A nature photographer’s images and stories of birds, butterflies, and other creatures from her backyard near Orlando, FL
July 24, 2010 - The windy and cloudy weather courtesy of Tropical Storm Bonnie don’t seem to be bothering the birds around Stoneybrook West. This group of juvenile White Ibises seemed to be having very good luck hunting for lunch this afternoon!
July 23, 2010 - I love how tall my Mexican Sunflower plant has gotten this year! It’s covered in bright orange flowers that make the yard so cheerful and seem to be pretty appealing to our butterfly visitors.
July 22, 2010 - Normally in July my roses aren’t looking so good. This year, they look great! Even my ‘Pope John Paul II’ rose, which tends to wilt in the harsh summer heat, is flourishing and covered in blooms. Also blooming well this month is my ‘Moonstone’ rose, which is totally covered in blooms right now. Isn’t it […]
July 19, 2010 - Last night we had a nice unexpected rainfall, and I went out afterward with the camera to photograph flowers covered with raindrops. This ‘Moonstone’ rose shot was my favorite.
July 17, 2010 - We’ve had an unusual number of snails in the backyard this spring. I’ve been trying to get close-up pictures of them, but by the time I get them focused, they move out of good range. So tonight when this snail was posing on the window, I had the unique opportunity to get a two-sided view […]
July 10, 2010 - This morning Rich and I discovered these tiny kittens living in the bushes in our backyard. They are adorable. Unfortunately we have a neighbor who feeds the mother and encourages her to stick around the neighborhood. This is the third litter of kittens! Why can’t all people be responsible pet owners?
July 7, 2010 - I took this picture of the moon rising over the Stoneybrook West golf course a few weeks ago. At the time I didn’t think it good enough to post, but it’s been a slow photography week, and when I saw it in Lightroom today I liked it better than before. We’ve had several new bird […]
July 5, 2010 - This morning we looked out to see Papa Cardinal with Baby C in the bird feeder. The baby was doing the “feed me!” wing flutter and Papa obliged him by depositing nice sunflower kernels right into his mouth. It looks like Baby C is a little boy (he is starting to molt into his adult […]
July 4, 2010 - It’s been rainy for the past few days and the feeder activity has picked up some in the intervals without rain. This afternoon the backyard got quiet quickly, though, as this adult Cooper’s Hawk perched on top of the big bird feeder and surveyed the yard. Lucky for our birdies, he didn’t see any motion, […]
June 28, 2010 - One little, two little, three little squirrels… Rich says I should stop there – or better yet, we should have stopped with one! Last fall we had our first squirrel visitor move into the backyard. He was always by himself, and he had a pretty regular pattern, so we were fairly confident that it was […]
June 25, 2010 - This afternoon I observed a very light-colored House Finch at the front feeder. The patches of light brown, almost white, on his face were intriguing, so I got out the camera for a closer look. With my zoom lens I could see that this was a juvenile bird, molting into his male adult plumage. Goldilocks […]
June 24, 2010 - The neighborhood is alive with calls from baby birds. Most have fledged and are fairly easy to spot on our evening walks. Just listen for shrill calls and watch for “I’m hungry” kinds of wing-flapping. This juvenile mockingbird attracted my attention with his calls, then he sat and watched me as I walked closer for […]
June 22, 2010 - My ‘Gold Medal’ rose bush has burst into bloom this week. It’s covered in golden roses!
June 17, 2010 - Beaky finally found that wife! wife! wife! that he was looking for…and now he’s a proud papa, too. We’ve been hearing the babies in Peter and Carla’s oak tree for a couple of weeks now. Today they finally came to visit Goldy at her living room window. :) Beaky spent about 15 minutes chirping his […]
June 15, 2010 - The house finches are sticking around for the summer. Although we don’t see as many as we did during the winter, we hear them all over Stoneybrook West, and we have our faithful group that still comes to the feeder. I haven’t seen any babies yet this year. There’s always a decline in feeder activity […]
June 14, 2010 - We saw these Mourning Doves sitting on our fountain when we went out for our walk this evening. We’re not sure how they managed the dexterity to both land, and they managed to stay, too! “Look out below!”
