Thursday, June 30, 2016

6/30/16

Well, I guess now it's after today that we are supposed to cool down.  Chances for rain too but we shall see.  My image today is of a very elusive butterfly I saw at Tamarac Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota.  My mom-in-law knew what it was, a White Admiral.  I now know what the more cooperative one I saw in South Dakota was.  :-)  I either saw this one several times or saw several of these but could never get what I think of as a very good shot as I could never get very close and it did not sit still for long.  I had to take this with a Zoom lens and I chose this image because it showed off the wings and color well and I felt like sharing a butterfly today since I am not seeing any around home except a Skipper here and there.  Very sad.


Wednesday, June 29, 2016

6/29/16

So we are a bit cooler and chances for rain so that is good.  That boiling heat was not good.  I had shared an image of the Loon family I was able to see at Tamarac Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota.  This image is from a bit earlier.  At first it was just mom and the 2 babies but then Dad came in to join them and this is a capture of that.  


Tuesday, June 28, 2016

6/28/16

So we finally got some rain.  Knocked out my power though so couldn't have a shower, not happy about that.  I usually don't share photos of diesel trains here but I liked the light in this one so I am.  :-)  I got this in Abilene on Saturday as I was heading home.  If you look, there in the background is a BNSF station so I was expecting a BNSF train to come by when I saw the lights.  Imagine my surprise when it came closer as I was snapping phtotos and it was this.  :-)


Monday, June 27, 2016

6/27/16

Well we finally had a lovely morning of in the 60s F degree weather!  Looks like we are on a bit of a cool trend for a few days at least.  After today only in the 80s.  Now if we could only get some rain.  My image today is of a Bumble Bee enjoying the Butterfly Milkweed in my garden.  I have not seen many butterflies this year which makes me sad.  I'm glad though that the bees are enjoying the things I have planted.




Sunday, June 26, 2016

6/26/16

Well, we got no rain but at least it looks like we are on a cooling trend for a bit.  My image for today is of the Wagner locomotive that I help operate up in Rollag, Minnesota.  It was Steam School this past weekend and we had it steamed up so students could operate it if they wished.  While I was taking this photo, a young guy that works with us and has a good knack for operating was running it. He is going to make a good engineer when he is old enough to get his license.  In this image the train is about to come to our station just past the Roundhouse that is currently being built.



Saturday, June 25, 2016

6/25/16

Well, we are going to be hot again, near 100.  At least we got a tiny bit of rain yesterday.  Hopefully we will get more.  I thought I would share a sunset image.  It's been quite a while since I shared one of those and I got a rather nice one last week as we were traveling to Minnesota.  I shot this in the more northern part of Nebraska.  I kept watching it and just had to pull over and take a couple images as the light and color was so nice.  This is 2 images stitched together and better viewed large by clicking on the image.


Friday, June 24, 2016

6/24/16

I have been driving back and forth to Manhattan a lot lately.  A couple of weeks ago I kept noticing these large numbers of orange flowers in the ditches alongside the road and wondered what they were.  I finally stopped one day on the way home and found that they were Coreopsis Grandiflora probably more commonly known as Large Flowered Tickseed.  I took a few images of them and I liked this one with the group up front and then several more providing some lovely bright bokeh.


Thursday, June 23, 2016

6/23/16

So today is only in the 90s.  Kind of weird to say only but it is about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday so I will take it.  My image today, I captured this a couple of weeks ago when I was out shooting macros of Fleebane wildflowers in my yard.  I got lucky when a Honeybee stopped to gather pollen from a group of them.


Wednesday, June 22, 2016

6/22/16

So today is going to be a soul sucking 105 F.  Hopefully the weather forecast is correct and temps will start to drop a bit though it looks like still in the 90s for the foreseeable future.  I took today's image when it was much cooler out.  I shot this male Cardinal in one of the trees in the yard putting on a rather angry bird face.  The red really stood out in this pose. 


Tuesday, June 21, 2016

6/21/16

Well, I'm back in the heat.  It was 75 F at 6:45 am already.  I miss Minnesota where it was only in the low 60s at this time.  So my image today is another from the flight and smoke display at the Annual Bi-plane Fly-In a couple weekends ago.  It was really fun to watch them buzz the field and put out the smoke trails.


