Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Camera Bodies I just got back from vacation in Quintana, Texas. I went to take pictures of the Spring bird migration at the Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary. I was fortunate enough to again meet up with Greg Lavaty, who is one of the premier bird photographers in Texas. The first day was rather overcast, and I wasn’t…  I saw our first female Monarch from Mexico today! She was laying eggs on our Family Jewels Milkweed (Asclepias physocarpa). Overall, I’d say she looked pretty good considering she’s likely been alive for nearly 8 months and has traveled thousands of miles. When I see these Monarchs from Mexico I have mixed feelings. On the…  I got really lucky the other day when a big flock (is that the correct term?) of Cedar Waxwings decided to make a visit to my Maple Tree. I think we counted at least 17 in this picture below. Cedar Waxwings, for me, are not that uncommon around my backyard as I often hear their… As promised I took a few videos this morning that show my Purple Martin colony as well as their attempts to figure out what to do with this new gourd housing unit I bought them. After the Martins did a little bonding a few decided to explore the new gourd housing. They appeared to enjoy…  I’m so conditioned to the calls of the Eastern Bluebird that as soon as I hear them off in the distance, I run inside to get the meal worms. More often than not, within 5 minutes the male and female Bluebirds will appear. I’ve not really studied the behavior of Bluebirds, but I have started…  It must be getting close to Spring as I’m starting to see some Butterflies. For the first time this year, I saw an Eastern Black Swallowtail and she was laying eggs on the Fennel. We never cook with Fennel, we just let it grow however it wants in our garden. The result is that we…  This might be one of the coolest bird pictures I have taken. I had just set up the new Bluebird House with the hidden BirdCam and I heard the distinctive call of the Eastern Bluebird. I ran inside to get some mealworms as I figured the Bluebirds would be coming to visit soon. Sure enough,…  I’m not sure what is wrong with me lately, but I seem to be on a birding binge. I purchased another BirdCam, a Bluebird House with a built in BirdCam, and I also have on order a new 12 room Gourd Purple Martin House/Rack. In this post I have some pictures of the Bluebird House…  Well I’m now on what I will call stage 4 of the disappearing bird stream. I laid out all the garden soil and the mulch. Now I just have to add a few plants around the edges. I also bought some additional camera accessories, one of which I hope will be pretty cool and pay…  I try and put out some meal worms for the Eastern Bluebirds at least a couple times a week. Unfortunately, and frustratingly so, a Mockingbird watches me like a Hawk and either gulps down as many as possible, or chases the Bluebird off before it has a chance to feed. I’ll even run towards the…  Seeing Cedar Waxwings in the trees just beyond my backyard is not uncommon. Getting a picture of them is a whole different story. I got a little lucky today when there were 6 of them sitting in a tree. This is one of Leecy’s favorite bird besides the Indigo Bunting. I plan on buying a…  It was just a few days ago that I posted we saw 2 Purple Martins, which were the first ones we saw for 2012. Well, today there are now 6 of them, and a male and a female decided to roost in our Purple Martin house for the night! It was after dusk so I…  With the increase in bird activity around the feeders I guess it’s no surprise that a predator would show up. This is a Cooper’s Hawk and it tried most of the day to find a meal and was unsuccessful. I first saw this Hawk early in the morning. It was perched high in a Pine…  I really like these little birds. I like how they constantly are doing their little tweets. I even noticed several at my work today and was pointing them out to one of my colleagues. Then I get to my office and think I have a bug on my shirt and it turns out one of…  I think the mystery Hummingbird is solved. My friend Greg Lavaty came by on Friday so that I could help set up his computer, and if we really got lucky, to see the mystery Hummingbird that has been visiting my Coral Honeysuckle. Fortunately the Hummingbird did appear and Greg and I captured several pictures. Greg… |
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