mhalsted 的最愛

BABIES!!! 1 set in 2 yrs! I saw this pair earlier hanging around in my south east bay, so I didn't go out in the canoe, not wanting to disturb them, 5 little ones! This is a new pair that decided to nest in close this year. All told I had 3 pairs in my bay this spring. :)

Mr.Cangoos coming in for the classic 'Belly Flop' landing,followed by the Missus sounding off at him for the crash landing, & getting her feathers all wet & ruffled....sigh.... These two are such a delight with their many antics!

I saw this loon dive in the middle of the pond as i was driving by. I stopped and hid behind the guard rail and waited for it to surface. Recent roadside brush cutting has increased visibility from shore. The loon surfaced just a few metres off shore and i had to decrease my zoom to capture the loon in a single frame. As you can see the Loon remained low in the water and dove again quickly.

Planted/transplanted some 30 years ago. 1993 or 1994.Originally acquired from a nursery where I was employed. The nursery got plants from North Carolina and Tennessee, where the collector had rights to land about to be cleared for human "progress". Any little "extras" in the roots of large ferns etcetera, were fair game to employees who wanted to pick them out, and take them home. A vey tall vigorous Trillium. However, it has not spread except for increasing clump size.

Now here's a rare visitor to the backyard. If I'm lucky I may see one stop by once or twice a year. However, it's been going on two years since I last got a shot of one here. There was a second one deeper in the foliage of the pecan tree, but this one posed somewhat openly for a few shots before the two flew off together.

Another juvenile making its first appearance of the spring in the yard (when I was looking.) I think there was a second one as daddy would feed this one suet and then get more suet and take it into the foliage of a nearby crepe myrtle and then repeat the cycle.

Photo 1- Note the Desert Black Swallowtail larvae dropped by the Scrub-Jay, which is about to be eaten.
Photos 2 & 3- Eating the larvae, including banging it against the boulder.
Photo 4- Back with another larvae, tucked under its left foot.
Photo 5- Back a third time to the Turpentine Broom, which is the host plant of the Desert Black Swallowtail.
Photo 6- Gotcha!

The cats were all focused on the same thing, so I knew something was up. Found them all trying to catch this big lizard that was in our living room under a cabinet. I managed to get it to go into this wine gift bag so I could get it out of the house. Once outside, it started to come out of the bag but then decided to go back in. When it finally came out, it then hid under one of my tires.