Monday, June 20, 2016

6/20/16

So I have been in Minnesota for the past few days and now heading back to the land of high heat.  Going back to mid to high 90s from today where it's a lovely low 70s.  Sigh.  I don't care for Minnesota winters but the summers are nice.  Except for the mosquitoes, their state bird.  :-)  My image for today is of the first Dragonfly I captured this year.  It was enjoying my Salvia plant like many other things have.  I don't know the type at the moment but must be a variety of Clearwing.


Sunday, June 19, 2016

6/19/16

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!  My image for today is of a friend of mine's large scale locomotive.  This is his 12 inch scale American style William Crooks locomotive after it has just taken on water in the tender.  He runs his locomotives on wood but they can also run on coal.  Running on wood gives them quite the nice smell.  :-)  This locomotive is beautifully detailed and fun to operate.


Saturday, June 18, 2016

6/18/16

On Thursday I was able to travel for an annual photo outing with my mom-in-law and her brother.  We visited Tamarac Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota once again and saw lots of great photo opportunities.  The highlight of the day was seeing this Loon family down on one of the lakes by the Visitor Center.  I had only seen a Loon twice before and able to get a photo once.  It was quite cool to see a whole family.  In this shot I was able to capture one of the young Loons in an adult pose.  Very cute.



Friday, June 17, 2016

6/17/16

So when I moved to Kansas, I have to admit, I was not all that thrilled with it.  There are times I am not very thrilled with it now but that's for a different reason.  Sigh.  Anyway, then I went to Konza Prairie for the first time and found a place I just love.  It's a Tall Grass Prairie Biological Station,mainly for research but they do a lot of public education as well, mainly for students but also for adults.  I loved it so much I became a Docent and am also currently serving on the Board for Friends Of. Last weekend was their annual Wildflower Walk and the Butterfly Milkweed was putting on quite the show.  Butterfly Hill was just full of orange and reds all over.  This is a shot looking up the hill with one of the darker, more red varieties in the foreground.  The pink ball flowers are from Cat's Claw Sensitive Briar whose leaves, when you run your finger along them, will close up.  Very fun to do.  


Thursday, June 16, 2016

6/16/16

I'm on vacation so I can post early today.  Another scorching hot day in June today.  Hope you stay cool.  Here's an image with a lot of cool green.  I captured this Ladybug wandering around the Elderberry blooms the other day.  This one was not fully open as you can see.  I have been lucky to see more of these than usual this year.  Not many butterflies yet which makes me very sad.


Wednesday, June 15, 2016

6/15/16

So it got to over 100 today already, good grief.  My image was taken back when it was cooler and we had rain as well which was only 3 weeks ago but seems forever.  This is the waterfall at the Geary State Fishing Lake from a different vantage point then the image I previously shared where I had to wade across the stream.  I took this from the bank and is a sunnier view.  


Tuesday, June 14, 2016

6/14/16

Well, heading into 3 days of near or at 100 F.  UGH  It's going to be a long hot dry summer.  My image today is of one of the roses I was given for my birthday.  I shot it in sunlight against a black background and did nothing to it except resize for the web.  I even came up with a name for it, Out of the Dark.




Monday, June 13, 2016

6/13/16

So it's going to be very hot again this week, Thursday 100F already!  UGH  It's June not August.  What kind of temps are we going to have in August if we are at 100 already.  My plants are struggling to grow in this heat.  Well, enough whining, on to today's image.  This is a cute Blue Jay I captured in my in-law's Ornamental Pear tree.  Loved the way it was looking with the cute tilt of it's head.  I imagine it was looking for the peanuts they had put out for it.


Sunday, June 12, 2016

6/12/16

So it's steamy outside today again and so a real steamy Sunday.  :-)  My image goes back to a usually cooler place of Minnesota and a friend's cool 12 inch scale locomotive.  It's a Challenger type which is articulated which means it has 2 sets of drivers, 4-6 6-4 so even though it's long it can negotiate sharp curves.  This large scale locomotive is incredibly detailed and beautiful and fun to operate, the front of it seems to go on forever.  Here it is heading up a steep grade to the loading area.



Saturday, June 11, 2016

6/11/15

Ugh, another hot one today, mid 90s.  Hopefully it cools down like it's supposed to next week.  This image was taken when it was much cooler out.  This is a macro of a couple of my lovely pink and white Tulips in bloom from my backyard garden.


