Zooming – April 2024
/Flowers (Nixa and Springfield MO, Sherman TX), – birds (Nixa and Springfield MO) – solar eclipse (Poplar Bluff MO)….a lot of zoomed images this month. Enjoy the 2024 slide show!
Green Heron in the Neighborhood
/I took a walk around our neighborhood ponds on a pleasantly cool morning. I noticed the redbud tree that was damaged by a storm more than a month ago. One of the cut trunks was obviously not healthy and might have been why the tree was vulnerable to the wind. A small branch from another cut surface was already a ‘fall’ color rather than green…and became the subject of the most artsy image of the morning.
There were little fish in shallow (warmer) water. They probably have reduced the mosquito population!
Just after I photographed the fish, a green heron startled - flew up and away; fortunately, it did not go too far, and I had plenty of time to enjoy photographing the bird. Their coloring helps them blend in so well that they are often hard to spot so I take full advantage photographing the birds when I happen upon them. They change their shape…sometimes with a short neck…sometimes stretching out their neck (even though their neck is still thicker than many herons).
There was also a Great Blue Heron that I didn’t see until too late to photograph well – it is on the other side of the bridge in the image below.
There were turtles on the side of the pond at one point. The morning was still cool and they were soaking up the sun.
There were plants going to seed around the pond, the willow draping over the pathway, honeysuckle blooming, very young maple trees turning red, and grasses that were not totally green!
Overall – a pleasant walk….with the Green Heron as the highlight….the other bits and pieces providing the context.
Zooming – May 2023
/So many photography opportunities in May…flowers are blooming, birds are out and about, we traveled to Pensacola FL and played tourist close to home when my sister visited. The first pictures are from Pensacola…then from Texas (Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and Carrollton)…then close to home (Lake Springfield, Fantastic Caverns, and World of Wildlife). It was a busy month!
I use the zoom feature on my Canon Powershot SX70 HS for almost every picture. My goal is to compose the image in a way that I don’t need to modify it later. The strategy saves time and focuses my creative energy while I am in the field when I can almost always try another shot – get exactly what I want.
Favorite Photos – 2022
/I picked some favorite photos from the year for a slide show. They are all outdoors. Thematically there are birds and insects more often than lizards or turtles. Some are documentation type pictures and others are artsy. They were taken in four states: Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Texas. For some reason – the fluffed up Eastern Bluebird is my favorite. Enjoy the show!
Zooming – November 2022
/18 images in the slide show for November – less skewed toward botanical subjects than recent months. Outings to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Springfield Conservation Nature Center and Josey Ranch Lake increased my opportunity to photograph wildlife. It was good to see winter and migrating birds…more of those in coming months (probably).
Enjoy the November slide show!
Josey Ranch – October 2022
/The work to replace the decking on the boardwalks around the cattails end of the lake at Josey Ranch has been completed.
The damage to the concrete walkways from the drought and the maintenance trucks is still there and is evidently not going to be repaired anytime soon.
My visit toward the end of October was later in the morning, and I didn’t see as many birds as usual. There was one female grackle…not the larger crowd that used to be at there all during the year with raucous calls.
The Great Egret that I see almost every time was still there.
The Snowy Egret was new this time. It was on the other side of the lake in the grass at first then moved to the new decking on one of the boardwalks. The wind ruffled its feathers.
The swans were asleep on the bank.
There were a lot of white feathers in the water and in the grass. I took a series of pictures. Many of the feathers looked relatively fresh, and I wondered if they were from normal preening or a disaster that befell some white bird.
I saw some small birds on the water and walked closer to see them. The Ruddy Ducks were either passing through on migration or maybe they will stay for the winter!
These are diving ducks so it takes some effort to photograph them if they are feeding!
As I walked back toward my car, a turtle was poking its nose out of the water. The lake has been cleared of snags that the turtles could use for sitting on cool days, unfortunately.
Overall – the winter birds had not shown up yet at Josey Ranch by late October. I expect to see more in November.
Springfield Conservation Nature Center
/A few days after the first hard frosts of the year in Springfield MO, we took a short hike on the Springfield Conservation Nature Center trails. The morning was cool and sunny – a near perfect fall day to be outdoors. The forest was full of color. One surprise: there seemed to be more green leaves on the ground than usual; perhaps the trees were caught by the frost before they could change color.
We spotted a young turtle sunning on a log…warming up.
A larger turtle climbed up on the same log. It went back in the water rather than joining the smaller one.
There were ducks preening/snoozing on a log in the water. Their legs and webbed feet looked very bright in the morning sun.
I couldn’t resist some macro images of late flowers…a few insects…even at caterpillar!
Our last ‘find’ of the morning was in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave: a praying mantis making its way across the asphalt!
A morning well spent….
Zooming – October 2022
/17 images in the zoom slideshow for October 2022. They are from Carrollton TX, Detroit MI, London ON, and Nixa, MO…maybe more locations than any month since before the COVID-19 pandemic!
October is a transition month with leaves beginning to turn colors and fall…more to come of that into November. For now – enjoy some late blooming flowers and animals active on warmer days.
Our New Neighborhood – October 2022
/It’s our first fall in Nixa, Missouri. The trees around the ponds in our neighborhood are full of fall color although they may be more muted than some years because of the dry summer we had. Still – there are plenty of reds and yellows that have been added to the greens still left from summer.
I am glad that there are maples around that are as brilliant as the ones we left behind in Maryland. My favorite time is when the tree has a lot of different colors!
