This is one of the best Butterfly movies I have seen.  The incredible detail in the video is fantastic!  It is also very educational.  One of the main reasons I purchased this movie is because I had read where they do an MRI on a Monarch Chrysalis.  It was for that reason alone that I purchased it.

Where I have a major criticism of this movie is when it gets into evolution versus intelligent design.  I’m assuming most folks know about evolution, but maybe not so much on intelligent design.  Here’s a link to the Wikipedia definition so you can read about it yourself.  What I wish they would have done is just present the science and factual parts about the Butterfly and not become involved in the whole evolution versus intelligent design argument.  To me that detracts from the actual beauty and incredible photography of the video and of Butterflies in general. I didn’t buy the video to become convinced of evolution or intelligent design, I bought it to learn about Butterflies and I found it unfortunate that towards the end of the movie it tries to make an argument in one particular direction (I won’t spoil it for you).

So, I’d give this movie 4 out of 5 Butterfly wings for the cinematography and factual information.  It loses a Butterfly wing (or two) for introducing intelligent design version evolution.

Just to close this post, this was a Butterfly that had hatched a couple of days ago and was still sitting in the Fennel where we placed it the previous evening.  It is heavily cropped, but I thought it was kind of neat how the Butterfly was covered in early morning dew.

** Sorry I need to say a little more on this movie.  I feel like I was politically sucker-punched.  There was no reason to introduce these different agendas for folks who were simply hoping to come see an educational movie about butterflies.  Suggesting the butterfly wings are beautiful not for evolutionary reasons so it must be some intelligent entity design is attempting to enforce a political agenda. which I found quite unfortunate that they decided to go that route.

Monarch Butterfly Covered In Dew

I’m planning on revisiting Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge tomorrow (Saturday).  I think it’s been almost a year since I was last out there.  Even then, I remember how low the water levels were.  It’s a great birding location (in my opinion).  While I’m not very good at identifying the birds, I always enjoy my time out there.  It is so quiet and desolate and I actually like that type of serenity.

Oh, I also bought a couple of new “things.”  One is the Vortex Viper 8×42 HD Binocular and the other is the Naturescapes SkimmerSack Bean Bag.  The binoculars are for birdwatching and identification and the Skimmersack is for photography when shooting from your car (or fence post, etc).  I really do want to become better at identifying birds so I figured the binoculars may help somewhat for the birds I see and want to identify before trying to sneak up on them to take a picture.  I’ll try and post some reviews sometime soon of both of these, as well as some new birding books I recently bought.

I’ll be posting pictures from the Anahuac trip later this weekend.

I’ll start with the Hummingbirds.  I love seen this birds jousting for nectar each morning and afternoon.  I’m grown very attached to the sounds they make as they go fluttering by.  I Also enjoy how curious they are.  If I’m out working in the yard or on the pool, then sure enough there will be at least 2 of the birds who will come over to investigate.  I could swear they are as curious about me, as I am them.  It give me great comfort just to watch them.

The upcoming Monarch population is equally gratifying for me.  They make me think of warriors heading off to battle.  I love their graceful flow through the yard, checking out the plants, and laying a few eggs.According to the experts at Monarch Watch, this could be a dismal year because of the lack of wild, natural food sources due to the extreme drought.Whatever the outcome, I always feels a sense of appreciation and wonder as these super creatures of the Monarchs make their way from Canada to Mexico

Right now I’m wondering if I have enough milkweed for the migration.  I say that every year, and it seems like  always need more.I think I have enough nectar plants, but milkweed, I’m not so sure.

I have this temptation to position the feeders in just such a position that would enable me to take great photographs, yet when  step outside and feel the hear, I more often than not decide to just leave them alone rather than interrupting their feeding stations just so I can take a good picture.  If the weather could get just a get just a little cooler, I’m sure my photography drive would increase again. I’m hopping that day come soon, because I do miss the passion I have with the camera, but the weather is beating me right now.

