Ruby-throated hummingbirds, not Black-chinned guys. Kind of happy these little friends decided to show up and pose for some photos. The males were a bit obnoxious and rather mean to each other, wrestling on the ground and knocking each other off branches. Feisty guys. Ah hah!! I got one to land on my finger, which […]
Snakebird
The “Snakebird” or African Darter (Anhinga rufa) carries this unusual name due to the way that it swims in the water (snake like). It swims very low in the water often only with the head and neck visible above the waterline. They are very good underwater swimmers and this is where they catch their prey, […]
Rufous Hummingbirds Fighting at the Feeder
The Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) are passing through on their way South to Mexico for the winter. In the past few weeks there have been several at the feeders and feeding from the flowers blooming in the yard. As usual hummingbird feeders are being guarded by individual birds. The female pictured above (click on photos […]
Great Black-Backed Gull Fight
For this photograph. I had the right camera, but the wrong lens, I was out hiking on the beach and only was carrying my D 800 with a 500 mm lens on a tripod and did not bring any other lens with me because of weight considerations. There was a dead fish on the beach […]
A Ragged Sun
A wasp leaps past the remains of a ragged sun, coming out clean on the other side. Yellow jacket wasp | Vespula germanica
Hill Country Skies
Some pretty fancy clouds this year in the Texas Hill Country. These are all from the last few months. I remember last year during the field season the sky was pretty boring, a really dry year with kind of lame skies. Not so this time around-lots of storms and rain, good stuff! Almost got monsoon-y […]
Damsels and dragons… but no prince
She (Or maybe he. This is a modern fairly tale.) explored the lovely little pond from which s/he had recently emerged after having spent most of life underwater as a nymph. Who would have guessed during that awkward adolescence, when growth spurts had him/her (speaking of awkward… let’s just stick with “her” from here on […]
Dragonflies and Sunflowers
The cycle of life continues down in the huge depression of La Janda, once a giant freshwater lake, now a mechanised agricultural area. The huge fields of now ripened sunflowers are cut and harvested early in SW Andalucia. After we returned from our break in Scotland, many of the fields had already been cleared. The […]