June 11, 2010 - Rich and I saw a bunch of baby birds on our walk tonight. We finally caught up with our baby mallards, who we’ve been chasing for the last week or so. We keep seeing them as we drive out, when I don’t have my camera. Tonight we were amused to see them crossing Pebble Ridge […]
June 10, 2010 - I love my new gimbal head! It’s so easy to use. I went out in the backyard this evening to photograph the baby cardinals in Peter and Carla’s oak tree, but I couldn’t find the nest. This dove posed for me, though.
June 9, 2010 - My latest camera toy arrived – a gimbal head for my tripod. Unlike my old ball head, which had to be locked down into place, my new Jobu gimbal head lets me move the camera wherever I want, and then the camera stays when I let go. It’s so easy! Note: Rich wants it noted […]
June 8, 2010 - Rich and I have been enjoying our evening walks at sundown. I love the extended daylight hours in the summer! Tonight we saw a pretty sunset over the pond. I took some bracketed exposures to play with HDR again, but I didn’t like the result. I did like my original 2 stop underexposure, which captures […]
June 6, 2010 - This evening, Rich and I set out on our walk, I mean, our quest, to the Weeping Willows that are Far, Far Away (well, the intersection of Tour Pointe and Town Commons). There we met two ogres (according to their prey!) named Shrek and Fiona. I began photographing them as Rich asked “Can we go […]
June 5, 2010 - Rich and I are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary today. Squirt wanted to celebrate by eating this rose, but I wouldn’t let him. I photographed it instead.
June 4, 2010 - We have nine pineapples growing in the side yard this year. It’s an impressive looking little pineapple patch! I can’t wait for the pineapples to mature. Hopefully I get to eat them before the birds do.
June 3, 2010 - With all the rain we’ve been getting lately (and the hail today), the rain lilies have all started to bloom. Several bulbs tagged along with the crape myrtle that Mum-mum and Dyeyo gave us, and the pale flowers underneath the purple bush that is also starting to bloom is really pretty. I also have a […]
June 2, 2010 - My hydrangeas are covered in blooms and they are just gorgeous. The mix of pinks, purples, and blues is fun. It’s a shame that hydrangeas only bloom for a couple of weeks out of the year. They are so pretty. Each year I go crazy taking close-up pictures of the blooms. Here is today’s favorite:
June 1, 2010 - I saw the first blooms peeking out from the crape myrtle trees this weekend. I love how everything bursts into bloom at this time of year!
May 30, 2010 - It’s fun to be surprised each morning by the smell of the gardenias and the sight of daylilies. My ‘Butterscotch Ruffles’ daylily usually has three or four blooms, as does ‘Yangtze.’ ‘Rambo’ and ‘Swirling Spider’ are much bigger flowers, and usually just have one a day. Today’s picture is a dew-covered ‘Rambo’.
May 25, 2010 - The butterflies are back in the yard – it’s getting to be pretty common to look out back and see one or two fluttering around. I guess they like the butterfly plants that I got for them at Lukas!
May 24, 2010 - Happy Birthday, Dyeyo D! This time of the year is so exciting in the backyard because of all the spring blooms on the flowers. Today I noticed that my hydrangeas are starting to bloom and they are blue again this year! Actually I have a pretty mix of blues, purples, and pinks. I need to […]
May 23, 2010 - My ‘Swirling Spider’ daylily put out its first bloom today. I remember being slightly hesitant about adding a spider to my daylily mix, and I’m so glad I did. It’s my favorite one to photograph.
May 23, 2010 - I’ve been watching this little family of mallards for the last couple of weeks. They come across the golf course every morning to go wading in the pond in between Pebble Ridge and Fox Hunt. I’ve never had my camera with me to photograph them, though, and the babies have been growing up. Tonight, finally, […]
May 19, 2010 - It’s fun to see butterflies returning to the backyard, even as the birds are starting to find their food elsewhere. My feeders are staying fuller these days, and we only have resident house finches, mockingbirds, cardinals, and doves. Even the grackles and red-winged blackbirds are becoming fewer and fewer. So it was nice to welcome […]
May 18, 2010 - The gardenia has finally decided that it’s spring. (Like everything else this year, the blooms are late.) A bunch of the buds fell off, but even more are starting to open. It smells great!