Every year about this time I start thinking out what changes I want to do the yard to make it that much more special.  My remaining grass is strictly for the dogs.  I really want to jump into the wildflower garden and rip out all the weeds and Bermuda grass.  I’d like to bring some organization to how the plants are organized, but I have to talk to Leecy first since she just flings the seeds in any open place.

I’d also like to get rid of so many of the Eurasian Collared Doves since they just ransack the feeders and aren’t too friendly about allowing the other birds to feed. I’ve made it too easy for them to get the food and I need to change that somehow and maybe invest in different feeds.

I don’t expect the Hummingbirds to hang around much longer.  They are getting far, and as soon as some decent-sized front comes along, I’m sure they will continue their migration.  Then it will be just the Monarchs and I.  I was pretty disappointed in the numbers we saw last year.  I hope we have more this year.

Just my thoughts as I share my thoughts.  Any one else having the same dilemma?

The first year the Purple Martin house was located a little closer to the pool and it seemed like we found more fledglings in the pool than anywhere else.  It was not a good year.

The second year was pretty successful, but we did have one male Purple Martin who broke it’s wing (that post is located somewhere on this blog).  We took it to a wildlife rehabber, but they were unable to save him.

The third year, this year, appeared to be more successful than last year in terms of babies born and fledged which really surprised me because of the drought and difficulty in finding food.  This was also my first year I attempted emergency measures to save a baby Purple Martin.  It was not as difficult as I expected, and I’m hopeful that baby was able to migrate, but I also realize that if that baby did survive it’s probably been a struggle as it didn’t get much flight time before migration.

However, there are some things I need to improve on if I want to have continued success.

1. I need to number the nests so I can keep an accurate inventory of the babies.
2. I need to record better inventory of the babies so I can accurately track how old they really are, versus my guessing.
3. I would like to begin weighing the babies to track their growth.

For next year I plan on buying a new Martin house pole, and add a second housing unit.  I’m thinking I might try gourds instead of another aluminum type house.

Oh, last but not least, Leecy and I cleaned out the Martin house the other day, took it off the pole, and were prepared to store the house until next season.  Then, wouldn’t you know it, the next morning there were 7 Purple Martins flying overhead.  I put the house back up, but I haven’t seen them afterwards.  I assume they were just migrating through.

A little background.  I remember my mother had a Butterfly business when I was a very young child.  I don’t recall many of the specifics, but I do remember some of the Butterfly pictures hanging on the wall.

Well Leecy was cleaning one of the upstairs closets, and came across this newspaper article about my mother’s Butterfly business.  The article is dated July 11, 1969.  I was 3 years old at the time (so now you can figure out how old I am).  The article was published in the Evansville Press newspaper, written by Harriet Jenner (I’d love to talk to the person who wrote this article if they are still around).

**Edit.  I found out that Harriet Jenner passed away on March 19, 1992 at the age of 87.  “She carried with her the secret scandals and disappointments of many of the most noted families in Evansville.”  (For a very interesting article about this woman, check out this article written about her over here).  There’s another article that mentions her passing and how she retired in 1969.

Since I have no idea if anyone will really be able to read this scan of the newspaper article, I’ll just type up a few of the interesting highlights and some personal commentaries.

The article states that my mother learned a lot about Butterflies in little more than a year (that means she started doing this when I was 2 years old).  The started a business and named it “Beautiful Butterflies and Beetles.”

They would order imported Butterflies from some company in New York.  They also ordered some type of chemical where they soaked the Butterflies in a solution for 3 days so that they could then pin them to a silk backing.

Strangely enough. the article mentions that she “boils Beetles before we can spread the wings and antennae.”  “Some people think we paint them, but they are just very bright in color.”

The article goes on to mention how they recently received an order from Holiday Inn for wall decorations using these Butterflies and Beetles.

Mother's Butterfly Business July 11, 1969

On the second page of the newspaper article, my mother (that’s her in the picture below) recalls how they were finding tiny bugs inside the completed shadow boxes and so they learned to spray all the flora (they used this for decoration I think) with insecticide.

