Birds, Bees, Flowers, Wildlife, and Mules

We saw this doe walk out of the woods and pretty soon two fawns came racing from the tall grasses. I don't often get to see a doe nursing her fawn, let alone nursing twins.

Fighting Tiny Titans

not a fantastic shot but you can see the hummers chest thumping each other in a dispute over the Bee Balm and the other flowers in our east garden.
 

It's July. It is hot, humid, muggy, and there is a smokey haze. The yard was still too wet from our rain the night before of 1 inch. So I took a chair out next to the garden used my long lens to observe the goings on in my garden.

A Fritillary Butterfly and a Bumble Bee were both enjoying my Blazing Stars.

A Silver Spotted Skipper [?] seemed to be fascinated with my Forget me nots.

The bees were crazy busy. Even extremely tiny ones. 

I caught sight of some house finches enjoying the feeder also.

I can enjoy photographing the flowers and all of the activity and still be near enough to the house to check on my 'patient'. 

Morning light on a pumpkin flower with a busy Bee Butt full of pollen.

I have several pumpkin plants that did free seeding in the mules lot. I'll have to fence them off later if I want pumpkins for this fall. I also have 3 or 4 plants growing in my flower beds. Why not? Less yard I have to mow!

The sun flowers are beginning to get ready to show off their blossoms and with that, the bees will pollinate and the Goldfinches will get busy at eating the seeds. I let them have plenty before I take and save the seeds for next year's planting.

I'm looking forward to having the mule gals' pasture brush hogged. Hopefully it will help keep down the noxious weeds and the burdock. If I can get a regular schedule for next year I will be a happy person and so will my gals.

Sundance looks over Siera's back.

Sunshine enjoys a weedy pasture, she can swipe irritating flies off her body.

They may look like the same red mules, but they aren't. They are half sisters with the same mom, different donkey dads. Sunshine is 28 and Sundance is 16. I can easily tell them apart by their body shape and their tails which are different shades.

I finally did get out into the woods on Sunday morning. I found some very interesting mushrooms.

More...later!

Quiet Riot at the Bee Balm Patch...

The last shot is something that used to be impossible without modern cameras.

Getting several shots in quick succession while keeping things in focus used to be nearly impossible in the film days.

Now there are cameras that 'track and focus' on whatever you choose to follow. It is quite amazing. I love 'shooting' butterflies and hummingbirds as they move from flower to flower.

I miss a lot of shots even with the fantastic modes in my camera. It may take me a few days worth of trying to get anything decent, but it is always worth the extra effort.

The Swallowtail shot consists of 3 shots blended together later in a program I use called ON1. It is so much simpler [and cheaper] than Photoshop.

Anyway. 

Enjoy my Quiet Riot at the Bee Balm Patch.

 PS~ I did get a visit from one of the Tree & Brush Folks! Yeeehawww!

Skies tomatoes butterflies

Sure, a few days ago, I said...the skies almost never have brilliant colors when we have dense fog.

And then...
we have this:

The sky was brilliant and the fog was incredible.

Below is a photo of our main road. In one township it has blacktop and in our township it is gravel. Imagine having this view on your morning commute?
That is the only thing I miss about working early morning shifts, was the drive through the valleys and ridges on gorgeous mornings like this.

Though the valley fog was sometimes pretty intense.

My sidekick, Charlie went with and we enjoyed staying until just before the sun broke through the clouds and then we headed back home.

This was one of those mornings I wished I'd planned ahead to go to the bluff at KVR and watch the sun come up and the valley fog glow below.

The rest of the day was rather boring. Chores and indoor chores.

However, we had BLT's last night and I was rather suprised by the really ugly purple tomatoes that I grew on a whim.

They were huge next to the Beefsteak Tomatoes. Rich thought the purple tomato was spoiled because it looked almost blackish.

The big purplish tomato was as large as my hand! It made for a perfect sandwich tomato.

As I write this and have my coffee this morning, I am watching another incredible sky show.

The fog is creeping up from the valley into our hollow.

The zinnias and the fading bee balm are still attracting insects like crazy. Here are two I saw yesterday in the flowers.

and...

I am new at trying to ID butterflies so if I am wrong let me know!

Flying Things

I have only seen about 3 Monarchs so far this year, but the Swallow Tail Butterflies have been very busy!

This patch of purple bee balm has been the HOT spot.

On these hot afternoons I sit in the shade on the north stoop and watch the activity.

In May I used good old compost dirt to fill in a dip in the yard. It took a few loads of BS dirt to make a nice spot.
I then planted sunflowers and spread packets of wildflower seeds and stomped it down. 
It has produced beautiful little flowers as well as the bachelor buttons and others that I can't identify.

Below is a 'magic' shot. I use ProCapture shooting [on a tripod] to catch the butterfly on the right landing. I merged two photos to get the sequence.

