August! So many things happen in August for me. My daughter’s birthday is in August. My wedding anniversary is in August. School starts in August. Of course Canon makes new camera announcements in August. So, will there be a new Canon 40D that will be announced in August? Only time will tell, but there is enormous speculation on the forums, especially dpreview.com. I’m hoping that a 40D will be announced because I really need a new camera. I’ve outgrown the 20D, and I can’t afford any of the professional bodies in the 1D series. My 20D is back at Canon service again, because it was recently infested with ants. That’s right, ants. I use the camera at least every weekend if not more often, so it wasn’t sitting in some dark corner of the house. Anyway, theories for the infestation range from having taken too many macro shots of insects to taking way too many “sweet shots”. In reality, very small ants like sugar ants and moisture ants are attracted to electronics. They will colonize computers and other electronic devices, especially in very hot and humid places. I’ve read some accounts on line about ants being a problem in the tropics. I’m not sure exactly how the ants got into the camera itself, but when I took out my camera from my camera bag to get shots of a Snail Kite; literally thousands of ants started crawling out of it. Most of them were hiding out in the pop-up flash, but they were all over the place. The battery grip and the LCD all had ants crawling around them. I shook and blew off as many of them as possible. The camera still worked and took some great images that day, but there were dead ants still stuck inside the camera. To prevent any damage from the decomposition of the dead ants or their eggs, it’s off to Canon for a cleaning.Around the end of July and the beginning of August the farms around Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge begin planting for the fall. This is a great time to visit them as the wading birds and the Snail Kites are attracted to the area as the soil is prepared for planting. This past weekend we were able to observe Wood Storks, Egrets, Herons, Spoonbills, and Snail Kites at very close proximities just outside the gates of Loxahatchee. Inside the refuge itself there was little bird activity, but there was plenty of insect activity with butterflies and bees going about their business. Enjoy the August gallery.