I have no memory, and don’t recall hearing much about it, but the article says that they had outlets in several states and this was a profitable business.

One the most expensive and rare Butterflies they had was a “Ornithoptera Paradisea” also called the Paradise Birdwing Butterfly from New Guinea.  It mentions they the specimen they had was the first one they caught in over 30 years (I guess back then they didn’t worry about capturing rare insects and protecting the species).  They expected this to sell for $1000-$1200 (remember this was back in 1969).

Now these species are protected by law (fortunately).  I also found an article about this species from the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

And now for the part on how I apparently became interested in Butterflies (at least unconsciously).

While my father was mentioned as being a helper with the project, “it’s Larry Jr., (I’m not really a junior) who has tried to be an active partner.”  “He (that’s me) has his own Butterfly kit.”

So there you have it.  How I became interested in Butterflies may have started as early as 1969 when I was 3 years old.

Interesting story, don’t you think?:-)

Mother's Butterfly Business July 11, 1969 Page Two

Fortunately, I think I may have found something that readers of this blog might find useful.  I found a pretty cool Book Cataloging application for the iPhone and iPad.  It’s called Book Crawler.  It allows you to use your iPhone or iPad to catalog all your books.  What I like about it is it allows you to use a bar code scanning application to scan the ISBN code, and then it automatically enters all the information.

What I plan on doing (and how this might be helpful if you read this blog) is that I will make the catalog available for download here on this blog.  Let me give you a couple of examples.  I’ve just cataloged a few books just in one area of my house.  So far I have 9 books on birding, 9 books on butterflies, 4 books on gardening, 6 books on insects (not including butterflies), 32 books on photography, 6 books on koi and backyard ponds, and 5 books on reptiles and amphibians.  I’m not even close to finishing scanning all the books that I have.

My goal, or should I saw project, it to finish scanning all of my books by tomorrow evening, and then I will upload the file here to the blog so that you can download it and do whatever you like with it.

Let me know what you think of the idea.

As if often the case with me, sometimes I buy things because of a review I read, it “looked” interesting, or because I simply thought I had to have it.  This post is a review of some of those “things.”  These things can either be hardware or software, but something related to photography.

First I’ll cover some hardware gadgets I have bought.

1. iPad 2 - I didn’t get this totally for photography purposes, but I have to admit, I sure do like it.  Problem is, I don’t much use it for anything for photography.  I’ve read that many people use it for photography and if I were a full-time photographer I could certainly see its usefulness, but for my photography, not so much. Yea, I even bought the iPad Camera Connection Kit, and have used that perhaps once or twice at most.  If I ever make that trip to Mexico to see the Monarch Butterfly overwintering colonies, I will definitely bring both, but for now, not much photography use.  For computer usage, I use it all the time, but I’ll save that for another post.
2. Sensor Loupe - I bought this Quasar 7x sensor loupe to see how dusty or moldy my lenses and camera might be.  Used it one and that was it.  I baby my camera way too much for it to get really dirty or dusty to care or even see whatever micro-specks might be lurking around.  I’ve thought about using it as a semi-microscope to look at bugs, then it might get more use.
3. External Hard Drives – I’ve got a ton of them, six I believe.  I’m paranoid about running out of space to store my pictures.  I have some portable external drives that are simply USB drives, and some that are Network Attached Storage Drives.  My goal is to buy or build a safe, redundant storage device where I can store all of my pictures and ensure that they are routinely backed up.  That will cost me about $1500.00 so I haven’t take the plunge on that just yet. Plus, external hard drives aren’t really a gadget in my eyes, they’re more of a necessity.
4. iPhone 4 – This really isn’t a gadget, but one of the main ways I use it is gadget related.  There are some awesome apps for the iPad and iPhone that I wouldn’t want to do without and those apps help me better identity birds, insects, and Butterflies.  As a phone it’s an okay device, as a gadget for photography, awesome.

