A nature photographer’s images and stories of birds, butterflies, and other creatures from her backyard near Orlando, FL
August 20, 2011 - I was out on the porch with the cats when we heard the unmistakable sound of a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. These tiny birds are technically year-round residents of Central Florida, but in the summertime, they tend to be scarce. I’ve been told that they go to the very tops of pine trees to make their nests […]
August 18, 2011 - This tiny snake surprised us on our walk the other day. He couldn’t have been more than six inches long. I snapped a quick picture and moved on. I don’t mind snakes, but I don’t really like them, either!
August 17, 2011 - It was cloudy this evening, but this monarch butterfly didn’t care. He was nectaring on my milkweed, then he (she?) also seemed to be laying eggs. I actually haven’t seen many caterpillars in the yard this summer. It’s been a slow summer for butterflies. Maybe I’ll start to see more caterpillars soon.
August 16, 2011 - The sunsets in the last couple nights have been pretty, with the clouds from the afternoon thunderstorms making pretty cloudscapes in the fading light. I played with HDR and came up with these images:
August 15, 2011 - These are blooms of my Coral Nymph salvia, a plant that provides good nectar for hummingbirds. It’s not one of the bright red flowers that typically attracts hummers, but the flowers have the long tubular shape that is well adapted for long beaks and tongues. Now I just need to get a few hummers to […]
August 14, 2011 - After spending so much time photographing around Florida this summer, it was nice to spend a day in my own yard. Sadly I was removing some of my rosebushes…I’m tired of using so many pesticides to keep the roses healthy. I’m replacing them with plants that attract hummingbirds. My mom’s had success in attracting hummers […]
August 12, 2011 - Squirt was dismayed when I took his potted catnip plant outside a few weeks ago. But after a few good rains, the plant has quadrupled in size. Now Squirt gets to teach Whiskey the joys of playing with catnip… Now this is cool…this post was brought to you via my iPhone. I took the picture […]
August 11, 2011 - The roses are suffering from the summer heat and the insects. I’ve stopped using insecticides since last winter. First I was worried that the insecticides would harm the wintering birds, then I realized that I was starting to see more insects in the rosebeds as a result of the decreased usage of pesticides. So here […]
August 6, 2011 - Whiskey and I found a pair of Eastern Bluebirds on the back road CR 545 on our way home from my parents’ last night. The birds were perched on the phone lines. I didn’t have my camera with me, so for today’s blog post I have a Fracalius-ed image of a bluebird taken at Callaway […]
August 4, 2011 - Not that I’m complaining…clouds help cool things down in the hot summer weather, and they give me interesting photographs! Now if only Emily could manage to dump about 10 inches of rain on us….at night! and then there be a nice cool, clear morning afterward…. :)
August 2, 2011 - The Mourning Doves love this time of year. Very few other birds compete with them to access the birdseed in my feeders! My backyard flower beds are full of tall Mexican sunflowers in bloom right now. You can see some of them in the background of this picture:
July 29, 2011 - Normally I seem to photograph juvenile Cooper’s Hawks. The other night we were walking in the neighborhood, and we came across this adult Cooper’s. Look at that bright red eye! The lighting was quite uneven, but I like how the light shows the eye so clearly. The hawk looked at me for a split second, […]
July 28, 2011 - The sunset a few nights ago was just gorgeous. There was a lot of rain around, so plenty of good clouds to add color and texture to the sky. The first image below is a stitched panorama, and the others are interesting cloud formations.
July 21, 2011 - It’s the time of year when Mallards molt their flight feathers, and become flightless for a few weeks. We’ve seen far fewer Mallards around for the past week or so. But some are still flying:
July 19, 2011 - We’ve had a bumper crop of baby mockingbirds in our neighborhood this year, but not as many young cardinals as usual. So we were happy to see this young cardinal feeding at Goldy’s window feeder. He didn’t mind when I got closer to the window to take his picture.
