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Paul Napier @wildlife-exposures.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Reposted by OMPhotos

Eye to Eye - White-tailed deer Walton Woods, Amherst, NY December 18, 2025 Also visit: www.instagram.com/wildlife.exposures #OM-1MarkII #OM-1 #photography #wildlifephotography #nature #photographersunited #animalphotography #portrait #naturephotography #winterwildlife #deer #white-tailed #buck

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OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Rough. That’s a lot of work. A friend of mine in Dallas said the forecast for Christmas is 75 degrees. I’d rather have snow! ❄️⛄️😄

OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Carolina Chickadee serving as lookout for his flock, which was foraging noisily in the low thicket beneath him. #birds 🪶 #birding #BirdPhotography #NaturePhotography #Chickadees

The Carolina Chickadee is a small bird with a big voice. It has a black cap and chin, a white cheek and a buffy tan breast. It is rarely silent for long. Chickadees live in tight winter flocks, and their voices hold those groups together as they move through thickets and woodland edges.

Recent research has shown that chickadee calls are far more complex than they first appear. The familiar “chick-a-dee” call is not a single alarm sound, but a flexible system made up of distinct note types arranged in patterns. Chickadees vary these patterns depending on context, especially when responding to predators. Calls with more “dee” notes tend to signal higher threat levels, and other chickadees—and even different bird species—respond accordingly.

Scientists have also found that chickadees are sensitive to the structure of their calls. When researchers play back calls that break the usual ordering of notes, chickadees respond differently, suggesting that the sequence itself carries meaning. This kind of structured communication has led biologists to describe chickadee calls as “language-like,” not because they form sentences, but because arrangement and repetition matter.

Chickadee calls are heard and interpreted by many other birds, making them a kind of public warning system in winter forests. Nuthatches, woodpeckers, and other species listen closely, using chickadee calls to assess danger and opportunity. In this way, chickadees help organize a whole winter community through sound.

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OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Thank you for the feedback and sorry about the late reply!

OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

They’re on vacation down here in the warm South.

OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Red-breasted Nuthatch on a low branch of a pine. There’s an irruption in Maryland this year. Several of these uncommon birds have stayed for the winter. #birds 🪶 #birding #BirdPhotography #NaturePhotography

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a small, restless bird. Its slate-blue back and warm rust-colored breast are set off by a bold white eyebrow and a sharp black eye line, giving it an alert, purposeful expression. It moves headfirst down trunks and along pine branches, probing bark crevices with quick, efficient motions, rarely staying still for long. In the conifer forests of the north, this is a familiar sight. Here in Maryland, it is uncommon.

This winter, a poor cone crop across much of the northern boreal forest has pushed many seed-dependent birds south in search of food. Spruce and fir produced fewer cones than usual, leaving species like Red-breasted Nuthatches with little choice but to wander. Rather than migrating in the traditional sense, they disperse irregularly, following the availability of seeds and suitable habitat. This year, that path has led them into Mid-Atlantic pine woods, where the pines produced a better crop.

What’s striking is how seamlessly these northern visitors have fit in. Red-breasted Nuthatches forage alongside the larger, resident White-breasted Nuthatches with little sign of conflict. Each species seems to occupy its own space, moving through the same trees without friction. It’s an easy coexistence, even though it’s unusual to see both species sharing winter woods here.

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Reposted by OMPhotos

Amy Gann @amygann.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Peek-a-boo. Another older photo with added alt text. A coyote paused in a field partially hidden in the tall grass. #coyote #peekaboo #canine #nature #wildlife #protectnature #photography #EastCoastKin

A coyote sits in the tall grass. It is barely visible as it paused in a field.

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Reposted by OMPhotos

Rob L @pops.pictures · 04/12/2025

A very small slate-gray bird with a white belly and tiny beak is perched on a bare tree branch in the late afternoon on a very cold, snowy autumn day. Towering above it is the blurred, blue bottom of the Anthony Wayne Bridge.