Now a word about some of my Software gadget purposes.

1. iMovie - I thought this would be the greatest software application that I bought for the iPad.  For me, it’s been one of my worst purchases.  Why?  Because you can’t really edit movies that you may take with your regular videocam or your regular camera.  It’s only useful (from my experience and what I have read) if you are actually recording movies directly from your iPad or you would to convert your movies into whatever format it is for iMovie.  For me, it was just a waste of time and money, at least for now.  Perhaps if I start traveling more it would get some use, but it’s pretty useless to me now.
2. PhotoSync for iPad/iPhone – This is a very positively reviewed app, and I think I’ve used it once.  In my workflow, I just don’t take pictures then want to upload them to my ipad, do edits, then send over to my storage drives.  It’s easier to just do it all on my Macbook Pro.
3. Audubon Texas Birds – This Gem lives in a folder called “Wildlife” on my iPad.  It’s basically a field guide for identifying and understanding birds of Texas.  I often don’t have a clue of what kind of bird I just saw or heard might be, but this app helps me to find the most likely one.  It also has a database of bird sounds and I use that all the time.  If I hear some bird sound in the backyard and I don’t recognize it, out comes an app like this.
4. iBird Explorer South – Love this one as well.  Same basic functions at the Audubon app.
5. National Geographic’s Handhelp Birds – I use this one, but not as much as the other two.  It’s not optimized for the iPad yet so the images and maps don’t look as good.
6. Sibley Birds - You can’t go wrong with this one.  No colored pictures, but colored drawings.  I use this relatively frequently after my first two bird apps.
7. Audubon Replies and Amphibians. A Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians – This app is exactly as it’s titled.  If your trying to find out what reptile or amphibian is you’re about to take a picture of, this app is worth a look.
8. Audubon Butterflies. Field Guide to North American Butterflies - You would think I would use this a ton, but I don’t.  I find I use my books tailored to my specific region to help me identify a Butterfly.
9. BirdTunes - LOVE this app.  I use it all the time on both my iPhone and iPad.  I use it to identify the bird song I just heard.  It’s quick and dirty, show me what it looks like, show me what it sounds like, and that’s it.
10. Chirp! USA – It was cool in the beginning.  Now other apps do better and look better.
11. BirdsEye - I don’t use it that much.  If you want to find out where certain birds may be appearing, this may be a good app.
12. Sunrise and Set - Good application when you want to arrive early or late for shooting pictures and want to know the exact minute sunrise or sunsets will occur.
13. Adobe Lightroom 3 – I can’t recommend this application enough.  It helps to me categorize my images, allows to me to essential editing, then upload the photos to my blog. If you can’t afford the full version of Adobe Photoshop get this if it will be used to do some brief edits to your pictures and possible upload to some of the popular sites.  This is practically a necessity.
14. Microscope with Camera – I don’t remember the brand now, but I had high hopes.  Used it twice then sold it.  Too time confusing for me.
15. BirdCam – Originally I bought that little tiny birdcam to watch nesting activities and I thought it was pretty awesome.  I then bought the Wingscapes Birdcam.  The Wingscapes product is very nice, but if you put it around feeders that have squirrels, or even lots of bird activity, be prepared to spend lots of time downloading the photos, editing them, removing the pictures that are out of focus, etc. After using it for a couple of months, it has become more of a gadget and not a necessity.
16. I have other photo apps like PhotoCalc, Pano, AutoStitch, DoF Calc and PhotoVerse.  I really don’t use any other than Photoverse and it’s because I like to read the articles.

There you have it.  Some of my hardware and software gadgets as they relate to photography.  Obviously some I bought with great intentions, but in the real world I never use them.  Others I bought because it receive such a good review or some famous photographer mentioned them.  For me, some applications or hardware just haven’t been used because of how I shoot.

I could do an update of my bird, insect, gardening, and butterfly books again if other folks would be interested in reading that, just let me know.  I’ve got stacks and stacks of them.

