I’m about to give up on this Canon 70-200mm lens I rented. I returned the first one I had because no matter what I tried, I just couldn’t seem to take “sharp” pictures. Fortunately, the company that I rented the lens from (Lens Rental.com) was extremely nice and offered to send me a replacement lens. …
Butterfly And Wildlife Gardening And Photography
Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Monthly Archives: July 2009I haven’t talked about Coco (our African Grey Parrot) in a while so I decided to take a new picture of her. As some of you may recall if you have been reading this blog for a while, Coco was very sick about 9 months ago and we nearly lost her. She developed a fungal…  We always have Mockingbirds around here. While perhaps not the prettiest birds on the planet, they often are quite interesting. Besides eating our cherry tomatoes, Mockingbirds also apparently like to eat ants as this one was doing. In addition to the 10 Polydamas Butterflies hatching today, we also had 1 Gulf Fritillary hatch as well. In this picture you can see its sibling who has not yet hatched. Perhaps tomorrow. Interesting day in the Butterfly world. I get home and immediately start mowing the yard; I don’t even walk inside. About 30 minutes later, Leecy arrives. All the sudden the back door flies open and Leecy says we have a problem. Now before I tell you what really happened, let me rehash what this has… Lots of young Cardinals are around right now, more females than males. These poor birds look rather scraggly when they are young (color-wise). Sunflower seed, it’s “What’s for dinner.” It’s In Here Somewhere Ever lost something and couldn’t find it? I think that’s what this guy is thinking. Here’s a brother and sister, or maybe… This image made me think of the lyric “A Partridge In A Pear Tree.” However, since it’s not near Christmas, let’s just call it for what it is; a Cardinal in an Apple tree:-) Here’s Mr. T (hence the Mohawk), a young Cardinal. I was actually trying to practice taking pictures of birds in flight and if you notice the background, there is an actual bird flying by. Not the picture I was going for, but I think it still came out fairly decent.  Allow me to introduce Mr. Whiskers (notice the whiskers around his mouth?). Not sure what kind of Dragonfly this is, but he stayed in the same place for over 30 minutes.  While I was hiding along the fence waiting for birds to visit the bird feeder, this Woodpecker came by to visit. After the first couple of camera clicks, he took off.  A House Sparrow telling me to “Talk To The Hand” instead of taking his picture. He was actually on the roof eyeing the Martin house, probably to build yet another nest. Take this for what it’s worth, it’s just my personal experience. If you’ve been reading you know I recently rented the Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Autofocus Lens. This lens tends to get fantastic reviews and I really thought after renting this lens I would want to start saving up to purchase… Here’s a close up shot of a Carpenter Bee covered in pollen. Here’s another Butterfly predator, a Mud Dauber. We only see this guy hunting for prey (in terms of Butterflies) on our Passion Vine plant. To give this guy some credit, I think he also preys on other small insects (flies, assassin bugs).  We had a very active Pipevine Swallowtail laying eggs today. As I was watching this Butterfly lay her eggs, I started to get confused about the differences between Polydamas, Pipevine, and Eastern Black Swallowtails. Here are some of the differences and similarities. Polydamas Swallowtails don’t have the “tails” like Eastern Black and Pipevine Swallowtails Pipevine… |
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