Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
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Category Archives: Camera Bodies 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…  It was a busy weekend, at least on Saturday. I’m doing a complete redesign of one section of the backyard. My goal for this area is that it will be much more bird friendly. I’ve already planted an Eastern Red Cedar and moved the Yaupon Holly to that area as well. My “plan” is to…  I’m telling you, something strange is going on this year with the birds, at least in my yard. While I’m watching the Eastern Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, and the American Goldfinches, Leecy says “hello hummer!” My first thought was it’s too early for the Ruby Throated Hummers to arrive so she’s seeing things, then I saw…  Yesterday we saw 2 Eastern Bluebirds, today we saw 3. There are 2 males (I think) and 1 female. The more mature male was also examining the bird houses. As I said before, hopefully they will decide to build a nest in 1 of them. In the first picture, that is supposed to be an…  Another very warm day today in Houston, and some unusual bird activity for me. For whatever reason, the American Goldfinches arrived today. I counted at least 6. That’s a small number compared to the masses we had last year, but they did appear a little earlier than last year as well. I only have Thistle…  We’re still raising Monarch Butterflies despite it being late January. Of course, this is Houston and today’s temperature was 78 degrees so it’s not like we’re having a lot of cold weather at the moment. I had forgotten how our Maple Tree is a source of nectar for Butterflies and Honeybees until I saw this…  I had quite the surprise today. I was sleeping in a little late since I didn’t have to work today and I awoke to what sounded like an Eastern Bluebird (the windows were open). Sure enough, I peeked outside and there were 2 Eastern Bluebirds singing their dawn song. Here’s what’s kind of interesting about…  Maggie is my 10 year old (as of January 10) Golden Retriever. She’s had a rough December and January. I take that back. I’ve had a rough December and January worrying about her, she’s just been a little stressed because of her recent visit to the vet. Back in December we took Maggie to the…  I have a couple of exciting news items to share (at least they’re exciting to me). I made an impulse buy over the holidays and bought a new Canon EF 70-200 f2.8 II lens. From most of the reviews I’ve read on the web, this lens gets rave reviews. Since I sold my 100-400mm lens…  Here is part 2 of my vacationing and birding trip to Quintana. First is a Field Sparrow sitting in a tree. Their were others on its species just outside the frame of this picture. Another small bird I saw who appeared pretty tired was a White Throated Sparrow hiding in a bunch of twigs (at…  Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I just got back from taking a 3 day vacation in Quintana, Texas. Quoting their web page, “Quintana is an island located between the mouth of the Old Brazos River and the New Brazos River on the Texas Gulf Coast.” My purpose in going there was just to…  I did take my trip to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. Specifically I went to the Skillern Tract part of the refuge. I can’t recommend this part of the wildlife refuge highly enough. It is awesome! From what I read, it’s still relatively unknown among birders, but that probably won’t last for long. I actually went…  I’ve mentioned previously that we really haven’t seen many Gulf Fritillary Butterflies this year. I still think the drought has something to do with that. However, while I was out photographing the Monarch Butterflies, I noticed a smaller Butterfly chasing the Monarchs. It turns out it was a Gulf Fritillary. I’m assuming this one is… |
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