May 17, 2010 - My ‘Deja Blu’ mini rose has started to put on some nice new growth, and I think this was one of the first blooms of the season. The deep magenta color is fun (and unusual for a mini rose).
May 16, 2010 - This afternoon I helped my papitos plant their new Plumeria plant, better known as Frangipani. I got the tree at Lukas on Friday and we got it into the ground this afternoon. Aren’t the flowers pretty? I took several pictures, using several different filters, and I decided that I liked this diffused one best. It […]
May 15, 2010 - Today was Rose Care Day. Rich helped me fertilize, then I sprayed. It felt really good to spend the morning outside in the yard. There were plenty of birds out and we saw/heard cardinals, mockingbirds, house finches, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, and mourning doves (the usual summer crowd). This evening I did not take my camera […]
May 13, 2010 - It was just last week that I was taking pictures of these two caterpillars on my milkweed plant. Tonight I looked out and saw an orange fluttering in the backyard in the general area of the milkweed. I went out and found this monarch butterfly, with its wings still not completely unfolded after its emergence […]
May 12, 2010 - Rich and I were out for our evening walk the other day when we saw a mallard in the pond with a bunch of baby ducks. Of course I didn’t have the camera with me that day, and of course we haven’t seen the ducklings since. :-p So I’ll post a pretty picture of a […]
May 10, 2010 - I promised Mum-mum that I would put up a picture of my new fountain. I’m hoping the birds enjoy the extra source of water. The neighborhood squirrel already does! Rich got a great picture of him the other day drinking out of the fountain. The fountain is on the side of the house, surrounded by […]
May 5, 2010 - On our third bunny walk with camera we finally saw a bunny! He was farther away and the light was fading, so the picture isn’t great, but here’s the proof that we saw him.
May 4, 2010 - Rich and I saw some wild rabbits twice last week during our walks in Lakehurst at “Bunny Hour”, so this week I started carrying my camera in hopes of taking some pictures of them. (They are cute!) But of course we don’t see them when I have my camera with me (Rich calls it my […]
May 3, 2010 - We have eight pineapples growing in our little patch on the side of the house. That’s a record – we’ve only ever had four. I’m surprised that they are even alive, much less growing fruit, after the cold this winter and the transplant I had to do with the termite treatment. :-p Carla and Peter […]
May 2, 2010 - We see our baby cardinals almost every day. Last week the babies were always with their parents, and the parents were still feeding them. This morning, the baby flew unaccompanied by his parents into our tree in front. He seemed to try to figure out how to eat out of the tube feeder without actually […]
April 30, 2010 - I saw the first of this year’s monarch caterpillars on our milkweed plants this afternoon. There are two fairly large caterpillars. I suspect they have a few more days before they form their chrysalides.
April 29, 2010 - Goldilocks is pleased to continue welcoming her mallards to our backyard almost every afternoon. They go under the bird feeders and eat the seed on the ground. They’re pretty friendly, and they let you get fairly close before they start to worry. Next door, Peter and Carla have a little pond, with a duck statue […]
April 27, 2010 - Papa Cardinal brought his newly fledged babies to the front feeders tonight. Mama Cardinal joined them after a few minutes. The parents ate at the feeders, while the babies hung out in our ligustrum trees. Every so often, the parents would hop over to the babies and feed them. There was such a commotion of […]
April 25, 2010 - I took pity on my pansy-loving kitty tonight. After replanting one of my flower beds with summer flowers from Lukas, I re-potted some of the old pansies and put them in a pot on the porch for Squirt. I got many purrs for thanks!
April 21, 2010 - The backyard roses have all burst into bloom and they are absolutely gorgeous! The blooms are a bit late this year, due to the cold weather. But it was worth the wait. I went outside and took a series of pictures, then used Photoshop Elements to merge them together into a panorama. The only thing […]
April 18, 2010 - I was out trimming the hedges this afternoon when this dragonfly (or dragonbird, in the Goldilocks vernacular where everything that flies is a bird) came to land on a shepherd’s crook nearby. The dragonflies always seem to perch high when they are searching for their food, and after they dive after a bug, they come […]