July 18, 2011 - Goldy and Squirt (and Whiskey!) have been in indoor kitty bird-watching paradise for the last week or so. This juvenile White Ibis has taken up residence in our backyard. He spends hours wandering back and forth across the yard, looking for bugs and things in the rosebeds, and searching for dropped seed under the feeders. […]
July 17, 2011 - I’ve been after a good Swallow-tailed Kite picture all summer. This weekend I was supposed to go to the Hernando County location where the kites are feeding on a field overrun with grasshoppers. But that opportunity didn’t work out, and I was a little disappointed. Then I was working in the backyard this afternoon, doing […]
July 15, 2011 - Now that we’re fully into the summer rainy season, it’s harder to do evening walks, and even harder to get good sunset pictures. These were taken by the Lakehurst pond. There is an Osprey nest on a cell phone tower on the other side of the road, and we heard the juvenile Osprey calling as […]
July 14, 2011 - Rich and I don’t usually walk down by the lake during our walks, but we did a few days ago. This Loggerhead Shrike was posed in sweet afternoon light. I like the soft blue of the lake as his backdrop.
July 13, 2011 - It was well past sunset a few nights ago when Rich and I came across this little family of Mourning Doves down the street. The parents were feeding their baby, who looked like a recent fledgling. The baby was fun to watch as he flapped his wings and stuck his beak up Mom’s throat. After […]
July 12, 2011 - A few nights ago on our walk around the golf course, we came across two Sandhill Cranes lying down near the pond. I guess they went to bed early that night! They didn’t mind as I walked across the golf course to get their picture. One just looked up at me as if to say, […]
July 11, 2011 - We didn’t get much rain tonight, but we did get a rainbow! I noticed it and ran to get the wide-angle lens. When I went outside, I was happy to find that I could see almost the full rainbow, and it was actually a double rainbow. I worked quickly, because the light was changing very […]
July 8, 2011 - We needed the rain. We needed the rain. I kept repeating that to myself as I looked outside, wishing I was out with my camera. Why can’t it rain on days that I have to work instead of days that I have off? So I stayed inside and worked on post-processing today. I had a […]
July 7, 2011 - We’ve started seeing rabbits during our evening walks again. They seem to like the golf course behind Lakehurst. Some are fairly tame and let me approach them. This guy was a little dubious about me, but he allowed me to kneel in front of him to take this picture. I tried several camera angles, and […]
July 5, 2011 - We were eating dinner on the porch last night when we spotted a Northern Bobwhite crossing the backyard. His head stuck out over the tall grasses. I dropped everything and ran for the camera — this was only the third time that I’ve seen a bobwhite in the yard. He let me get fairly close […]
July 2, 2011 - Which picture do you like better? Both were taken at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm this spring. Post a comment and tell me why…
June 30, 2011 - We haven’t been able to walk much lately because of the rains. I’m curious if the Black-necked Stilts are still hanging around the pond in the back of Spinnaker Cove. They seem to be around at twilight and they don’t let me get very close…two factors that work against my camera!
June 29, 2011 - It’s fun to watch the little House Finch juveniles as they learn how to live. They usually travel with Papa, and their chirping begs for food can be heard across the neighborhood. Here, Daddy took a well-deserved break from his little ones to get some food himself.