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OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Nandina berries, encrusted in crystalline ice from this weekend’s storm. Frederick County, MD. #StunDay #EastCoastKin #Macro #MacroPhotography

A cluster of deep, pomegranate-red heavenly bamboo berries glows against a backdrop of soft green shadow, each one crowned with glassy ice from the storm. The crystals catch the pale winter light like tiny prisms, while the berries’ smooth skins are bright, warm fire beneath the cold ice.

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OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Thanks! One of my favorite birds so I was happy to get the image.

OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Thanks! 🙏 Macro is new for me so I appreciate the feedback.

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OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Chartreuse witch hazel flower cups suspended in cold violet twilight. #Macro #MacroPhotography

They say in these mountains that treasure has a long memory, and once it’s buried it calls out to whoever’s meant to find it. That’s how the story of Jacob Hensley begins, though he never meant to chase gold or listen to dreams.

Years back, before Jacob was born, a mail coach was robbed on the ridge above Briar Hollow. The thief fled with two saddlebags of silver, a pocketful of rubies bound for a jeweler, and a velvet pouch of old rings. But he never made it out. He was shot dead by the coaching guard. The treasure vanished. Some said he buried it in haste. Others said the land swallowed it whole.

Jacob paid old tales no mind, until the night he dreamed of a wooden chest beneath his pasture, coins shining in the moonlight. The dream came twice more. At last he said, “If the land’s speakin’, I’d best listen.”

He took to dowsing. But couldn’t find a good pair of sticks. Nothing worked. Not oak or elm or birch.

One cold November evening, with the hills purple in dusk and frost thin on the ground, Jacob walked the pasture’s edge feeling foolish. Then he saw it, a witch hazel tree, quiet as a keeper of secrets. Its golden petals were gone, but the green flower cups caught the last light. And the tree leaned forward, its branches drawn low as though the earth tugged at them.

Jacob froze. They weren’t moving in the wind. They were pointing.

He stepped toward the tree. The closer he came, the lower the forks dipped. “All right,” he murmured. “Show me.” He dug through leaf litter, then cold soil, then sand. His spade struck timber, old and blackened.

It took an hour to raise the chest. When he pried it open, moonlight seemed to pour out: silver coins stacked like river stones, rubies glowing like embers, rings of gold and garnet, old Spanish dollars, and a watch engraved with a strange crest.

Jacob came to be known as a man who could find things. And he’d tell you: Only witch hazel knows the unseen paths. Only witch hazel bends toward what the earth keeps hidden.

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OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Thanks Scarlett! Glad you liked the alt!! 😊

OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Good morning Susan! ☕️ Happy to be back! My energy has returned after a pretty bad flu knocked me down for a week. 😕 Health is a blessing. Can’t wait to get back outside!

OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Ripe winter barberries, an offering — and thorns, a warning. #Macro #MacroPhotography

Emily Dickenson

I died for Beauty - but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining Room -

He questioned softly "Why I failed"?
"For Beauty", I replied -
"And I - for Truth - Themself are One -
We Brethren are", He said -

And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night —
We talked between the Rooms -
Until the Moss had reached our lips -
And covered up - Our names -

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OMPhotos @120minute.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

The last witch hazel bloom of the winter season, still vivid against the cobalt shadows of December. #MacroPhotography #Macro #Bloomscrolling #Flowers #NaturePhotography #EastCoastKin

May your voice call out, even when the meadow lies silent beneath frost and cobalt shadows.
May your words burst forth like golden witch hazel into the stillness, and find open ears.
May your phrases twist and curl like yellow tongues of flame against the dark, your wisdom sure, bringing peace and comfort to all who listen.
May your song rise when the world has gone quiet, an offering to those who shiver in the night.
May your melody stay with them, its beauty playing again and again in their memory.
May your dance be one with the moon and the stars, and the fire capture your core and your pulse, the old warmth banishing the cold darkness and filling your soul with power.
May your song be carried up with the smoke into the sky, and your voice rise like a spark from the embers.
And may your words lift into the pale winter light to join the silver moon and the sparking stars, shining down as a quiet radiance that settles over the meadows and turns the frost into a blessing.

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Absolutely! 👍🏻 Life is short.

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Wow! Very beautiful. 😍 Thanks for sharing this.

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What a beautiful place! ✨

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I can feel the icy mist! ❄️