Bluebirds

I was lucky to be at Christine's house this AM with my camera when she fed the bluebirds. She has nest number 3 in her box this year. The first 2 nests were in a new, fancy box closer to the road, and the current nest is in the original bluebird box closer to the house in their side yard. There are 5 eggs again this go around, and they should hatch soon. I was able to catch the mom, dad, and at least two juveniles eating mealworms. Several times, the dad put mealworms in the juveniles mouth. Christine and I were very excited to see 3 bluebirds land at once in the plate. They chowed down.

The best of the best all cropped nicely are here.

Green Heron

Well, while I was taking the deer shot in my previous blog entry, this really neat bird flew into the water area and landed on a stump. Turns out, according to my friend Jackie Trickel, that he's a green heron (formerly known as a little green heron). This is my frist green heron picture:-) More and better coming I hope!

Nature - Sometimes Harsh Yet Beautiful

I have to admit that I'm excited about some of the pics I took today. Let me give a special thanks to Danny and Christine for letting me come to their garden and take pics. I wouldn't have some of these cools shots without their help. The large lantana bush that they have blooming in their front yard has tons of neat insects on it right now. I was able to get a shot of a yellow swallowtail butterfly with somewhat damaged wings...probably from the recent storms. I was also able to get shots of an American Lady butterfly and the Hemaris Diffinis moth again. But, what turned out to be most amazing was finding a praying mantis feeding on a black swallowtail butterfly. I don't have a 'real' black swallowtail picture yet, so I wish this guy had been flying around, but the feeding shots are quite interesting, if not sad, too. Then, on the way to The Little Gym tonight, I was pretty sure I spotted a deer lying on the bank of the little water spot coming out of Fuquay on Hwy. 55. I turned around, and sure enough, it was a fawn. I was very pleased that the 'baby' let me get off several pics. Whoa!

I hope you enjoy...

The rest of the best pics from today are here.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

A picture of me and the boys taken at New Hope Valley Railway on 5/1/2005 and another one taken on 7/6/2008. Mom's hair is longer, Joey's hair has less curls, and Johnny is much bigger:-) I just thought it would be neat to compare.

Excellent Blog Award

Major Mom has so kindly bestowed upon me the Excellent Blogger Award. It's a pay it forward type of award. Christina had passed it on to Major Mom, and soon I'll pass it on to someone else.

A sincere thanks to those that take the time to read my blog and look at my pictures. I've been known to take one or two pictures on occassion;-) Taking them is fun, but the best enjoyment is sharing them with friends.

Thank you!

Another Moth Shot

At the suggestion of a friend, I went back and took some more pics with the flash forced on. I managed to get more wing and antenna detail. Cool. I'll look for these guys again when the sun is directly on the lantana instead of in the shade when I was taking the pics today.

Is it a bee or a hummingbird?

No, it's a moth! Look here for details. Christine has these all over the lantana in her yard. Here are more of the same...