Eagle Pictures

Here are some video stills from the bald eagle release Saturday at Lake Guntersville State Park.

Bald Eagles and Kids

Saturday, the kids and I headed out early to Lake Guntersville State Park to see a pair of bald eagles released back into the wild. The eagles had been found injured near Lake Guntersville and taken to the Raptor Center at Auburn where they were nursed back to health. Saturday, they were brought back here and released. They truly are magnificent birds, really huge.
We got to the park early and while riding around the top of the mountain came upon three deer grazing on the side of the road. They let us get close enough to get a couple of good pictures. The picture of the kids is at a waterfall just outside the park.
Since I was shooting the eagles on video for the TV station, I didn't get any good still pictures of them. If you would like to see pictures of the eagles, go to the website of my friend Brandon Pierce, http://www.piercephoto.net. He and John Chumley got some good close-ups.

I Hear A Train A'coming

Hi, I'm your faithful Sand Mountain Photog blogger, and here is the news from the mountain. For the second time in just about three weeks a train and a tractor trailer collide on highway 75 in Albertville. Luckily, no one was hurt in the wreck. The odd thing about this happening yesterday is that the city council had just met earlier in the week and discussed this crossing. According to the State of Alabama, this is only the 227th most dangerous crossing in the state so nothing will be done about it. Right now, there are no flashing lights, no cross arms that come down to block traffic on this busy highway. Will this latest accident change any minds? Or, as usual, will someone have to die before any changes are made? Let us hope that city leaders will act quickly before something really bad happens here.

Poop-Go-Round

Today was a day everyone should be glad there is no such thing as "smell-o-vision"! We took a tour of Albertville's sewage treatment plant as part of our coverage of the smell problem in Albertville. So we got to walk over and on top of the different buildings at the plant. The first picture is what they call the "clarifier". It's the big round tub where you see the bridge going around in circles. Well, we got to climb on and ride that thing around and around the huge tub of, well, waste. Yes, human waste. So that was a first for me, to ride around in circles over hundreds of thousands of gallons of poop. I'm just glad that Carson didn't decide to push me in. I'm not sure anyone would have volunteered to jump in and save me.

Reading Buddies

You know, sometimes it is hard to find time to do this blogging thing, or else there just isn't anything going on that is that interesting. So, this isn't that interesting, but here is a picture of your faithful photog blogger with a future photographer at Guntersville Elementary school. Maybe one day he can have my job and I'll be able to retire to the Old Bureau Photographer's Home.

Busy Weekend!!

Wow, what a busy weekend on Sand Mountain. It all started Saturday night when I got called out to an attempted robbery and stabbing in Collinsville at the Dollar General Store. The store clerk was stabbed in the stomach several times, but luckily she is doing well. Police caught the suspect in about 30 minutes. So after going to the bureau and feeding the video back to Huntsville, I go home. I'm there about half an hour when the pager goes off again. There has been a shooting in Geraldine. That's the top picture of the trailer where a 17 year old boy was shot at least twice with a shotgun. They airlifted him to Huntsville Hospital, and he is still alive the last time I checked. Neighbors heard the shots and saw someone run from the trailer and get into a green car and leave, but DeKalb County deputies have no idea who did the shooting at this time.
Then on Sunday, I get called because an Albertville police car is on fire. Get to the scene and find out it was a K9 unit. Officer was chasing a runner when he heard his car explode. Went running back to find his car totally engulfed in flames. He then ran up to the car and was able to get his dog, Kilo, out before he was seriously hurt. The car was a total wreck.
So this is what we call the "waves rolling in". It has been pretty quite around here for awhile, but the last month has seen at least 3 murders, 2 or 3 accidental shootings, lots of robberies, and the stabbing. So grab your surfboard and hold on tight. We are going for a ride!

Another Day, Another Meth Story

Another story about crystal meth today. Seems like we have done quite a few of them lately. Unfortunately, meth is a very serious problem here on Sand Mountain. We were talking to a sheriff's office investigator yesterday, and he said that probably 90% or more of the crimes they work are related to meth in some way or the other. Either robberies or burglaries where the people are trying to get money to buy meth, or fights or shootings where meth is to blame. And there is no easy answer to the meth problem. Laws limiting the amount of pseudofed have cut down on the number of labs, but the use of the drug is still up. What can we do??