Wednesday Wings and Others

Sharing some photos taken today in our "backyard" today. The internet went down for a while, so I escaped outside:-) We have a lot of birds and little critters coming through, but some of them are so fast, they've been a real challenge to photograph. I thought hummingbirds were hard! The birds hadn't been coming to our newly placed feeder, so we started putting some seed on the ground. As you can imagine, everyone has been enjoying it, and we're enjoying watching the activity!

A very handsome male House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) who even sang for a bit.

Mrs. House Finch, who didn't mind my presence that much - the finches were the calmest visitors.

A Juniper Titmouse (Baeolophus griseus) before s/he flew down to the seed. These little birds are so cute, make such an assortment of noises, and move so darn fast! By the time my camera focuses, they're usually somewhere else.

This is the same Juniper Titmouse - can't believe I actually caught him/her so close!

Now it's a good thing these next two little critters are so darn cute. They've been eating my newly planted container plants, and once they've discovered they like something, nothing seems to deter them. I only use organic methods, and right now my garden smells like an Italian restaurant with all the powdered garlic and other spices. Whether or not I get any tomatoes will remain to be seen - I'll have to try to find some netting or something. Like I said, it's a good thing these guys are adorable and so entertaining to watch:-)

Uinta Chipmunk? (Neotamias umbrinus)

White-tailed Antelope Squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus)

Still have some more subjects I'm trying to get good photos of, so stay tuned!

Blue and Gold Wildflowers!

Continuing on with my flower addiction, here are some of my recent wildflower photos. We've had an amazing amount of rain this winter/spring, and I'm already seeing more of some species than in past years. I still have a gazillion photos to go through, but if you're a flower addict, too, I hope you enjoy these blue and gold beauties:-)

"Face the Sun", these sunflowers bloom year-round here. They get a bit raggedy looking in winter, but they keep going. They're always a joyful bright spot in the landscape:-)

"Blue Beauties", Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophilia menziesii, a native California wildflower. I love these little beauties, and have spotted more patches of them this year than in the past - yay!

"Poppy Perfect", poppies are the best flowers to catch the light going through them! They glow from within, and are so gorgeous:-)

"Sun Seeker", Common Fiddlenecks, Amsinckia menziesii (another Cali native), are just about the 1st wildflowers to start blooming here, and light up the hillsides.

"Simply Blue", another Baby Blue Eyes flower - such a soft, delicate beauty:-)

"Light Dancers", and more poppies in the light:-)

"I Wanna be a Cowboy"

Well, okay, not really;-) Last Saturday, though, we took a drive, and stumbled upon a big round-up/branding gathering on our favorite road. We stopped, I asked if I could take photos, and was told yes. So, parked, hopped out, and got to see our first-ever real-life round-up. It was so cool! The action took place in a fairly small pen with a tall fence around it, not the greatest for photos, but at least we got to see it and I got some fun shots.


Yes, it can be a bit harsh (which is why no branding photos here), but to me, it was so great to see this lifestyle still in existence - especially here in California. Plus, though they may eventually head to market, the calves up in the foothills still have much happier lives than the ones down here in the factory dairy farms (veal crates, anyone?). The foothill calves get to stay with their mothers until weaning age, and enjoy freedom and green grass for a while. They get to be cows.






It was really awesome to see all of the cowboys at work! I've seen reining and roping in the show ring, and have to say that the real thing makes you appreciate just how hard it is to rope and wrangle a calf. It was a great trip back into the past, and I hope you enjoy this short photo journey into being a cowboy for a day:-)

Hummingbirds!

Well, once again, it's been too long! So, I decided to remedy that by doing a post of some of my hummingbird pictures taken over the past few months. Despite one really cold snap, it seems like we still have more hanging around than normal for this time of year. Yesterday, I counted ten around the feeders - not nearly as many as a couple months ago, but they're still emptying the small feeder once a day. So glad to have them, and I love being able to share my photo addiction with you:-) All are Anna's Hummingbirds, the one species that we do have year-round here. Hope you enjoy!

"Attention!" Sometimes, the males' heads are almost magenta like this, other times they have a deeper maroon with gold highlights like the next pic depending on the light when they flash. It's always gorgeous to see:-)

"Shine!"

