Butterflies And Wildlife » Sheldon Reservoir

Big Ass Gator At Sheldon Reservoir

texdr — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:29:14 +0000

Leecy and I both got up early to venture out to Sheldon Reservoir. I actually did the fishing, and Leecy took the pictures.

As I’m casting out my line, Leecy yells “There’s a gator!”

As I peer through my camera lens, sure enough, there was a huge Alligator just crawling out on the shore on the opposite side of the reservoir.

I’m not expert at judging things like this, but I’d say this guy was at least 7-8 feet long.

Gator At Sheldon Reservoir

Strangely enough, the birds didn’t seem the least bit afraid of him.

Gator And Bird Sheldon Reservoir

Move Your Butt!

texdr — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:27:34 +0000

I couldn’t resist creating some witty title for this picture. Like the recent Butterfly photos, this one is also from Sheldon Reservoir. I’ve never seen such HUGE Dragonflies.

When I was preparing to take this photo it looked like the female Dragonfly was looking right at me (as if her head is turned to the side). It wasn’t until I looked at the photo up close that I could see it was a false eye spot. It certainly fooled me.

So the reason for the title, at least in my warped sense of humor, is that it looks like this male Dragonfly is using his head to push the female Dragonfly up the stem of the plant.

Dragonflies Mating Sheldon Reservoir

Sheldon Reservoir Butterflies

texdr — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:13:19 +0000

I took a weekend trip to Sheldon Reservoir since it was fairly close to the house. That place is pretty rustic compared to the parks I have been to previously. I went there mainly to try my hand at shooting some birds, but ended up taking a few Butterfly photos as well.

This first shot is just a partial view of the Reservoir. If you look really close you can see some guy in a boat, but other than that the place was deserted.

Sheldon Reservoir

One particular Butterfly that I don’t have in my backyard, but that was prevalent at this place was the Common Buckeye.

Common Buckeye Sheldon Reservoir

Common Buckeye Sheldon Reservoir 2

I also saw a Queen Butterfly.

Queen Butterfly In Morning Light

There were also a few Monarchs on the Ragweed. This first photo is a female Monarch.

Monarch On Ragweed

And here’s a male Monarch.

Male Monarch On Ragweed

Last, but not least, there were quite a few Gulf Fritillaries. All of the Butterflies were still trying to warm up when I captured these pictures.

Gulf Fritillary Sheldon Reservoir