June 28, 2011 - We’ve been getting some much-needed rain. We got four inches in about half an hour a few days ago! The rain lilies are blooming now as a result…
June 27, 2011 - I have to introduce you to one of our neighborhood’s newest and cutest residents. This is Murphy, one of the little dogs we often meet when we’re out for walks in the evening. He’s adorable, and so full of energy! He was about three months old when I took this picture. Now he’s over five […]
June 22, 2011 - I’ve been neglecting my roses lately. First it was because I had Painted Buntings and then baby birds in the backyard. Then it was because it just got hot. But I haven’t been spraying, and the rose blooms are being eaten by insects. Except for this one! This is my ‘Gold Medal’ rose that grows […]
June 20, 2011 - Rich went for a walk without me the other night, and wouldn’t you know that he found a baby mockingbird at the base of a tree, posing beautifully in the setting sun? I was proud of him — he took out his iPhone and took a picture of it! (Probably just to rub in what […]
June 17, 2011 - These Mallards were definitely having a “bad feather day.” The wind was blowing down by the pond! Now cross your fingers that we get some rain…
June 16, 2011 - The House Finches have been showing up at our feeders with their recently fledged little ones. The babies are so cute to watch as they flap their wings to beg for food. Their sweet little chatter is fun to listen to. I wish I could find one of their nests…
June 15, 2011 - The Mallard babies at the Stoneybrook ponds are almost as big as their parents. So we were surprised to see two tiny chicks the other night. They are so cute when they are little! I’m constantly amazed at how baby ducks look so different than their parents. Unfortunately, we went back the next night, and […]
June 14, 2011 - I posted recently about the poor mockingbird in our neighborhood who is missing a tail. We continue to see him regularly–usually on his favorite stop sign–and he continues without his tail. Hopefully it will grow back soon. I told him all about the Snow Bunting that came to visit Palm Coast this winter, and how […]
June 13, 2011 - We finally met our new little Loggerhead Shrikes. I’ve been watching the adults for a while, and I figured we’d see the babies any day. This guy was hanging out in a palm tree at the Town Commons/Tour Point intersection. You can tell he’s a juvenile because of the orangey edge to his beak. I […]
June 9, 2011 - Rich and I were walking by Black Lake last week when we noticed this Mallard. He’s missing part of the top of his beak. Poor thing. It must be hard to go through life as a duck with the top part of your beak missing. This guy and his friend were under the same tree […]
June 8, 2011 - It rained last week! Finally! My rain lilies burst into bloom a day or two later…
June 7, 2011 - It’s getting to be the time of year that we saw fledgling Loggerhead Shrikes under the weeping willows last year. We’ve been seeing the shrike parents sitting in their usual spots, but no little guys yet. Where are your kids, Shrek the Shrike?
May 26, 2011 - The Mallards are the only dependable birds on our walks these days. There’s one with a bright green head that appears to be the father of the juveniles at the Pebble Ridge pond. He’s pretty.
May 25, 2011 - Last week we had a nice full moon. Rich and I were returning from a walk as we watched the moon start to climb in the sky. I thought the Moon would be a good subject for experimentation with various teleconverters. Here are the various combinations of lenses and TCs that I tried: – 70-200mm […]
May 24, 2011 - …and they aren’t the only ones! Happy birthday, Dyeyo D!! Believe it or not, these are the Mallard babies that I photographed as tiny chicks just a few short weeks ago…
May 23, 2011 - The Brown Thrashers were active on the golf course tonight, hunting for their dinner. This guy got a bug!
May 20, 2011 - We came across a young Brown Thasher tonight. He was out for a walk with his parents. He’s almost as big as they are, but his pale blue eye clearly sets him apart as a juvenile.
May 18, 2011 - There’s a mockingbird that hangs out at the entrance to Fox Hunt a lot these days. He has no tail! We wondered if he lost it in a fight with one of the crows or other big birds (hint: if you see a tiny bird flying after a big bird and fussing, it’s likely that […]
May 17, 2011 - An incredibly tame dove found the extra birdseed under my seed cake feeder tonight. I wonder if she’s the baby dove that we saw a few weeks ago in a nest at Ian’s house? I know Mourning Doves are common, but this bird intrigued me. She let me crouch down and use my 70-200mm lens […]
May 12, 2011 - We had a Swallow-Tailed Kite fly through our yard this evening! It banked and showed off its pretty underwings, then flew off before I could get a picture. But we saw it! Our hydrangeas are blooming and they are gorgeous. I love the mixture of pinks, purples, and blues. (Hydrangeas are supposed to be pink […]
May 11, 2011 - A couple of Common Ground Doves have been visiting the yard lately. They miss my grapefruit tree just like I do. At first I thought they were fledgling Mourning Doves, but then I saw their orange beaks. These are Common Ground Doves! They are pretty skittish, but I finally got a picture. ?