April, May & June 2012

Am I the only one who can't believe 2012 is almost over? I swear, it's true that the older you get, the faster time flies. Anyway, on to the next three months worth of photos! I love how everything comes to live during these months. It's photography overload time:-) However, I'm keeping my promise of editing only three photos for each month. Hope you enjoy them!

April

A bevy of birds! We discovered Avocets, Stilts, Ibis, Northern Shovelers and more at the wastewater treatment plant here. Who'd've thunk it? ;-)

Friendly face - I love pintos/paints!

Family of Canada Geese that we startled on a drive out where we never would've expected to see them, since there wasn't much water around. The parents rounded them up and out of there very quickly, so this is a definite snapshot because they were too cute to resist!

May

Gorgeous Iris pallida in a friend's garden.

One of my favorite butterflies of the year, because s/he posed so beautifully. This is the Variable Checkerspot that you can also see at the top here Checkerspot.

The cactus come alive in May, and are just so gorgeous! It can be hard to get photos, though, because there are little black beetles that go crazy for the pollen and can cover the flowers. Oh, and be very careful if you decide to try to shake beetles off, because then you get fine little cactus stickers in your fingers - speaking from ample (painful) experience.

June

One very big bee! It always amazes me how they can hold on to flowers:-) Possibly a Hunt's Bumblebee (Bombus huntii).

Another butterfly beauty, possibly a Sagebrush Checkerspot (Chlosyne acastus)...?

A little Black-throated Sparrow that had crashed into the window. We ran out to check on him, and, of course, I grabbed my camera, too. Fortunately, he was okay:-)

Now off to select photos for July, August and September - stay tuned...