It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! I had to share another shot of one of my favorite wildflowers, they make me happy. They are still blooming in my garden by the gazebo pond. These are Black-eyed Susans. Their bloom time is May through September and are in the Sunflower family which is probably why I like them so much.
Today's image is another of the bird's I saw an captured for the first time this year. This is a Summer Tanager that I was able to capture in a more natural setting as it sat in a tree in-between it's visits to the suet.
Happy Monday! Today's image is of my new Gerbera hybrid. I now have the original yellow, an orange and now this pink variety. I love these as they are always in bloom. I captured this just after I watered it so there were water droplets on the leaves.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog. Today's image goes back to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg. This is locomotive 6765 Mountain type built in 1930 and retired in 1957 and was one that could scoop water into the tender on the fly. I felt like a B&W treatment for this image today. Steam locomotives make great B&W subjects I think.
I recently bought a drone and Have been practicing flying it and learning what it can do. I want to eventually use it for train photography. I was out at our new high school because I needed an open area to test some flight features. The sky was quite interesting to the west as it was approaching sunset.
It's Friday, TGIF! The Surprise Lilies are up and blooming for the last couple weeks. I captured this group with some lovely lighting and bokeh and I am sharing this image today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
On a recent bike ride I went looking for Jewel-wing Damselflies and I was not disappointed. I captured this one on a leaf over a stream with another coming in to land.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is one that has been blooming rather profusely the past month. This is Showy Partridge Pea. It blooms July through September and is a member of the Bean family. The leaves are touch sensitive and fold when touched like Cat's Claw Sensitive Briar.
This was a new bird for me this year. I was able to capture them at a few different times when I knew what to look for. This is a pair of males that I captured one day while on a bike ride. I was wondering if one was a female but they both have black eye masks and females don't have that.
Happy Monday! It's a double digit day today! 😀 Starting off the week with a lovely flower from my garden. This is one of my peppermint striped Zinnias.
It's Steamy Sunday once again here on the Blog! Last weekend over the 2 days we fired up our 1947 Ottaway locomotive again and had some successful runs. Saturday started out a bit disappointing but ended rather well after we discovered a couple things, one of which is some loose linkage. Sunday we had successful trials the whole time so we are just about ready to take it to the railroad we play at and test it on a good run of track instead of the small bit we have set out. Yay, finally after 9 years of work it is ready, very happy. In this image it is building steam. The tall pipe helps create draft to give oxygen to the fire.
Last week, this moon was in the news quite a bit because it was the last "super moon" of the year and it also coincided with the Perseid meteor shower. I didn't see any meteors but I did get this image of the moon. 300mm lens at 800 ISO and 1/160 shutter speed at f11 for detail.
Woohoo, it's Friday, TGIF! Friday's Are Bokehlicious so today's bokeh filled image is this one that I took of a group of my Surprise Lily blooms this past week.
I was out watering the plants on my deck on the weekend and saw this guy hanging out in one of my Gerbera flower plants. I took a couple pics and then turned the pot around to get this head on shot and loved how it turned out. I think it's a type of tree frog.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! This flower is considered invasive in my area but I find it around occasionally. This is Musk Thistle and it provides an interesting subject to photograph I think. They are considered invasive because they spread quite rapidly and are hard to eradicate. Even after digging them out of the ground they can still produce seed. When they bloom, from May to August, they have a pink puff head.
Over the winter we have these birds as visitors. When it gets pretty warm out they head out, guessing they like colder weather and head north. Opposite of me. 😄 Anyway this is a Dark Eyed Junco that I actually captured at a park I was walking at one day last winter. It is sitting on the dried berries of a Sumac plant.
Happy Monday! Starting the week off today with a close up image of a couple of Alyssum blooms.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! It's steamy in a different way where I live, 100 F today. UGH Anyway, today's image goes back to Pennsylvania last year and the Strasburg Railroad where Norfolk & Western locomotive 611 was visiting and during some excursions. I caught this shot as it was coming around a bend and heading back to Strasburg from Paradise PA.
I have never seen fungus/fungi or mushrooms like this before. They were growing between the bark of this log. It's rare to see red ones for me as well and when I do they are usually very small. I thought these were neat so had to share. 😀
TGIF, It's Friday! Today's image is one I was able to get this week of a beautiful Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly that was visiting the Ironweed that is growing beside my back deck. I was surprised to see 2 little bees in the image as well when I viewed the image larger. They did not seem to be bothering the butterfly very much at all. Today's image is shared with you due to the lovely bokeh in it because Friday's Are Bokehlicious as well!
Recently I discovered one of my young Cedar trees was just infested with Bag Worm sacs. I was working at removing them from the tree when I discovered this guy hanging out in a branch. It's a fairly young Praying Mantis who was cooperative and let me get a few pics of it. I have been wondering if they eat Bagworms, it would have had a feast. He also blended in really well and I was lucky to have even seen it.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is one of my favorites. These are Black-eyed Susans and have been blooming around my yard in various places for a few weeks now. They bloom May through September and are part of the Sunflower family and are in the species Rudbeckia. These make me happy to see them like Sunflowers, they are bright and cheery.
This is an image I was able to get earlier this year. It is one of my favorite birds to capture as they never sit long and especially don't seem to want their photo taken. I got lucky with this capture. This is a Western Meadowlark which is the state bird of Kansas where I live. They have been declining in numbers in recent years but we have had several around our area this year so hopefully they are doing OK. I captured this one looking for bugs in the grass this spring.
Happy Monday! It's a double digit day today as well. 😀 These are some Day Lilies I have that are blooming right now. I thought that this group of them reminded me of a waterfall.
It's Steamy Sunday once again here on the Blog! I am sharing something that has been a long time coming. We bought this locomotive back in 2013 and we are just now, working at getting it to run well so we can take it to the track we get to play on near Topeka. This is an Ottaway locomotive built in 1947 and it runs on 12 inch wide track. It was heavily modified by the people we bought it from but we like a lot of what they did. They only ran it on air but we are getting it back to running on steam. It's close, this is it's third fire up and the timing is still a bit off but it did move under it's own power up the short bit of track we had put out for the first time in many years.
We had a beautiful sunset the other evening. I wish I had caught it earlier because I bet it was even more vibrant but I was busy inside.
Happy Friday, TGIF! I usually don't see these butterflies very often as they usually prefer shady locations and don't visit flowers very often but I have seen them around a few times in different places this year. This is a Wood Nymph butterfly with some lovely bubbly bokeh behind it. Sharing this image today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! This year was a very good year for Cat's Claw Sensitive Briar. It blooms May through September and in June while out on Konza Prairie it was blooming all over. The stem has briars on it, which is where part of the name comes from. The "sensitive" part of the name is due to the fact that if you rub your finger down the middle of the leaflets they will close together.
Today's image is another of the Scissor Tail Flycatcher that I was able to see and capture this spring. They can be found fairly commonly sitting on fences so a cliché image. 😁
It's August! My goodness this year is going so fast. Happy Monday as well. I planted Cosmos in my garden this year. So far they are turning out to be only white but they are quite lovely. Very dainty looking as well with their lacy leaves.
