31 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
What would summer be without dragonflies? This past week I went to the lotus pond near our house and photographed the following dragonflies.
Eastern Amberwing: small dragonfly somewhat difficult to photograph.
Blue Dasher on lotus bud: very common dragonfly in our area
Blue Dasher
Blue Dasher
There were several other types of dragonflies at the lotus pond, but the photos I took did not turn out well enough. Will try again another day.
29 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in EBF Refuge, Photography
I took this picture two months ago. It shows a group of Forster’s Terns on a tiny island in the marshes at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.
Tern Island
27 Monday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
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Marsh Mallows which grow around marshlands and ponds are usually pink. Yesterday, at the Abbott Marhslands near Trenton, NJ, I saw several that were white with a faint hint of pink. Following are two versions of of one of these flowers, in color and monochrome. Which one do you prefer?
Marsh Mallow – color version.
Marsh Mallow monochrome.
26 Sunday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
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A young female House Finch was chased away from the bird feeder by an older bird. She flew up and took refuge on a branch of the oak tree.
Young female House Finch upset and sad at being chased from the bird feeder.
A male House Finch flew up to join her. She at once complained to him.
Female House Finch fluttering her wings to complain to male House Finch.
The complaints were quite noisy and animated. Lots of fluttering wings.
She: They won’t let me eat at those nice sunflower seeds at the feeder.
He tried to calm her down.
He: Look, there is room for all of us at the feeder.
He: Let’s fly down there together, okay? She: All right then.
Sure enough, they both flew down and got their perches at the bird feeder, and ate there happily together ever after.
24 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge
Following is my submission for this challenge: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/close-up/
Cone Flower and Japanese Beetle Close Up
24 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
Black-Eyed Susans, like the cone flowers in the previous post, come in many colors. They also bloom at the same time as cone flowers, rivaling in beauty and splendor. The following photos were taken at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge near the town of Seneca Falls, NY.
Black-Eyed Susan
Black-Eyed Susan of a more traditional variety
Black-Eyed Susan
22 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
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Cone flowers or Echinaceas are at their peak at the height of summer. These days, in addition to the traditional pink, they come in many shapes and colors such as white, yellow, orange, purple, and even green. I took the following shots this past weekend at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. The refuge had several varieties, but the pink ones dominated. The bees loved them!
Pink Echinacea
Bee on Echinacea
Closeup of bee on cone flower
Yellow cone flower
16 Thursday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
Tags
cabbage butterfly, coreopsis, cosmos, photography, postaday, rose
This week has so far been very rainy, inflicting a heavy burden on the daisies and causing their stems to break, sending most of the flowers to the ground. Other flowers survived intact and even seemed to thrive on the rain.
Rose “Heritage”
Coreopsis “Moonbeam”
Cosmos
Finally a picture of a butterfly. It is the Cabbage Butterfly, a very common one and the first to appear each year.
Cabbage Butterfly: it is a male because it has a single black dot on its wing.
15 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
Some more photos of white lotus flowers at a pond near home.
White Lotus
White Lotus: there are two bees hovering, and one more leaving way to the upper left of the image.
White Lotus bud
White Lotus monochrome
13 Monday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
The lotus pond is only about five miles from our house. At the beginning of summer, it has mostly white flowers, and the red or pink ones don’t bloom until several weeks later. Yesterday the pond looked very green still, with not too many flowers.
Lotus pond
The bees of course were very busy and at times there were several on a single flower.
White Lotus and bee
White Lotus and two bees
White Lotus
A dilemma I have is that so many shots came out that were just as nice looking as the above. I didn’t want to clutter this page with too many shots, and thus slow down the display of this page. But if you want to see more of these white lotus photos, let me know in your comments and I’ll post some more on the next post.
White Lotus
12 Sunday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge
Here’s my submission to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Large Subjects.
Lotus flower and bee
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/07/09/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-large-subjects/
11 Saturday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
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The photo below is blurry, not intentionally or for artistic reasons. At first I thought that a sudden wind burst had bent the row of daisies I was photographing. However, the actual cause is not so natural: I had my camera mounted on a ballhead and as I took the shot, the weight of the camera and lens made the ballhead rotate slightly down.
Daisies
So that you don’t get dizzy looking at the above picture, here’s a better shot of the daisies.
Daisies
10 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
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For many years our hostas have been regularly decimated by the deer roaming in our backyard. The plants have become smaller despite my efforts at reviving them. This year, I sprayed the plants several times with deer repellent, and so far they have been left alone. They even sent up flowers, and here’s my first picture of one flower.
Hosta flower
09 Thursday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
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This young female Cardinal was shaking and looked wet, but it had not rained the night before. Maybe she had just fledged and was still checking out the world beyond the nest.
Young female Cardinal.
08 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
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The rain has been heavy almost every day of this week. I didn’t want to go out and face the steaming heat that seems to envelop everything at all hours. However, during an interlude, when I looked out and saw silvery raindrops on the poinsettia plant, I had to bring out the camera and take the following shots.
Raindrops on Poinsettia.
Raindrops on Poinsettia.
07 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
The following photo is my answer to Cee’s photo challenge for this week: more than 5 items.
Bleeding Hearts
For more details on the challenge, click on this link: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/07/07/cees-fun-foto-challenge-more-than-5-items-2/
07 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in EBF Refuge, Photography
Yesterday I made a quick drive through the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge to check on the Ospreys. It was hot and thousand of sand flies, mosquitoes, and all sorts of insects conducted a relentless assault on our car. The sun was high, and so the light was not at its best, but I was able to get the following photos. The nest had three or four Osprey chicks which have grown considerably from about a month ago (see Osprey Chicks). Three chicks are readily recognizable, and the fourth one may be a small bird next to the one on the right, but I can’t tell for sure.
Osprey father, mother, and three or four chicks.
Osprey mother feeding chicks.
06 Monday Jul 2015
Posted in Photography
At this time of the year, our Southern Magnolia (Magnolia Grandilora) trees produce flowers as big as dinner plates and as white as the finest china. This morning I took the following photos of one flower and rendered it in both color and monochrome. Let me know which one you prefer by using the voting buttons at the end of this post.
Southern Magnolia in color
Southern Magnolia monochrome
02 Thursday Jul 2015
Posted in EBF Refuge, Photography
Tags
dowitcher, dunlin, edwin b forstythe national wildlife refuge, oystercatcher, photography, postaday, ruddy turnstone
I took the following photos of these beautiful shore birds at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in May of this year, but somehow never got around to post them here. Better late than never, so here they are.
Ruddy Turnstone
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Oystercatcher: standing on one leg while scratching with the other.
