It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's image is another of one of my favorites but rarely seen for me because I can never seem to get the timing right. These are Nipple Cactus blooms. Nipple Cactus are fairly small, only about 2 to 3 inches across at most.
This is an image of a Red-tail hawk I got earlier this year while on a walk. It has been nice to see them around. Wish they would take care of the rabbits that are eating my flowers down to the ground in my yard. 😒 I learned you can tell for sure it is a Red-tail due to the bars on the wings.
It's spring officially now but I still have some snowflake images to share. I have been working on processing some good ones I got this winter. This one is a 10 image focus stack. I found it rather unique with all the open space in the center. I loved the little baby one stuck to it as well.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! I wanted to post my favorite railroad today so here is one from a ride I took a few years ago. They were blowing down the boiler a bit to remove scale as we went around a curve and I caught a few shots of that including this one. This is the Cumbres & Toltec Railway that crosses between Colorado and New Mexico several times.
Here is a shot from the Sedgwick County Zoo that I was quite pleased with. I love these little guys and wish I could see them in their native land but have to make due with the zoo for now and most likely for always. Anyway, an adorable Meerkat perching on top of a tall rock.
TGIF! It was, well, seemed like, a long week for some reason. 😄 Today's image is another of the Painted Lady butterflies that visited my garden this past summer. It is enjoying my lovely Butterfly Bush blooms. The plants in the background are creating some nice soft bokeh and because Friday's Are Bokehlicious I am sharing this image with you today.
I am going to start posting some of the photos I was able to get of the beautiful birds I saw at the Sedgwick County Zoo. As I mentioned I have a like/hate relationship with Zoos. They seem to have a really nice area for all these birds though in their Tropical Habitat. I will never be able to travel to the countries these birds are in so this is the only way I will ever see them. I am starting off with an obvious Zoo pic because I am trying to get an ID on the bird on the right. I have Googled it like crazy but cannot find a match and the Zoo did not have an ID of it on their website. The one on the left is beautiful and is a Spangled Cotinga from South America. I think the other is beautiful as well but I have no idea what it is. They had just been fed when I got this image.
Edit: So I got an ID from someone on a site I visit. It is another South American bird called a Black-faced Dacnis and is male.
