During Peter Thum‘s keynote address at the 2008 Conference for Nonprofits, I snuck a few shots from under the North Charleston Performing Arts Center‘s giant red curtain.

This shot came from a set taken about 2 months ago, but I never posted it here. Not totally in focus, but still showing off some of the features that make mantises so sci-fi.

The boys and I were wandering around Daniel Island today and bumped into this extremely tame red-shouldered hawk. It looked as big as a red-tailed hawk on-site (around 50 cm), but when I saw the photos I knew otherwise. His long yellow legs were the real giveaway, as well as the rusty breast. It is always a pleasure to see a critter like this up close, especially with my kids…