Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Earthquake, Hurricane, and some yard critters

Today I experienced my third earthquake. The other 2 - one in PA, and one in IL - were very minor. Both felt like a train was passing by the house. Today's VA quake was a real one. I work about 45-50 miles from the epicenter of the 6.0 earthquake that hit VA today. The walls shook in the building for about 15 seconds (seemed like forever), stuff fell off of the top shelves, and I dove under the desk. People who were outside at the time said the building was swaying, and the cars in the lot were jumping. Not being a seasoned earthquake veteran, it was a little scary. But, now that it's over, it was actually pretty cool. (Since no one got hurt)

Now I see that Hurricane Irene is strengthening and is likely to hit NC on Sat. That will put it over my new house by late Sunday. YEAHH - 2 natural disasters in 6 days. Awesome.

So, after they closed our building for the day, I got home and sat outside with my wife to see a plethora of birds hitting the feeders. It was insane - hummingbirds, finches, cardinals, a titmouse, a nuthatch, and we saw a bald eagle and 2 ospreys overhead. I tried to get a hummingbird picture that was a actually identifiable as such - no easy task for me! So, here are a few pics from this afternoon.

What a beautiful day it turned out to be. Please click on teh pictures for larger images.


A juvenile 5 lined skink - apparently pretty well fed.




7 comments:

cofisher said...

Well those were pretty cool once I found the first hummingbird. Watch their behavior as the hurricane moves closer.

Anonymous said...

Glad to know your alright friend!

Great critter pics as well. I love your variety down there, minus the thought of the giant spiders... YIKES!!!

Team MiRketti said...

Awesome pics! Wish you the best when Irene comes to visit. Too many natural disasters for me, I'll have to stick with tornado's, wildfire's and floods here in Kansas.

Anonymous said...

Great pictures! The 1st one with the blue tail is cool...also the picture of the hummingbird.

Mark Kautz said...

Hey Joe. An earthquake and a hurricane in six days? Ya think someone put a bullseye on your back? I've been through both having lived in Florida and of course, California and a hurricane is just a big rainstorm. A good idea to keep your head down, though. Be safe.

Mark

THE RIVER DAMSEL said...

Just a little too much adventure out there! Come on out to Fort Collins Sept. 30th and join in the Rocky Mtn. Frenzy! We would love to have you...3 day tour of the best fall fishing... : )

EcoRover said...

Hope you're OK with the rain and storm surge etc. Let's see 'em spider pics!