Oh, one more thing.  I’ve been asked about where I got my snake tongs.  I got them from Midwest Tongs.  For me these have become more than a gadget, a rare necessity.  When I do see a snake, no matter what kind, I do feel safe picking them up with these tongs.

Final considerations.  Those little cute butterflies nectar feeders (mine was yellow), never worked. The same is true of those “Butterfly Houses” you see in the gift shops.  They look nice, yet I’m not convinced they ever work.

One of the things that always kinda bothered me is that I couldn’t view any of the videos I posted on my iPhone or my iPad.  If I would be out and wanted to show someone one of the videos I posted on the blog, I’d pull up my iPhone or iPad and start to show them the page, and when it got to the video part, it would display a message about you need Adobe Flash to display the videos.

If you are an iPhone or iPad user, you know that those devices won’t play Flash videos:-(.

So I’ve spent the past couple of weeks doing some research on how I can display the videos I post not only through a browser, but also through mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, etc).  I think I’ve found a solution, but it’s going to take me a little bit to convert all of my videos to this new server.  If you happen to notice the different players presenting the videos, it just means I haven’t converted them all yet.  Hopefully it about a week or so, I can have them all converted and they will all have a similar look and feel.

Something else I’m working on (but don’t have a solution yet) is trying to find a solution so that the pages on my blog load faster.  One of the things I try and do (as much for my own personal tastes as anything else) is to post fairly large pictures of the photos I take.  It’s not because I am trying to take up a bunch of space on your browser window, rather, it’s because when I look at a photo I really like to see the details of the image (lines between bird feathers, the small hairs on a butterfly, etc).  The problem with doing this is that larger pictures obviously take up more space and take longer to load in your browser.

In general, that would leave me two options.  One, post smaller pictures on my blog or two, upgrade my website to faster servers.  On option number two, that would cost me about $3600.00 per year, yet I’d have a smaller amount of available space to upload images so that’s not going to work for me.  For option one, I could start posting smaller pictures, but I really don’t want to do that.  When I visit some websites and they have these beautiful pictures, but yet they are so small, I feel like I don’t enjoy them as much (that’s just me, I certainly understand the rationale).

All that being said, I hope you will like being able to view the videos on your mobile devices once I finish that.  If the pages load a little slow, or you are on a slow connection, I hope you can be patient.

I’m absolutely thrilled that my blog (which mainly represents my hobby and passion about Butterflies and Wildlife that’s predominately located in my backyard), has steadily increased in the number of people visiting the blog on a daily basis!  That inspires me to try and take better pictures, provide a little knowledge on what I have learned through trial and error, and possibly be occasionally entertaining.

If you have suggestions, comments, or corrections (I’ve found many birds and butterflies I’ve mis-labeled over the years) please let me know, I’m listening!

We’ve been reaching the upper 60′s to low 70′s this week (Jan 4-9), but according to this entry on the Houston Chronicle, the folks at ImpactWeather (a private forecasting company) are suggesting that Jan 12-17 we may experience lows down in the teens and low twenties.  I’m not seeing this kind of prediction on any of my other iPhone weather apps and I don’t know how reliable ImpactWeather is, but thought folks may appreciate the warning.

So for all you Houston area gardeners you might want to stock up on your frost blankets and such this weekend if you haven’t already.

Here’s a link to the article on the Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7365898.html.

And before I get the emails from folks up North and beyond who really get cold weather, yes, we are wimps down here when it concerns cold weather, but y’all are wimps when it comes to hot, humid weather:-).

First, I really want to become a better photographer.  As I look over my photographs over the last year, I can see that I am improving, but my composition still needs work.  I still get too excited when I photograph something new or exciting and the last thing I think about is composition.

Second, I want my photos to really POP (as Leecy would say when describing her crafting).  In almost all of my photos, I just take them naturally.  There is no forethought, no setup, no positioning of a plant so that the picture looks better.  I just snap away at the bird, butterfly, or wildlife just as they are.  This year I want to change that a little.  I don’t want to stage a photograph, but I do want to manipulate them a bit more.  If I see a full bloom of milkweed with nice flowers next to milkweed that isn’t doing so well, I want to move around so that the not so good one doesn’t show in the photo.

