nature photography in nylons
A patch of trillium along the trails. The woods were brown and covered in leaves just two weeks ago and are now green and full of wildflowers and a lot of thorns.
Trillium, the state wildflower in Michigan.
In the garden.
Forsythia
Redbud tree blooms.
Bleeding hearts. The next night we had a freeze that killed all these flowers.
One of my favorite trees
A cardinal nest.
There’s finally an egg in the cardinal nest.
Newly hatched Cardinal
Pregnant deer…. see how the belly protrudes below her middle?
Some of the first wildflowers spotted in the woods.
Michigan wildflowers
The last bluebird egg in the first laid clutch sits on the ground destroyed. It is now legal for me to remove the nesting material from the nest box. It’s illegal to destroy a viable song bird’s nest.
A few days later there was a new clutch of bluebird eggs laid.
Female Eastern Bluebird guarding her nest.
Eastern Bluebird fledgings
Sometimes I’m driving down the road and I’ll see a horse, a donkey and a goat hanging out.
Or catch sight of a bird nesting on my way home from work and have to stop for a quick picture.
A leaping deer.
Three robin eggs.
Magnolia
Catching some down time in the park.
Had a great visit to the Skeba’s farm on Lake Leelanau.
We found some morel mushrooms.
And we found a fawn too.
Allium
Jack in the Pulpit
breaking up with birds: harder than you’d think
I haven’t fed the birds the past few weeks in hopes of staying focused. What? What are we talking about?…..
I had a few days off from work and couldn’t stand starving the birds to death another second.
They line up in the deck rail and stare at me.
So I fed them. And then I feel compelled to take pictures of them. And then nothing productive gets done.
Downy Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Another Downy Woodpecker.
Female Red Cardinals. When the weather turns cold birds are competitive feeders. They’ll spend a lot of time chasing each other away from a food source, even when there is plenty of other food to eat. Since it’s cold and these two are hanging out together, they are likely a mother and daughter combo. Male cardinals feed females seeds as part of their spring mating ritual and then change to complete dick heads in the winter and aggressively chase the females away from a food source.
I don’t have a name for this sparrow, but know what page it’s on in my field guide.
I moved my stack of 20 field guides I usually keep on my nightstand. My thought was that I don’t have time to indulge in taking nature photos and identifying migrating birds this fall. (:
dangerous situation
There’s a dangerous situation brewing.
My friend Stan, let’s jump off the deck onto a deer, is headed into town.
It snowed over 6 inches here yesterday providing a perfect snow pack to pad our jumps.
It’s about 5°F. The deer come in and feed all evening when it’s this cold. I have plenty of food.
I have a late afternoon cocktail date.
Stay tuned……
A young male Northern Cardinal
Young people don’t use the term “rubbers”. They call condoms condoms…… Those crazy kids.
Oh last July, I miss your color and warmth.
The birds rarely startle when the temperatures are extremely cold.
Local rumor is temps will be above freezing next week. Rubber boot weather! I’d make a “rubbers” reference, but it’d date me.
It’s one of the only times of year I can throw boots on without tapping them out for spiders. I never even thought about it until my sister-in-law was bit by a brown recluse doing yard work.
This old looking female was with three male turkeys. They were complete and total dickheads to her, not letting her get under the bird feeders to eat. I ran out and gave her a secret stash of her very own corn. The male cardinals were chasing the females away from the feeders too. You should see how I over react when Jon tries to taste something off from my plate.
hairy snood
My favorite part of the kitchen.... it reflects the trees.
A cardinal and dark eyed junco during some light snow.
An American tree sparrow.
I can't decide what is grosser, the hairy snood or crusty looking ear? Click to enlarge and see the gross ear better
Melissa not dusting 