Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Places To Visit It’s been a while but I mentioned how I was signed up for a couple of classes involving Butterflies. Both of the classes were offered by the Houston Arboretum. The first class was Butterflies of Houston and the Upper Texas Gulf Coast taught by Nancy Greig, Ph.D. She is the Curator of Entomology at the… This was one of the few pictures I was able to get of a bird. It’s a Giant Egret. Here’s a cute little baby Alligator. It was in a cage inside the nature center. Although we didn’t see many birds at Armand Bayou, we did see quite a few Turtles (Red Eared Sliders) and Giant Swallowtail Butterflies. If you click on this picture and view it full size, you’ll see there’s a little Blue Dragonfly on one of the plants growing out of the pond. I didn’t notice that… We finally decided on a little excursion for the weekend and decided on Armand Bayou Nature Center. It was rated a 3 (the highest rating) from the book “Finding Birds On The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail.” Leecy and I would give it a 1, just on our experience. Perhaps it was too hot or… Decided to take a little field trip today to Jesse H. Jones Park in Humble, Texas. It was the first time we have ever visited and there were lots of picture taking opportunities. We spent 4 hours at this park taking pictures and hiking the trails. At the end of the day I was exhausted,… This has to be the most hilarious picture I have ever taken of a Dragonfly. Let’s call him Bubba. He appears to have two buck teeth. Click on the picture for the full sized view and to really see his “teeth.”  Once we finished walking along the creek (or river), we hiked along a trail that had lots of vines, low grasses, and in one case, a tasty roof (I’ll explain shortly). Some of these Butterflies I have never seen in my backyard, so it was refreshing to witness something new. Here’s a Gray Hairstreak. I…  Taking pictures of birds is exhausting, at least if you’re standing on white sand, it’s 100 degrees outside, and you’ve been waiting forever for an Egret to catch a fish. Fortunately for me, there were some less active creatures who were more than happy to have their picture taken. This Turtle needs a manicure  I think this was called Spring Creek, but it looked like a small river to me. Whatever it was, there was lots of wildlife around. First thing I noticed was this small bird, a Killdeer, running along the shore. He just finished taking a drink when I snapped this picture. Further along the shore, we… How would you like to walk into this web while hiking through the woods? This is a Banana Spider or the Golden Silk Orb Weaver. I thought I was taking a picture of a large spider, but if you look at the full size photo you’ll see there’s another Spider at the top of the…  Knock, knock, knock. Two huge Woodpeckers are pecking away on a tree. These birds are really big! They look like they have some kind of cut on their face, but if you look closely it’s really just feathers. One thing about Jesse H. Jones Park, there are lots of insects and many of these insects have no problem flying smack dab into the human visitors. It was bad enough I’m carrying around 30 lbs of camera equipment when this “Beetle” flies right into my face! Once he bounced off of my face, he… Nothing is safe from my camera. Granted, the pictures may not always turn out that great, but I will at least try to get a snapshot. For example, check out this Rabbit. He thought he was hiding. Cruising down the trail, not two feet from Leecy, stands a small Nine Banded Armadillo. Somehow Leecy didn’t notice this creature as I guess she was looking up, not down. I whisper, STOP, LOOK! This Armadillo then slowly walks back into the woods. I start taking pictures, neither of us saying a word. This small… |
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