Upload's working again. Yay.

Here are those berries in more natural color. It's just funny sometimes what a close-up flash does to flora shots.


And speaking of flora, and spotting interesting things - this was actually from a bit of hiking TQ & I did right here in Brooklyn. The fascinating thing - and I'm sorry I didn't think to take a picture to show it - was how incredibly well-camouflaged this pale spider was on the Queen Anne's Lace from a distance.

And speaking of urban wildlife - this was taken on the same day at Mill Basin. The beach was crisscrossed with raccoon tracks. I thought that was pretty neat.

I've seen one that somebody's dog had treed in Central Park once, but the week after I took this pawprint picture by Jamaica Bay, I was coming home from a late night at work (preparing to go for that 3-day paddle - I'm starting to think you can never actually take vacation, just shift the work from your "days off" to other days). I was walking a little ways behind a guy who also looked to be on his way home. Right on my block, I noticed a cat crossing the street - then I looked again at the blocky body, strange gait and bushy tail & realized it was no cat. The guy saw it about the same time & we both stopped dead in our tracks as the animal pottered on across the sidewalk in front of us & into my neighbors' back yard. "That was a raccoon, wasn't it?" I said. "Yeah. It was," said the guy, shaking his head in amazement.

Not so surprising seeing the prints in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

Much wilder seeing one live & in person half a block from my own apartment!