Third, I want to write a better blog but the problem I have in my head is I don’t know what that means.  Is it more visitors, or better pictures, or is it more educational?  I also struggle with how to write what I want to say.  Should I be humorous, factual, or something in between?

Fourth, I want to go into some type of zone or thought process when I take a photo.  I want to capture in my mind what is occurring, what was I thinking right before and after the photo was shot?  I also want to think about my subject that I am shooting.  If I take a newly eclosed Butterfly outdoors for the first time and lay it on that milkweed leaf, I want to wonder and write about what that must be like.  If Butterflies think, what might they be thinking?

Fifth, I want to show more shots about the backyard.  I’ve spent thousands building my oasis back there and perhaps some of my trial and errors would be useful for someone who is considering the same thing.  I feel that not only has the backyard become my oasis, but based on the variety of critters (Raccoons, Snakes, Birds, Butterflies, Frogs, Skunks, Insects, Lizards, Squirrels) that appear, it must be good for them as well.  Thus, I think it could potentially serve three purposes: an oasis for me, an oasis for critters, and an inspiration for folks who visit this blog.

Sixth, I want to visit more places to take pictures.  I often feel like the weekend contains so few hours, I don’t have the time to go somewhere and take some pictures.

Well, there you have it.  Happy New Year to everyone!

I’m really bummed about this.  I keep weighing the pros and cons of continuing to do this trip in late February and it just sounds like such a risk.  I understand the war is mainly between the drug cartel and the police, but I would hate to get caught in the crossfire.

I also think about the impact to the folks who live around the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuaries and who get some financial benefit from tourism.  If lots of other tour groups decide to cancel, this will surely impact them.  I wish there was something I could do.

My non emotional part of my brain says just plan the trip next year (2012), get your new lens, but don’t risk your life.  On the other hand, my emotional part of my brain says this would be such a wonderful trip (minus the violence) and would a great opportunity it would have been to learn from Bill Calvert and Bonnie Chase (folks who were leading the trip).

In an email sent to the tour participants we were asked what we think about canceling the trip.  I wrote that I really didn’t want to, but it was probably the smart thing to do.

Is there anyone who reads this blog who lives in Michocan or who has contacts there?  Would it be too risky to take the trip?

What about other folks?  Do you think I should cancel my trip this year or take the risk?

Offer me some guidance here, as I am really torn on what to do

It’s a type of Husky Dog being eaten by Black Vultures off on the side of the road.  Here’s what kind of disturbs me.

One, this dog is far enough away from the road that it was either placed there or perhaps it was hit by a car and walked over there and collapsed (hopefully I’m being too dramatic).

So most likely this dog was in some sort of pain before he died, unless he was just dumped there which would be just as bad.

Second, although this dog doesn’t resemble is active self now, he does, or did, to be a fairly nice looking dog so I’m wondering if it was someone’s pet?

I don’t know if Leecy will go for this, but maybe I can convince her to go back tomorrow and see if she can locate a collar near the dog (assuming it’s still there tomorrow)

Houston Dog Being Eaten By Black Vultures

I have 1 comment (my soapbox) and 1 question.  My comment is, if you have pets, indoor or out, please at least put a collar on them so they can be identified should something happen.  A cheap collar will only cost a few dollars and I’m assuming that whoever owned the dog care/cared for the dog at one time.

My question is this.  What do you do, or have you done, if you hit an animal crossing the road?  Did you just keep driving, assess the damage, take it to a vet, or none of the above?

If haven’t hit an animals in years, but I did witness a cute puppy playing on the side of the road and in jumped right in front of another car.  That car kept on driving.  I circled back around to see if it could be saved.  If it could, I would have taken it to the vet.  Unfortunately the puppy was clearly dead when I got back around.  It didn’t have a collar and I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t probably do the best thing, but I just left the puppy in the grass.  I felt terrible for weeks after that.  I couldn’t get this image of this cute black puppy pouncing around the flowers get suddenly hit by a car.