Friday, June 10, 2016

6/10/16

Another hot one today.  Sigh.  I was hoping for some good green beans soon but they don't grow well in the heat.  My Daisies are liking this warm weather and grew well this year.  This is an image of some of them that have escaped my garden and are growing in the yard by my pond.  Made for a happy sight for the start to the weekend.  :-)


Thursday, June 9, 2016

6/9/16

Ick it's hot already.  I hate when it's not cool and refreshing in the mornings at least and it's only June.  I have a feeling this is going to be a long summer.  Sigh.  The Bumble Bees are around and enjoying it a lot.  They are especially enjoying my Butterfly Milkweed that's supposed to attract butterflies but so far it's just bees.  I caught this one up close when it paused long enough while scurrying around looking for food.


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

6/8/16

So the week before Memorial Day we probably got all our rain for the summer.  We had over 5 inches at least during that week.  Due to that the waterfall at the Geary State Fishing Lake was flowing stronger than I have ever seen and was quite cool.  To get this shot I had to walk across water that was deeper than my boots I had on and flowing a bit faster than I would have liked but I did it slowly and was fine.  I took a bit of a long exposure to get the silky look, 1.3 seconds long using a neutral density filter to keep it from over exposing too much.  It's still amazing to me that we have such a beautiful waterfall so close here in Kansas.  In Kansas at all, because when I think of waterfalls like this I don't think of here.  :-)


Tuesday, June 7, 2016

6/7/16

Saturday was the Annual Bi-Plane Fly In here in Junction City, Kansas.  Our weather the week before it had been great so there were a good amount of planes there.  At the end of the show, several planes took off and did some acrobatic flying with smoke trails.  That was quite fun.  This is 2 of them which I believe were Stearmans.


Monday, June 6, 2016

6/6/16

So today was the last day of my Nature Challenge due to skipping a day for steam.  :-)  This is an Orchard Oriole which is much darker than the bright Baltimore Orioles.  It was sitting on the railing waiting for it's turn at the jelly which is just out of sight to the right.  The Orioles usually disappear when the Mulberries are ripe but this year they still seem to be enjoying what we provide.  I saw one having a drink just this morning.


Sunday, June 5, 2016

6/5/16

Well, my nature challenge is going to end a day late.  It's Steamy Sunday so of course had to post a train pic of some sort.  :-)  This is the railroad I volunteer at and the train I usually operate.  In this photo, because I am taking it on a break, it's the hubster operating.  One of the owners is riding behind him making sure he does things right.  :-)  Actually he's just enjoying a ride like everyone else.   This is the place where a couple of my nature photos have come from this week.  It's a 12 inch scale railroad and the train runs on coal.  As you can see in the image there are bits of actual railroad equipment around like the signal and signal box in the woods to make the place more authentic. It's a great place to play. 



Saturday, June 4, 2016

6/4/16

So this is day 6 of my nature postings.  I captured this image at the railroad I volunteer at by the pond like the Hummingbird photos were.  These are Blue Damsels and they were everywhere along the water's edge.  They did not sit still for long, mostly because one like I was able to capture would come in and up to it and make it take off.  I think they are pretty little things with their blue color.


Friday, June 3, 2016

6/3/16

Well posting a bit late, got distracted I guess.  oops.  ;-)  Anyway, this is another image of Sea Oats Grass in late afternoon sunlight.  I loved the light and colors.  This one has a little visitor on it as well that is backlit in the late light.


Thursday, June 2, 2016

6/2/16

My Butterfly Weed, a native Kansas plant, that I planted for the butterflies 3 years ago now is doing quite nicely.  The Konza Prairie Wildflower Walk is coming up in a little over a week, on June 10 so hopefully Butterfly Hill will be gorgeous.  Anyway, right now it doesn't seem to be attracting many butterflies, it's mostly bees visiting and mostly seems to be Bumble Bees such as this one enjoying the blooms.


Wednesday, June 1, 2016

6/1/16

Happy June!  It's officially summer in my book.  :-)  A beautiful day today and looks like our rain may be finished.  Hopefully not for the rest of the summer though.  My image today is a companion to the one from May 23.  I was able to capture this Hummingbird coming in the feed on an Iris.  I was really happy with this image that I got it all in focus!  :-)