Tachinid Fly

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Donnie took me for a drive down my favorite gravel/dirt road, John Adams, yesterday.  The Queen Anne's lace is blooming, and I'm eagerly awaiting the buds on the orange tiger lilies to develop and open too.  I spent about 30 minutes in two different spots seeing what I could see and taking pics along the way.

My daily which I originally thought was a wasp is a tachanid fly Cylindromyia sp. Who knew?!? :-) Thanks to L. Perry Fuqua for suggesting that I use BugGuide for an ID.

I wanted to post this American Lady butterfly shot today, but the butterfly seemed to blend into the background too much.

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Here's a collage of the best of the best of the day.

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Johnny had another Little League baseball game last night, and I took pics again even though it was a later in the evening and therefore there was less light.  The Ironbirds did win.  Johnny was really starting to get the hang of backing up first base; he's often in right field.  Here's a collage with some game highlights.

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Score Smile

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Johnny's smile at home plate last night after scoring a run for his team.  Way to go Johnny!

I had fun standing outside the fence at first base taking pics of the boys as they batted and ran!

Before the game with Coach Clay.

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Ben is the coaches son and boy is he good!

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A few more shots of Johnny.

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Love the placement of the ball and the intensity of the run in this combo shot!

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Still can't get any decent shots at Joey's games.  We're either visitors with our back to the plate or home and the sun shining into our eyes.  I'll keep looking for an opportunity.  Meanwhile I sure am liking taking shots at Johnny's games!

Junior Scientists

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Johnny's school class and another 1st grade class took a field trip to Laurel Hills park in Raleigh yesterday.  The kids were split up into two groups by classes.  One class explored aquatic life in the pond while the other explored insects in the park and then of course they switched.  My daily is a picture of Johnny's class at the pond.  I caught the baby snapper turtle:-)  Below is Johnny's class exploring insects.

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We saw two different banded watersnakes in the park too;-)

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Pink Whimsy

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Sharing a whimsical coneflower shot that I took at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham this past weekend.

I didn't shoot many pics yesterday.  I was tied to the house while a new Mitsubishi Mr. Slim ductless system was installed to cool and heat our garage bonus room.  The 10 year old heat pump failed over the winter, and it was getting hot up there!  This system should be quieter and much more efficient.

I'm off on a school field trip with Johnny today.  We're visiting a pond and learning about tadpoles and pond environments.  Hopefully there will be some photo ops:-)

Dragons

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I was back looking for the Baltimore Orioles again yesterday.  No luck, but there was a lot of dragonfly activity!

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Do you see double here?

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The dragon is laying eggs in this shot.

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I also saw and got to take some great pics of this Catalpa (Catawba) tree yesterday near my doctor's office (folllow-up visit).  Donnie and I collected  some seeds in the hopes of maybe starting our own tree.  I found it really interesting that these trees are related to the purple flowered Paulownia (Empress Tree).

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Baltimore Oriole

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On the way home from Joey's baseball practice yesterday, I asked Donnie to drive us down my favorite gravel/dirt road...John Adams Road.  He was happy to do so knowing I'd try to find something to take a picture of.  We were delighted to see for the very first time out in nature to see two Baltimore Orioles.  You might think that we see these all the time where we are, but we've both been in NC since around 1980, and neither of us had seen one before. According to the map, they are just migrating through.  How cool we caught them as they passed by!  And, it's so nice to have these things to share with Donnie.  The kids were with us and missed the birds the first time around, but that's the beauty of having a real picture and the internet to review:-)

Before the cool bird sighting, I was pretty excited about the butterflies that I'd seen!

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And a cool dove silhouette.

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Green Heron

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Joey was asking and asking to go to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham this past week. I felt up to it, and Donnie was agreeable, so off we went yesterday. Darn if it wasn't a cool and cloudy 58 all day but no rain to dampen our visit, so we were able to enjoy ourselves. We spent some time inside checking out the new Math Moves exhibit and then ended up outside going to the barn yard, Magic Wings Butterfly House, and walking the Explore the Wild Loop.  I got lots of nice pictures in the flower garden outside the butterfly house, during the butterfly release, and on the Explore the Wild Loop.  I know some of you will nod your head in agreement that the best bird poses and sightings are always on cloudy days when the light is low and pictures are hard.  Yesterday was no exception with a green heron, red shouldered hawk, and kingfisher all visible in the wetlands.

Here's a collage of the best flower shots I took outside the butterfly house.  Wow, there sure was some great color out there!

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My patient guys enjoying a snack while I got my flower fix.

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Johnny isn't smiling here because he got pushed off the fireman's pole platform on the playground a few minutes earlier by some kid for an unknown reason and fell about four feet landing on his back and had the wind knocked out of him pretty good.  Thanks to the dad that saw it and stayed with him while Joey came and got me.  Bigger thanks nothing broken.  Thankfully after his snack Johnny recovered and enjoyed the rest of his visit.

Here are the butterflies we enjoyed inside the butterfly house.  Johnny was handed a Clipper during the 3PM butterfly release, and we got lots of pics and then passed the butterfly onto a delighted little girl and her family.

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I wish Donnie could tell the part of our daily story when we rounded the corner of the boardwalk overlooking the wetlands and I saw the green heron.  Let's just say I was a tad excited!  Sometimes I go a whole summer and don't get even one green heron sighting.  And it's only April so far!  And I have one!

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Some of these shots are stretching the 140x digital zoom of the Canon SX40 HS which doubles as a great set of binoculars as well as a great camera.

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Such an impressive bird and exciting sighting that I just had to make him my daily!

The Red Shouldered Hawk

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and Kingfisher shots

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were not as good but still quite exciting.

This squirrel can't read:-)

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Thanks Joey!

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Math Moves and Contraptions photos.  The chair shot upper left makes you learn fractions with two smaller chairs 1/4 and 1/6 the seat area.  Or you can just have fun in the mirror like we did:-)

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And the video.