Last January, I did a post about the website Photofunia.  Photofunia allows you to upload one of your photos, you then choose a stock background from their selection and then their software merges the two photos.  You can then download the results that you like.  It is really easy, there are no strings attached.  As of Monday that post of mine about Photofunia has become my most popular post.  If you find the animation too distracting, you can always hit the stop button on your browser and read the rest of this post in peace.

So I thought that I would revisit the subject.  I noticed this time that Photofunia now offers animated GIFs.  Last year I experimented with animated GIFs on wordpress.com and after several failures, I contacted tech support.  The tech said that there was something about their up-loader’s compression algorithm that broke the animation.  From the result above you can see that they have fixed that problem.

I biked the Park Tuesday morning.  I got fifteen miles.  Crusing the ponds, I flushed a Green Heron similar to the one in today’s header.  I saw a female Wood Duck with ducklings on the same pond as last Friday’s little melodrama, but today their were three ducklings, not just two.

On the ride, I photographed the Snowy Egret to the left.  It is one of a pair who had their breakfast hunt interrupted by the bicycling paparazzi.  The Park has populations of both Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets.  Great Egrets are larger, but unless they are in close proximity, it is hard to tell them apart.  It is easier to identify them by their bills and feet.  Great Egrets have yellow bills and black feet.  Snowy Egrets have black bills and yellow feet.

The Park’s water fowl seem to be extremely socialized to the Park’s human patrons.  As in the case of today’s egrets, they are always aware of people.  They are even more aware of people when the people are aware of them.  I am experimenting with techniques that at least in the bird’s eyes fain indifference.  I was pretty successful last Friday with the Green Heron on today’s header.  I got to within twenty feet of the bird.  I was less successful with the Snowy Egrets.  Maybe practice will make perfect.

In political news, former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt (R) was cited by the police for failure to yield.  After stopping at a stop sign, Blunt pulled his SUV into the intersection and was T-boned by a twenty-one year old man on a motor scooter.  The scooter rider did not have a stop sign and hence had the right of way.  Although the scooter looked totaled, the rider apparently escaped with just scrapes and bruises.  To add insult to injury, the rider is the son of a former Planned Parenthood official who is now a staff member of the state’s Democratic Party.  Sir, I have Brown and Crouppen waiting on line two.