At the edges of the ponds, I noticed some honey suckle blooming…and seed pods.
In the water there were two different turtles. Ones was a red-eared slider.
But I’m not sure what the other one was. It was larger than the red-eared slider…had very different markings and shell. Too bad I didn’t get better pictures. It’s good to know that there are at least 2 kinds of turtles in our neighborhood!
Ocean City Inlet & Heron Park Field Trip
/The last of our Delmarva Birding field trips started at the Ocean City Inlet…where the high point was seeing an American Oystercatcher fly in and land on the rocks for a short walk.
The next stop was Heron Pond – an area in Berlin, MD that is in an industrial area and on the site of an old chicken processing plant. There are a series of ponds that clean water and provide habitat for water birds. The highway is nearby but there is a screen of vegetation…and there are birds on all the ponds. Some of the first birds we saw were cormorants.
Followed in close succession by ruddy ducks (the males have blue bills!) and northern shovelers.
Two northern shovelers were feeding together…swimming in a tight circle.
The last pond has structures on its surface to filter water and those structures provide a haven for turtles and birds. There were several Canada geese on nests and a little blue heron finding a snack!
And that was the finale for our 4 field trips with Delmarva Birding.
Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden
/I’d been to the Springfield (Missouri) Botanical Garden before…but not the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden part of it. It was a treat to see it during a free afternoon on our quick trip to Springfield to see our new house.
It was a cool, sunny spring day…not as Zen as the garden probably is on most days because the mowers were at work. The noise does not ‘show’ in the images, so I find myself enjoying the gardens even more via the photos! I was on a mission to photograph the lanterns/sculptures of the garden.
Next time I go – I will stroll. I’m planning to become a member of the place after we move and visit frequently.
Zooming – June 2020
/Only two pictures in the slide show below were taken away from my house. The other location was a short walk from my house to the neighborhood storm water retention pond.
There are quite a few birds as usual:
Starling
Cardinal
Carolina Wren
Blue Jay
Red-winged blackbird (fledgling)
House finch
Mourning dove
Chipping sparrow
Turkey vulture
It seems like there are more other animals that usual: cat, deer (with faun), turtle, and black squirrel.
Overall it’s a good mix – but I am missing the usual garden and butterfly pictures as I look at these and think about June the past few years (see June 2019 and June 2018). In previous years June was a hyper month at the beginning with two volunteer gigs (Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy and Howard County Conservancy’s hiking with school field trips) overlapping and helping my daughter move (last year). June 2020 has been a quieter month…but still enjoyable.
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
/Last weekend we made a trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We stopped at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge along the way and drove around the wild life loop.
Blackwater was the first place I saw a Bald Eagle in the wild (back in 1990) and now they are even more numerous in the refuge. This time the eagle we saw was in the far distance. I zoomed as much as I could and got an OK picture for identification.
There were also quite a few Great Egrets. The breeze was enough to ruffle their feathers.
But the big drama was between a turtle and juvenile Great Blue Heron. I saw the turtle first. It seemed to notice our car – which we were using as a blind. I already had the window rolled down.
Then I noticed a heron a little to the left of the turtle….and the heron started walking toward the turtle.
The heron stepped up behind the turtle and the turtle withdrew into the shell.
Then the heron stepped on the turtle and I was holding down the button to let my camera take pictures as fast as possible…doing the best I could to hold the camera steady. Did the heron mistake the turtle for a rock? The turtle must have wobbled and the heron extended its wings for balance. The turtle plopped into the water with a splash…and the heron perched on the snag that had previously held the turtle.
Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in August 2018 – Part II
/Last week we made our last trip to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens for this year. Today’s post features the insects and a turtle that we saw. There were a few monarch butterflies; there are so few these days that I always celebrate even if I just see one!
The insects my husband wanted to photograph were dragonflies. There were several species flying in the garden but the only ones that sat long enough to photograph were the blue dashers. They like to perch while they survey their surroundings. I photographed individuals on a dried flower (note how battered the wings look),
On signs,
A lotus pod (did something take a bite of the pod?),
And on other vegetation.
My favorite critter of the visit, was a Eastern Painted Turtle. It was getting some sun at the edge of a pond and looking very Zen. It was not still. When I first saw it, the front legs were tucked in. Then it stretched them out and turned itself toward me. I was on the other side of the pond an appreciating the zoom on my camera to capture the turtle without disturbing its morning.
Some last images of South Texas
/As I finished up the post yesterday about the San Antonio Botanical Garden – I realized there were a few more miscellaneous pictures I wanted to share from our South Texas adventure. Every day near sunset hundreds, maybe thousands of birds gathered on the roofs and electrical lines around our hotel in Harlingen. The last night I managed photograph some with some sunset color behind them. Many of them are grackles.
The next morning we headed to the National Butterfly Center first but decided it was too cold and wet for butterflies to be out and about when we got there. I photographed a male and female Boat-tailed grackle on the lawn and
The water lily in the little pool.
Then I noticed a red-eared slider in the water too. It is native in southern Texas…but invasive in Maryland. It’s included in the list of the world’s most invasive species!
We headed out for a state park in lieu of the Butterfly Center and then heading toward San Antonio. The one rest stop we made along the way had this forest mosaic.
As we drove into San Antonio, I managed a picture of the Tower of the Americas through the car window. It was built for the HemisFair in 1968 and I remember making the trip to the event with my Camp Fire Girls group; I was in the 8th grade.
One last bird picture: a cold White-winged Dove taken from our hotel window.
