New Orleans.

It was followed by one from St. Louis.

The Sunset Moon

I kind of liked the way the moon looked.

So I took a picture of it.  I liked the pattern of clouds around it.

A Night At the Airport

I decided to head over to the airport on Tuesday night.  I was hoping to catch the Frontier flight plus it was a pretty night.

 I never really noticed that you could see the ground reflected in the bottom of the planes before.  This is an A321 arriving from San Diego.

 An MD-90 arriving from Denver.

 A United Express E-175 arriving from Houston.

 I think this is an A319 arriving from Charlotte.

 A 737 arriving from Seattle.

 I wasn't terribly upset about missing the Frontier flight because there were 757 flights to be seen.

 I only caught one of them because I didn't think the next one would arrive before it turned too dark.

 This one was arriving from Seattle.

A Boeing 717 arriving from Dallas.

It was followed by another one arriving from O'Hare.

A Pair of Odd Visitors At Work

On Tuesday, I heard a little commotion outside my cubicle.  I looked up and I saw a pair of sandhill cranes standing outside.

 I think there have been sandhill cranes here before but I wasn't in the office at the time.  It was pretty cool to see.

 We are in a fairly rural area and we've seen turkeys and some people have seen deer.  One day, an eagle flew by.  Sadly, I didn't have the right settings on my camera that day, so I had a bunch of overexposed pictures.  I tried to get pictures without the parking lot in the background.

As you can see, that wasn't entirely possible.  The only problem is that they put a film over out windows, so I was shooting at a pretty low shutter speed.

 But the pictures aren't too bad, I guess.

 Then I put my bigger lens on my camera to get some closeup shots.  I think I like these a little better because it blurs out the parking lot.

 I think these are pretty neat looking birds and I can't believe there was a proposal to hunt them.

 I'm not sure if they are endangered or not but I can't understand wanting to hunt them.

And one more shot.  Like I said, not too bad.

Return to the Detroit Zoo

So we had our company picnic at the Detroit Zoo on Saturday.  It has been a while since I've been to the zoo.  While much of it hasn't changed, some if it has.

 About two years ago, the Zoo built a new Penguinarium.  It was designed to be closer to the penguin habitat.  It also had better ambient light, so it was easier to take pictures of the penguins.  Unfortunately, it was pretty overcast so I had too low of a shutter speed since I didn't bump up the film speed. At any rate, it is a pretty nice exhibit.  It is splint into two levels and to get to the lower level, you go through a video of a ship going to Antartica.  I think it was supposed to recreate the Shackleton exhibit.  I'll have to go back.  It was raining on Saturday and many of the animals were smarter than the people there.

 I did however, manage to catch a cardinal.  It seems like a cardinal is my white whale in the birding world.  Today I found out that we may have a nest by work.  I'll have to check it out.

 The Rackham Fountain.

 I think this was a peacock.

 I want to say this is an emu but I also want to say I am wrong.

 It was still a pretty cool looking bird.

 A pulled out shot of it.

 One of the eagles.  I like the way this shot came out.  It almost looks like a portrait.  They now have three eagles.

 The bears provided the most entertainment as they were the most active.  Sadly, the polar bear exhibit was in the process of being cleaned, so I couldn't see anything there.  

 It was pretty cool to see the bears though as I don't usually see them.

 And they were posing pretty well for me.

 A closeup shot.  I love my new lens.

 One more shot before moving on.

 A rhino.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get the right angle on it.

 One of the many snow monkeys they have.

 The tiger was also pretty smart.

A pelican.

Like I said, I'm going to have to go back to the zoo.  I kind of forget how much I miss going to it.  Plus, with a membership, I can park at the gate that is closer to the main zoo.