Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: EF 300 F2.8 For the first time in my backyard I saw (and photographed) a Texan Crescent Butterfly. It appeared to be very attracted to the nectar in the Indian Blanket Wildflowers. These are probably the most abundant Wildflowers we have in our Wildflower garden.  We’re so dry here in Texas everything is trying to find water, including this Mockingbird who visited my favorite, and oldest, bird bath.  I haven’t posted many pictures of the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds lately simply because I haven’t been quick enough with the camera. We only have two, a male and a female. I see them daily and I’m pretty sure they are the same ones that have been hanging around for about a month. I wonder if…  Leecy spotted these two going at it in the garden. The female doesn’t look all that thrilled, but what do I know. Here’s a video.  I have some pictures of Eastern Black Swallowtails that I wanted to share. Before I get to that, I wanted to share some information and see if others might have noticed the same thing. We’ve had quite a few eggs and Caterpillars from the Eastern Black Swallowtail, but just as the Caterpillars get to be…  Another great day for the Monarch Butterflies! We released a total of 9 Monarch Butterflies today. I said yesterday that I was going to try and record some video of this event, and I did, but the videos didn’t come out as good as I would have liked, so I’m just going to post some…  It was a beautiful day outside and once the weather warmed up just a bit, the Butterflies started emerging from their Chrysalises (Monarchs) or they wandered over to our Butterfly and Hummingbird garden. This is the first Pipevine Swallowtail we have seen in 2011, and it was going crazy on the red Wildflowers. It was…  In the past 3 days we have released a total of 31 Monarch Butterflies. All of the releases were from the first Monarch we saw this year that had migrated from Mexico. I’m guessing we may have another 8-10 that will be ready for release tomorrow. If at all possible, I’m going to try and…  Since Wildseed Farms was suffering the effects of the Texas drought, I was unable to take any pictures of Butterflies feeding on their wildflowers. That didn’t stop me from looking around Country Inn And Cottages (where Leecy and I went for vacation). One day while Leecy and I were investigating the property looking for Deer…  I’ll admit, this guy scares me although he’s supposed to be rather friendly. It’s a Texas Longhorn. Any animals that has horns this big, and throws out spit when it is shaking off the flies on its head makes me nervous. I might be the only animal that’s nervous around this big guy as the…  There sure are a lot of birds I’ve never seen out here before. We’re staying at Country Inn and Cottages out in Fredericksburg, Texas. The one bird I saw today that I was unable to get a picture of was a Summer Tanager. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get a picture tomorrow. A very common… I didn’t realize the impact of the drought on the Wildflowers. The Wildflowers, normally in full bloom right now, are pretty much either non-existent or have very limited blooms. In terms of photography and my vacation, time to move to plan B. Since the Wildflower photography opportunities are so limited, I’m going to focus on…  It won’t be long now. I think if we didn’t have this little cold front, these little birds would probably be leaving the nest tomorrow. Of course I did say I thought they would leave the nest by this weekend and I was wrong about that. Look how far they’ve come. It’s amazing how fast…  It was a cloudy, overcast, somewhat windy day, so not the best day to take pictures. Leecy pointed out this Carpenter Bee (I think that’s what it is, not a Bumblebee) flying around the Wildflowers. I wasn’t really expecting much from the pictures, but I’m actually quite pleased with how they turned out. While I…  I was watering the grass today and saw something quite unusual in the bottom of the pool. This is an adult Small Mouth Salamander, that is roughly 5.5 inches (14 centimeters). I almost never see them unless I’m digging a whole in some moist soil, or when they happen to get caught in the pool… |
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