"Ta da!" Female Anna's - I always seem to share photos of the males, but the females are lovely, too, don't you think?

"Ascension"

"Hello Down There!"

"Bat Bird" - I've done this before, shouldn't work, but it does in a weird way. On camera flash at dusk, so ISO 400, and shutter speed was just 200. This is one of the few times flash eye isn't bad, lol!

"Proud!"

"Up Close and Personal" - bad background, but he's so close and detailed:-)

"Target Locked!" - My favorite hummingbird photo this year, just because it's a shot I've never gotten before. It usually winds up as a blur. This photo even made it to the front page of Etsy in a Treasury a while back:-)

"Bottoms Up!" - Bye for now!

Swallowing my Embarrassment

"Tippy Toeing!"

It’s been so long since I’ve done a blog post, that I’ve actually become embarrassed to post again – which has made it become even longer:-\ So, I’m swallowing my embarrassment, and sharing some recent photos. I thought it was only appropriate that my subject be Swallowtail Butterflies:-) I believe these are all Anise Swallowtails, but if not, please let me know – are the females much larger than the males? Anyways, I hope you enjoy these photos, and that you’ll stay tuned for more posts... I promise it won't be so long in between!

"Portrait of a Butterfly"

"Butterfly Light"

"Butterfly Beauty"

"Get a Grip!"

"Glider"

"Hello, Yellow!"

Several of these photos are available in my shop here: Butterfly photos. All of these photos were taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XT and 55-250mm f4/5.6 lens. I’ve decided that Shutter Priority works best for butterflies, because they’re so fast and erratic, darting in and out of shadows. My main speed is 1250 with ISO 400 – I haven’t played with ISO 800 yet, but I might see how it does noise-wise to see if I can go with a faster shutter speed. I thought hummingbirds were hard to capture, but butterflies have been even more challenging! Love them, though, and these are just a fraction of the photos that I now have.

One Butterfly...

And about 200 photos! I got caught up in the moment when I spotted this West Coast Lady butterfly (Vanessa arabella) visiting recently. It was just so awesome that she (or he) stayed around - she would fly off, then come back over because she really liked that Homestead Verbena. I kept following her and clicking away:-) I had to move very slowly, because the slighest movement sent her flying. Anyways, following are just of few of my favorite shots - which one do you like best? I've put the 1st in our shop, and I'm not sure if I'll add another. I love butterflies - here's hoping for more photo opps soon!

"Pretty Lady"

"Curious"

"Strike a Pose!"

"Digging in!"

"Sideways Swirl"

Back on Track!

I needed a mini-break from my blog, hence my absence these past few days. Even though I have lots of ideas, I was having brain-freeze when it actually came time to post something (must be all those Icees I drink;-). Anyways, I'm back on track, and sharing several recent photos. I hope you enjoy them, and if you know what the weird creature is on the last photo, please share - sometimes it's hard to know where to start searching for insect id's.

"Hide-n-seek" We startled a covey of quail as we were driving, and they went up into the trees. Very hard to see, but I was able to capture this gentleman:-)

"Emerging", beautiful wildflower, terrible name: Blue-dick.

"Blending In", this ground squirrel thought if he stayed real still, he was invisible;-)

"Sun Dance", California Poppies can have the best shadows!

"Alien", there were several of these along with other weird flying insects on this Mountain Whitethorn (Ceanothus cordulatus). What are they?

Horsey

This is the horse that's featured in my goofy post. We've seen him often, but not as close to the fence. He's a gorgeous chocolate color, but has obviously had a good roll before these photos. He has the most unique marking on his face. Normally, that much white over the eye would mean a glass (or blue) eye. He was super sweet, and I'm not sure if he or I enjoyed his face rub more:-)

He was so cooperative, keeping his ears up without spooking:-)

I have a fascination with horse eyes! This side was in the light (cloudy), with good reflection.

And this eye was on the dark side - I think it almost doesn't look like a horse eye with those markings! I kept playing with the crop, because it looked odd to me. Very cool, though, and I'm thinking there's some Paint in his breeding.