Saturday Shutters

More of you and less of me is usually a good thing and so we reach the portion of the show we call Saturday Mailbag.

© Michael Bradford 2014

Last year Mike and his son Buck moved to the town of Spavinaw, Oklahoma where he is fixing up a new barbecue restaurant. They both love to fish, Buck is a long time woodsman and fly fishing guide. Mike sends me this lovely sunset picture he took on his iphone while bass fishing on Lake Spavinaw.

I didn't know much about Spavinaw so I googled it. Birthplace of Mickey Mantle. Last population count was 437. Mike says the people are excited about the new restaurant and some locals even came over and serenaded him at Christmas. Very friendly people.

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© Ted Fleming 2014

Ted sends a bunch of great pictures from his home in Kauai. Can't afford to visit this year. Damn.

 A westside green flash.

© Ted Fleming 2014

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My New Mexico pal had a bear visit the night before last and eat the bird feeder. Again.

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After 15 plus years in Frogbutt, Roy pulled up stakes and moved back to Nederland, Colorado. Says it is starting to get cold at night already.

© Roy Cohen 2014

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My biologist friend "Black Bart" recently returned from a couple week salmon fly fishing trip on some extremely remote atoll on the Bering Sea in Alaska. Fat hungry fish entering fresh water for the first time, gobbling up flies like nobody's business, all day long...

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Going to the sun © Kip Peterson 2014

Kip recently returned from Montana, a state his wife happens to be from. They went back to a favorite spot, Lake McDonald in Glacier Park, where they used to love to sit and watch bald eagles. No raptors this year. Why? 

Well perhaps because some smart guy genious introduced lake trout, which killed the native kohkonee, cutthroat and a bunch of smaller species. And the lake trout is also an apex predator, eats all the smaller stuff, and as a result has the high mercury concentrations that ends up killing the birds. 

Funny but not funny how that all works...I can remember seeing 13 bald eagles on one tree in Kootenai one year when I was thumbing around.

Kip is a heck of a photographer and sends this pretty forest shot courtesy of his Leica M-9.

© Kip Peterson

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Kip sent another nice shot, this time with a Sigma DP2 Merrill like mine.

© Kip Peterson

I was talking to Bruce at breakfast about an old Maine Coon Cat he had that chased dogs out of the yard and would only drink from running water. Had dinner with R & D last night and they have two Maine Coons, which are probably directly related to the Norwegian Forest Cat.

Squeak also prefers running water. Biologist D says that there is probably a good scientific reason, running streams being aerated and less likely to harbor nasty parasites and infections than stagnant pools. A very strong genetic disposition in these cats.

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Ziggy Marley was fun, if you think fun is being packed with nine million other people on hot asphalt like sardines, that is. Music was great but I am officially too old.

Keep sending in those shots, folks!