TGIF! It's also the last day of April, this year seems to be going quite quickly. We had a cold snap recently but fortunately the Lilacs made it through OK and are blooming beautifully. This is a close up image of a bit of bloom on one of my bushes. I love the color of this one. I loved the bokeh in this image so it was perfect for today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious as well!
This is the third butterfly of the year that I was able to capture. It was not in the most pictureque place. It's one that I don't get to see very often. I think I have only seen it once before and it is a Goatweed Butterfly. This isn't the best capture as the light was from behind but I was happy to get it at all. I had not seen many butterflies since and now with the cold snap, hope they survived OK and I will see some again.
It's Wildflower Wednesday! The wildflowers are really emerging now that our weather is warming up. Today's flower is usually considered to be a weed, this is the common Dandelion. I find that they have beauty, especially close up. I played around with this image with a new filter and I liked the result so it's a bit prettier than normal. 😁
This is an image of an American Kestrel I was able to get late this past winter while on a walk. It wasn't as cooperative as I would have liked but it turned out fairly well even though it was shot from behind.
I stopped while on a bike ride to take some photos of some small-ish trees with these lovely flowers on them. I have no idea what they are, I think they may be a type of Cherry. I just think they are quite pretty.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Here is another one from the archives from back in the 90s. This is another view of the locomotive at the Cripple Creek & Victor Railway in Colorado. You can see a bit of the area it travels through in this image. It's not a long ride but it is interesting through a bit of mining country.
We had some crazy weather this past week. On Sunday it was in the high 60s but Monday it started dropping. Tuesday we had snow and Wednesday and Thursday, morning freezing temps. My photo for today is someone's beautiful flowering tree that I see while walking, maybe a Crabapple? I took a photo of it on Monday afternoon and then again on Tuesday morning on my way to work. Crazy. It seemed to have survived the weather because it was still lovely red on my way home that day. Anyway, the photos are less than 12 hours apart. It was a beautiful snow actually and one of the larger ones we had all year.
TGIF! Another thing that was in bloom last weekend before the cold snap was one of my Crabapple trees. It was just filled with white flowers and smelled wonderful. As you walked close to it you could hear buzzing and I captured an image of why. Here is a Honeybee moving among the blooms. Because of the lovely bokeh in this image I also shared it today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
Happy Earth Day! 🌎 Remember to plant for the bees and butterflies this spring. Native plants to your area work best. Zinnias are an alternative that grow in many places and are cheap and can be grown from seed and are butterfly magnets.
Some Spring flowers were in bloom. It will be interesting to see what has survived the cold snap we are supposed to undergo. Writing this on the weekend before. One of my Bleeding Hearts plants was blooming quite well and looking really beautiful. I captured this image with some dew drops on the bottoms of a couple of the flowers.
It's a double digit day and it's Wildflower Wednesday! Today is a new one that I found and was able to capture just this past weekend. This is a close up view of Missouri Gooseberry blooms. A wider view can be found on the Kansas White Flowers here on the Blog so it can help you ID what you see. Don't forget to check out the pages, they are located by links on the main page of the Blog.
This is how I usually see birds in the wild. I get so jealous of these photographers with lovely up close images. When I have been able to capture one fairly close, like the recent Killdeer, it is a highlight as it doesn't happen often. This is a Heron that I saw while on a bike ride recently. I only had my 300mm Zoom with me because my longer one is rather heavy and I worry about breaking it. Anyway it was looking for dinner in Milford Lake. Ilove Herons so I am happy with any decent photo I can get.
This may be my last Snowflake. It's the last one I have that I found to focus stack with a good result. It's spring anyway. Although it is appropriate for today as there is a freeze warning here for the next 3 days. SIGH Because of course everything is popping up and my Lilacs have just begun to bloom. Anyway, this is a 12 image focus stack of one that I thought had an interesting center. I am not sure what that is in the left part, maybe some tiny particles behind.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! I am still having to go through the archives since I did not get to travel to see any steam trains last year. We shall see what this year holds. This is from quite some time ago on an early trip out to Colorado when I visited the Cripple Creek and Victor Railroad. The locomotive is an articulated Mallet 0-4-4-0 narrow guage. I took this image probably back in the late 1990s but it is still operating today.
I have seen a few butterflies around already. This is the second one that I was able to capture this year. I believe it is a Cloudless Sulphur that I captured on the leaves of my Daffodils in one of my gardens.
TGIF Captured another Honeybee enjoying the Grape Hyacinths in the yard. Bee butt image! 😁 Really glad to see Honeybees around. Sharing this one for today with the nice bokeh background because Friday's Are Bokehlicious as well.
My Tulips are blooming, at least the ones not eaten by whatever, probably rabbits. Grrrr I need to construct more cages for my flowers. Sigh. Anyway, this is a macro of one of them. Love it's colors with the red highlights.
