Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Mammals 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’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… 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… You wouldn’t believe all the Deer out here. There are both White Tailed Deer and Axis Deer. Leecy and I brought the corn from home that we originally were feeding the Squirrels in hopes that they would leave the bird feeders alone. It didn’t work, so we quit feeding them. Out where we are staying,…  Houston, we have a problem. The problem is Squirrels! I download the videos and pictures from the Wingscapes Birdcam and out of 217 images and videos (combined), 99% had Squirrels in them. Apparently the Squirrels are gorging themselves so much they can’t even move. Look at this Squirrel! It’s actually laying down in the bird…  Squirrels, you either love them or hate them. I personally don’t mind them except when the hog the bird feeders and scare the songbirds away. Since it is Winter, and I know food is a little harder to come by, I decided to place ears of corn along the fence and away from the bird…  I’ve fallen in love! I’m renting my ultimate dream lens, the Canon 500mm f/4. This lens is stunning. I received the lens today mid-morning couldn’t wait to test it out on my Canon 7D. I had just walked out in the backyard noticed a Squirrel. Good enough for me. Then I hear the unmistakable sound… One of the Skunks wasn’t playing fair tonight. It avoided “Stella” the motion detecting sprinkler I have….temporarily:-). I’ve never seen this particular Skunk before. It was the smallest I’ve ever seen. This particular Skunk also seemed to walk with a little gimp, or perhaps it was just so small it was having problems walking through…  I’ve got to say, I’m really impressed with this Contech Scarecrow Motion Activated Sprinkler. For the last 3 days, since I received this product, the Skunks, Raccoons, and Possum have all tried to return to continue their feeding below the Bird Feeders. Problem is, “Stella” the Scarecrow Sprinkler is scaring them away with bursts of…  Now this is getting ridiculous. First there were Skunks, and now we have Possums? What’s next? (Update #2 Never mind, I just found out. A Raccoon. It just chased off the Possum). (Update #3 The two young Skunks just arrived). This has all occurred in less than 1 hour. I clearly have a problem. —————-…  Leecy thought she had sealed up any holes in the fence so that the Skunks could not return. and also spread around this “supposed” Skunk deterrent. Guess what? I don’t think it slowed them down a bit. As usual, right before we were letting the Dogs out for their final potty break of the night,…  Okay, two weeks ago I thought we had one little baby Skunk paying us a visit. Then last week when I went out to try and get pictures of the Skunk, I discovered we had 2 Skunks. Well guess what? Now it looks like we have 3 Skunks. One is definitely a baby. The other…  Leecy kicked me out of the house and told me to go on vacation somewhere, so I’m out in the Texas Hill Country with Sascha (German Shepherd). I’m actually in Fredericksburg Texas at some small cottage. Before everyone starts writing, Leecy really didn’t kick me out, but it was her idea that I go somewhere… This morning, Leecy sent me a protest email about my Skunk story. In the interests of “fair and balanced reporting” I’m including her version. Ok, let ME tell you the CORRECT story on the “dog meets skunk”. Sascha started barking at 4:15am, I tried to see if she could wait till my alarm went off…  Today was the first Queen Butterfly we’ve seen for 2010. She was laying eggs on the Milkweed. I never could manage to get a decent picture of her as she was constantly flying about. You may also notice all the Aphids on the Milkweed. I’ve tried spraying them and wiping them off by hand. I’m… |
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