I got braver and thought I'd try it with the one Swallow Trail. The result is not perfect, however it was a fun challenge to do. Edited in ON1 Photo because I won't be a slave to Photoshop's rental.

The downside of shooting like that is getting a TON of photos to sort through which include a lot of misses. 

The ProCapture feature is really cool. When you press the shutter half way down, it starts to cycle when you hold the shutter down it saves the previous 10 shots [or whatever you program it to] and then up to 70 shots [I programed mine to a mere 5] of when you release the shutter.

So you have pre shots, and after shots to go through. As well as those taken while you held down the shutter.

However, it seems to be a great way to 'shoot' unexpected action.

The downside again, is having to go through those shots. However, I can see this as fantastic for trying to catch birds, butterflies, and equine running? I can also use the other two sequential modes for fast action. 
I'm still experimenting.

The butterflies and other insects move so fast, it is nearly impossible to time it with my slow finger on the shutter.

I used low sequential for these two shots. The Clearwing Hummingbird Moth was so exciting to see! Not only that, I got it with a bumble bee on the opposite side of the flower with both in midflight.

I spent over an hour by the back step watching these incredible insects fly about. 

I'm learning to be patient and observe things. This is something that was very hard for me to do.

However the intense heat and humidity actually helped me sit tight and watch from the shade.

And finally, my patience paid off with the spotting of a Monarch.

Hot Summer Afternoon, Butterflies and Bees

Hot and Humid.
Humid
Icky.
Give me winter!

Okay I don't want winter. I had yard work to do yesterday, I wanted to run the trimmer and do a bunch of trimming. But the humidity was at 100% and the air was a bit stifling.
So I passed on the trimming and push mowing.

I had town errands to do so I did those instead and then when I got back I decided to take some time to just sit on the couch in the A/C and read a book. I know what happens when I sit down to read a book.
I fall asleep.
Charlie helped with that.

He showed me the finer points of napping during the day.

Even with the heat of the day, some chores still have to get done. I went out and did the stock tanks, filling them with fresh water and checked on all the animals. They seemed fine and had found nice places under trees on the hill to relax and catch any slight breeze that came their way. They all looked sleepy with tails swishing at the pesky flies.

I checked the garden. The peas and the green beans needed picking. It wasn't going to happen in this heat. Perhaps early in the morning or late in the evening. But certainly not during the hottest part of the day.

I set up the fan on the porch and decided to finish up a project I'd started at the start of summer. I brought out my camera too. The butterflies and bees were busy with my porch flowers so I hoped to 'catch' a butterfly with the camera. They always bring a smile to my face when I look back on the photos in the dead of winter!

The butterflies must have known!

I think this is a swallowtail butterfly. For whatever reason, they really liked my marigolds. This one hovered around for a long time.

The sunflowers on the porch and east garden were humming with bees. I found that interesting as I figured bees only visited sweet smelling flowers. See? Little do I know!

This insect was on my Malva. I don't know what it is, but it was pretty!

Charlie was not impressed.

He laid in the sun until he was panting and then moved onto a rug on the porch and did his thing.

And I painted...on a skull.

The beans would wait one more day and then I'd just have to sort the overripe ones from the others. I think I have enough beans now to last through the winter and through most of next summer with quite a bit to spare.

I'll see if my neighbor would like any more and then I may just be done with them as the sweet corn is about to burst in on the scene. I will save seeds from the beans though. These plants this year really produced well.

The hummingbirds came to visit while I was daydreaming about cooler days.

There he/she is darting through the cosmos to swoop down on a Zinnia.

And I figured my lazy day was done.
I went in the house and tried to make beet pickles.
I'm not sure how they will come out.

I just did refrigerator pickles as I didn't want to process them in a boiling water bath with the A/C on.

Flutter by ... Butterfly

I went to pick the peppers and tomatoes for processing Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.
The forecasters in our area have called for heavy rain, flash flooding, a brief tornado, and generally some really crappy weather for later this week.

In fact they are predicting several rounds of thunderstorms which will produce flooding again.
Oh.

So I decided I best save what I can from the garden and get it put on the porch out of the weather.

However I didn't plan on seeing all of this beautiful insect activity.

So I ran back to the house and grabbed a camera.

The macro camera was a poor choice as I soon found that the Monarch's would startle if I got close to them. I pulled out my old zoom lens.

Everywhere I turned there was activity going on.

And then the flight of Monarch Butterflies, dozens of them everywhere! Swirling and dancing.

Not a great shot, but I was trying to follow it. This lens is a kit zoom and it doesn't focus as quickly as the pro lenses.

But, I did get some nice shots never the less.

After about 45 minutes the sky darkened and it threatened to rain. I watched as all the insects except the squash bugs seemed to disappear.

I was so delighted to have seen dozens of Monarchs.
I think it made my whole day.

Color me happy with flutter...byes..