Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Canon 7D After my interaction with the Deer, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Once they just ran off, I just stood in this field of grass listening for anything else that might be close by. I kept hearing a knocking sound so I started scanning the trees. I figured it was some kind of Woodpecker, I…  First day of vacation I decided to head to Kingwood, specifically East End Park. To be a little adventurous, I decided to shlep through these tall grasses. Suddenly, right in front of me a family of Deer appeared. As tall as this grass was, I’m sure they were laying down until they heard me walking…  After the dreary, rainy day we had yesterday, it was a welcome sight to have nothing but sunshine and blue skies today. The beautiful weather also brought out all the Butterflies. It also brought out the “territorialness” in all the male Butterflies. Probably the most aggressive was this male Monarch pictured below. He would rest…  We have quite a few Monarch Caterpillars right now. We counted at least 20 of them today feeding on the Milkweed. Fortunately, our Milkweed is looking pretty healthy and has lots of leaves so we should be able to feed them without any problems. The picture below was one of the larger Caterpillars we have…  It’s hard to image Maggie is 8 years old now. She still acts like a 6 month old puppy when it comes to getting attention from me. If I am on the couch, she likes to jump up, turn upside down, and just lay there for hours. Of course I have to constantly pet her,…  I took a new picture of Coco today. She is still plucking, although not as bad as before. She seems to pluck more when I am around (not at work). I’m sure there’s a reason for this, I’m just not quite sure what it is. When I am home, I try and take her out…  In addition to the Roseate Spoonbill and Killdeer birds, there was also this Juvenile Black Bellied Whistling Duck. It was the only Duck that I saw and this one looked rather lonely.  I found a new place today to find some very interesting birds. It’s called Willow Waterhole and it is a storm water detention basin designed to reduce flood damage but also serves as a nature preserve. It’s in Southwest Houston and it is tough to find the exact location. The Houston Chronicle (local newspaper) recently…  I continue to be amazed at how much more detail my Canon 7D can pick up compared to my older Canon 40D. I have two pictures to share that illustrate this. In the first, this is a newborn Monarch on the Gardenia Bush warming up in the sun. I took this picture with my Macro…  Since they Cassia tree is really starting to bloom with bright yellow flowers, it seems to be attracting more of the Cloudless Sulphurs. I have always struggled to get a decent picture of these Butterflies as their light color combined with their erratic flight makes it challenging. Another thing I noticed, at least today, is…  Yesterday I decided to pull out my One Man Chair Blind and see if I could get any new bird pictures. It was towards the evening so the light wasn’t the best, but I did manage to capture this Eurasian Collared Dove. I never noticed just how red their eyes are. Since this is a…  It’s a shame that the Long Tailed Skipper is considered a pest. Sure, it has done a pretty good job of eating the beans in our garden, but until this picture I never realized what beautiful colors they have. This picture is straight out of the camera, only cropped and sharpened.  This post should illustrate that you just never know what you might find if you look close enough. So I’m out in the backyard today, taking some pictures of Butterflies, when I notice this Honeybee that looks like its head is stuck in between the leaves of this plant. My first thought (seriously) was how…  Okay, I’m a knucklehead. I’ve been saying Clouded Sulphur when I should have been saying Cloudless Sulphur. No wonder I couldn’t find anything when I searched Google. I’ll fix all my posts. Sorry if I mislead anyone. A few days ago I wrote a post about this yellow Caterpillar that I had seen on our…  While I was out hunting for Butterfly Caterpillars I came across this thing. It was on our Cassia tree. This is the plant that the Sulphur Butterflies host on. Normally we just have Cloudless Sulphur Butterflies laying eggs on this plant, and rarely do the Caterpillars make it to the Chrysalis stage because this plant… |
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