Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
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Category Archives: Camera Bodies The cool front that moved into Houston yesterday seems to have brought additional Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. I’ve seen a couple of mature males, a few females, and some juveniles. A few weeks ago the Hummers didn’t appear to be that aggressive around the feeders, but now there is lots of competition. The mature male, who…  This poor Eastern Black Swallowtail is really torn up. I think she’s on her last legs. I watched her feed on the Lantana for a while, then head over to the Fennel to lay eggs.  I’m not quite sure how many Ruby Throated Hummingbirds I have hanging around, but tonight a juvenile and adult male were constantly fighting around one of the feeders. From my viewpoint, the juvenile male was the more aggressive bird.  I haven’t noticed any new Ruby Throated Hummingbird migration arrivals, just the same 4-5 that I’ve had for the last few days. What I have noticed is that these little birds are dangerous right now. I also got smacked in the head twice by them. They are so busy fighting over the feeders, they don’t…  I actually thought I posted this pictures last night, but I guess I just uploaded them and forgot to create a blog post. It’s a little early for the Monarch Butterflies to have already made it down to Houston as part of their migration, so I have to assume these are local Monarchs. There is…  We’re in the dog days of summer where temperatures are in the upper 90′s and the heat index is around 104-108 degrees. It’s also the time that whenever I take my lens outside I can expect a bit of a wait before I can start shooting due to the condensation on the lens. Presently we…  Let me start off by saying I had very high hopes for this lens and I have no bias against Sigma. I’m also not an expert, so feel free to take my review with a grain of salt. In short, I am returning this lens. I’m just not loving it, and to my eyes, the…  I had intended to write a review of my new Sigma 180mm f2.8 Macro lens, but I just don’t feel I’ve had enough experience with this lens to provide a worthwhile review just yet. Instead I’m going to post a few pictures taken with this lens, and my overall experience thus far. First a little…  I mentioned in a post last week where I was really concerned about my latest Bluebird nest since the temperatures in the Houston area were over 100 degrees for successive days. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect the Bluebird babies to survive. The temperatures were reaching 105-107 degrees with a heat index of over 110. I…  I mentioned in a previous post how we have quite a few House Finches lately. The other day when I was checking the feeder, I noticed this male House Finch feeding one of the fledglings.  Lately we’ve had quite a few House Finches at the feeder. On this one particular female House Finch, it appears she has some type of eye disease. I haven’t researched what this might be, but if anyone knows what this may indicate, please let me know. Here is a copped shot of the right eye,…  I’ve talked about in previous posts about how we have our second Eastern Bluebird nest of the season with 4 babies. Today marks their third day since hatching, but I’m concerned. It has been really hot the last couple of days, and is supposed to be 101 degrees over the next two days. That’s outside…  I haven’t seen any Hummingbirds lately, but today I saw a female Ruby Throated Hummingbird. She was traveling to every nectar flower she could find and was particularly drawn to the Coral Honeysuckle.  I was doing my evening check on all the bird feeders and noticed something peculiar about this particular Mourning Dove. It seems to be missing an eye. I could not tell if the eye is missing because of disease or because it is due to a fight with another bird. Anyone ever seen anything like…  The family of Eastern Bluebirds still visits daily for meal worms. Although there were 5 fledglings, I only see 3 fledglings now. Just like their parents, once they see me outside in the afternoon they fly down to the meal worm feeder to get a few tasty snacks. Above is the entire family except for… |
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