It's Wildflower Wednesday! Things are really starting to bloom in my area of Kansas. This is a close up of a Johnny Jump Up which is a relative of the Pansy. They are considered a weed but I think they are rather lovely.
I was on a bike ride through some pretty rural areas of mostly farm fields on Sunday. In the corner of one of them I spotted this Killdeer walking around. I had brought my camera along so stopped and took some images. It seemed very unconcerned that I was there and even went and sat on it's nest I am pretty sure so probably a female. I am wondering if it is because I stayed on my bike and did not move around much while taking photos. Thisis with a Zoom so I wasn't as close as it looks.
I still have a couple of good snowflakes to share that I was able to get this past February. Here is one of them. It had a bit of an odd shape to it but I was able to capture it clearly.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog. Today's image is of the same locomotive as last week at the B&O Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Obviously this is a front view of this beautiful old locomotive. You can see the ceiling pretty well which I haven't mentioned much but the roundhouse is just gorgeous. The wood ceiling and the floor are beautiful as is the turntable which can be operated by just one person it is so well balanced. Part of the ceiling had collapsed in 2003 but fortunately this very old locomotive was not in it's normal place at the time so was not damaged. This is the William Mason and was built in 1856.
Today's image could have gone on Wednesday as well. While out on a bikeride on Sunday I came across this field. It looks purposely planted but all that lovely color is coming from a wildflower very muc considered to be a weed called Henbit. It made for a lovely view. I only had my zoom lens with me so the is a panorama stiched from 5 images. It's best viewed large.
I have seen a couple of different butterflies this spring. This is the first one I have been able to capture. I believe it is an Reakirt's Blue. They are quite tiny, the wingspan is only about an inch to inch and a half across. I captured it while looking for bees on my Grape Hyacinths in my yard this past weekend. Because of the lovely bokeh and because Friday's Are Bokehlicious I chose this photo for today.
This is another of the beautiful birds from different countries that I was able to see and capture at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita. This is a beautiful Crested Coua. This bird was constantly moving around and rarely sat still. I found myself rather lucky to get a decent shot of it. Apparently they are known for not sitting still long and instead of flying bounce along the trees. In the wild they are only found in Madagascar.
It's Wildflower Wednesday on the Blog! Today's image is a macro I took on Sunday of the blooms of a Wild Blue Mustard. If you want to see what the whole plant looks like or get ID's of flowers blooming in your yard right now, be sure to check out my Wildflowers By Color Pages. This one is on the Blue & Purple Page.
While on a bike ride this past weekend I observed some Mallard ducks (Edit: Found out from a friend that these are actually Northern Shovler ducks due to the amount of white on them and their bills are too big for a Mallard) on a small pond and stopped to take some photos. A bunch of them weren't thrilled and took off and kept flying around the pond. I was able to get this shot while they were doing it and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.
If you are curious what they look like up close, here is the link I was provided and he was quite right on the ID: guide/Northern_Shoveler
We are hitting highs lately around 80 degrees. Way too warm for this early. I have a feeling this summer will be a hot one, we have not had a very hot one for a while and are probably due. Sigh. Hopefully it won't be totally dry too. Anyway, I still have snowflakes to share from a couple of late snows we had that produced some lovely flakes. This one looks a little warped because of the way it was laying and because the top was somewhat broken but I liked the colors in it a lot. This is from 14 images focus stacked together.
It's a double digit day! 😁 It is also Steamy Sunday here on the Blog. Today we return to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore Maryland. Today's locomotive is the William Mason, a beautiful 4-4-0 American type built in 1856 and named after it's and 753 others builder. It's number is 25 and it was used extensively during the Civil War to carry troops and supplies for the Union. It is the first locomotive for the B&O to have a Stephenson link motion valve gear and a round smoke box set on a cylinder saddle. It was not in the roundhouse during the roof collapse of 2003. It was last under steam in 2012 and was restored back to it's original look in 2017. It is now stored in the roundhouse. It was sitting in the Roundhouse in 2005 when I got this photo.
Todays image is of my favorite spot on my property. I thought it made for a lovely landscape photo. The Daffodils are in bloom at my large pond. We have had enough rain that I have been able to run the waterfall without having to add water to the pond from my tank. You can see the waterfall in the background but it is out of focus. The Gazebo is just off to the right of this image.
It's Friday, TGIF! Friday's Are Bokehlicious and I have this lovely bokeh image to share today. This is another very colorful bird I captured at the Segwick County Zoo in Wichita a few weekend's ago. This is a Golden Breasted Starling. Much more beautiful than the European ones we have around here.
I captured my first Honeybee of the year this past weekend. I was over at my friend's home and they had some Grape Hyacinths blooming already and I captured this bee in flight while it was moving from flower to flower. I was surprised I got it in focus, I thought I hadn't.