So if this was your dog, and if it did have a collar, would you want a call from some stranger telling you what they found or would you just rather not know?

Seriously, what do yall do, or have you done?  Send me an email or leave a comment.  I’ll remove your identity if you want me to.  I’m curious on how others have responded

Look forward to some conversations on this.

This week has probably changed my perception of this lens.  Here’s the deal.  The Canon EF 500mm lens is awesome, just like everyone says it is.  It is the perfect Birding lens.  If Birding was my primary interest I’d say this was still my dream lens.  However, Birding is not my primary interest (at least not yet), but I do love taking pictures of birds.  As you can probably guess, my primary passion is Butterflies.  While this lens is good for Butterflies, it is too big for me for that interest.  For taking pictures of Butterflies in the backyard, I have to stand halfway across the yard to be able to take a picture.  Maybe if I were out in a large field, this lens would be better.

There’s also the issue of light.  The f/4 is good, certainly better than my 100-400mm lens that is f4.5-5.6, but I’m now thinking that a better lens for Butterfly Photography would be the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8.  Another issue to consider is that Canon is releasing a version II in December (supposedly) that should be even better (and I’m sure more expensive).

I’m glad I rented this lens.  It’s still something I would love to have in my lens arsenal for when I do take Bird pictures, but since I can’t choose (actually afford) both the Canon EF 500mm and Canon EF 300mm, I’m now leaning towards calling the 300mm my dream lens.  According to the online reviews, the 300mm f/2.8 is supposed to be one of the sharpest lenses Canon has ever made.  I’m thinking it will also be more practical for Butterfly photography.

Now I just need to rent the 300mm f/2.8 to decide if that is really the ultimate lens for me, then start saving my pennies (or hope Leecy can sell enough of our Lemons from our Lemon tree).

Oh, speaking of birds, and since I am still renting this lens through the weekend, Leecy and I are thinking of heading to Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary tomorrow morning.  It’s about 90 miles away from where we live so to get there at sunrise means that we would have to leave here around 4:30 am.

If anyone has any comments on my thoughts about the 500mm vs 300mm I would love to hear them.  Which do you think would be better for Butterfly Photography?

So, the Monarchs are migrating, but they seem to be moving a little slow towards and through Texas.  I know for the last 3-4 days the wind has been blowing very strong towards the North (which is not conducive to the migration towards Mexico).  From checking the weather, and what I think I understand about the Monarch Migration, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I believe we will start seeing a dramatic increase in the Monarchs migrating through Texas starting this Thursday, October 28.

Here’s why I think that.  One, the wind has been blowing way to strong in the wrong direction for the last several days.  That should all change starting Thursday around 1 am when the wind is supposed to begin blowing towards the South.  The other reason I’m predicting this is because with this big change in the wind direction on Thursday, it should also bring much cooler temperatures (it was close to 90 degrees today).  On Friday, the high is supposed to be only 78 degrees with a low around 48 degrees.  Therefore, the somewhat slow migration thus far, a big push from the wind, and finally cooler temperatures I predict will motivate the Monarchs to really make their move towards Mexico.

What do you think?  Does it make sense?  Think I am crazy?  Disagree?  Let me know, I’d be interested in your thoughts

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• The busiest day had over 206 visitors
• One of the most popular queries from the blog is Lakeview Jasmine (the plant that I found out is poisonous to Giant Swallowtails).
• 91% of viewers come from the US, followed by Canada 2%, and United Kingdom 2%.  The remaining percentages visit from all over the world
• Visitors from over 63 Countries have visited this site at one point or another
• My previous blog, http://texdr.wordpress.com has had 6553 visitors.

Well, this blog is no Google, but I certainly have fun doing it.  Thanks to all the visitors!