June 2024 – A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, moon, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, Rise and shine, sky, sunrise, sunset, unintended images

Sunrise moonset…

June 24, 2024June 23, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

I went out for the sunrise early on Sunday morning. My app gave it an 80% chance of being good so I happily set out. But the minute I went out the front door the almost full moon grabbed my attention. It would be setting opposite the sunrise itself, but it looked enormous in that dark sky so I walked to the opposite side of the lake from my usual sunrise spot to take the feature photo. And that’s where I stayed because there didn’t seem to be much interesting going on in the sky to the east, so I pinned my hopes on the reflected color in the clouds in the western view.

I was still checking over my left shoulder in case the sky was on fire there, but it wasn’t.

And there it was, beautiful color as the moon faded into the clouds.

Saturday night I went out to see if there was nice sunset color and there was, but it was all down too low for a short person to be able to incorporate it into a photo. I wandered the neighborhood a bit to try to find a view between houses that would give me a better view, but I gave up. Then by the time I was back to my own front yard the sky had cooperated with this short person and put on quite a show.

attention to detail, backyard visitors, birds, Close encounters, Florida wildlife, Hummingbirds, in the neighborhood, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

In the tree…

June 23, 2024June 22, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

There is a limited amount of time in the morning when there is enough light out there to make sitting and waiting for the hummingbird worthwhile. But then the sun rises over the trees and shines directly into your eyes and drives you into the house. So that’s what I was doing this morning when I saw the hummingbird fly into the yard, but up into the oleander tree and not onto the flowers. I generally like those silhouette type images with a bird in the oleander, or I think I’m going to like them, I sure take enough of them when I get the chance. But they usually have branches in the wrong place and I’m disappointed and I hardly ever use them. But when it’s the hummingbird that I can see up there, closer than usual in the tree than when she is in the flowers, I’m going to keep shooting. And when she flys off and then lands in the tree again, but in a better spot this time, I’m going to shoot many, many more. And then it’s time to process them, and if I want to see her I have to over-process them, but I couldn’t resist.

No processing at all, this is what the camera gave me to work with.

Another bird landed in the tree and she took off, but she visited some of the oleander flowers before leaving for good.

I don’t know if the same picture taken later in the day might have worked out better. Or if maybe that expensive lens that I keep telling myself I don’t need would make the expense worthwhile. It is getting more tempting all the time though…

attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, dragonflies, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, in the neighborhood, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Not birds…

June 22, 2024June 21, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

If there had been birds out back I’m sure I would have taken pictures of them, but all was quiet. And it was hot. And humid. And not a breath of air. With nothing else happening I got the photo of the hibiscus without even getting out of my chair. And still I sat there, sure that the hummingbird would be along any second. Shows you how much I know.

Didn’t have to move a muscle except to turn the zoom all the way up.

I got excited when I saw this dragonfly, but I had to zoom back out to find him in the viewfinder. Then I tried to change positions to give me a better composition but he flew away. And evidently he didn’t get the memo that says that they always return to the same spot, because he stayed away.

As long as I had gotten out of my chair I also got this picture of the plumeria.

Are you eagle eyed? Did you spot the fly on the plumeria petal?

Once I saw that I had a nice, fat, bumble bee visiting I chased him all over the yard, taking pictures galore, but I was lucky to get two pictures worth working on. Glad to see him though.

Some days are less exciting than others around here, and hotter, so I called it a day. But I got the laundry done so that’s something…

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, birds, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, Hummingbirds, just imagine, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Some not-so-frequent fliers…

June 21, 2024June 20, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

We had just talked about the fact that we hadn’t seen the brown thrasher in a while, and he turned up within a day or two. Same thing happened with the Carolina wren. I love it when that happens. Otherwise the cardinals are seen constantly, and that wasn’t the case when we were over-run with red wing blackbirds. And we still see a pair of red-wings, but two at the time is fine with us.

Thrashers are related to mockingbirds and have lots of songs. I wonder if that’s who I’ve been hearing out there lately.

They will come to backyards when food is offered, and if there is dense foliage close by. Guess I know what it is that they like about our place.

And remember the Carolina wren with the criss cross beak? Looks like he’s doing just fine.

We have lots of cardinals in the yard. Young ones we think.

This young one had me guessing. It seemed to be a red bellied woodpecker, but minus the red on the head. I wondered if it was some other woodpecker.

Nope, a juvenile. Didn’t look the part but sure acted like a red-bellied woodpecker.

Is this the dad I wonder? He’s sticking his tongue out at me.

When a Carolina chickadee stays still you just have to take a picture.

I missed the hummingbird in this photo, but my online watercolor group would love seeing all the folded leaves that have been giving some of us fits recently. Me included.

More folded leaves, and the hummingbird.

I’ve been playing with the settings in my camera trying to up my game a bit. But I can’t expect much if I insist on sitting out there in the dim early morning light. Unless I spend a lot of money on a fancy lens, but it hasn’t come to that yet. So today I put the extender on the camera, which means I need even more light, but I wouldn’t have to crop as much. It makes it harder to ‘find’ the hummingbird through the even smaller peep hole it gives me, but what else do I have to do these days but amuse myself? And I do.

attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, blessings, bucket list, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, Hummingbirds, in the neighborhood, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Frequent fliers…

June 19, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

The hummingbird has achieved the status of frequent flier as of late. I never have to wait long for her to show up. She may play peek-a-boo with me in the foliage, but that doesn’t stop me from taking many, many shots as the day goes by.

I was behind a student driver in heavy traffic yesterday, so maybe that’s why I saw this as putting on the brakes.

But mostly you catch her dining, because she levitates and probably spends all the calories she is taking in on keeping those wings going.

At least her poses are a bit different as she dines.

She moves so fast that only a few of the shots are even worth working on, but all of these shots probably were taken in less than two minutes. Much less.

I’ve been wondering if I had a couple more of these fire bushes would I get more hummingbirds at a time? Maybe things are just right out there.

backyard visitors, butterflies, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, in the neighborhood, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

All that flutters…

June 18, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

We have all heard the saying that ‘all that glitters is not gold’, a saying with deep meaning. But when fluttering in the foliage out back caught my eye I learned that all that flutters isn’t always a hummingbird. Sometimes it’s a little yellow butterfly spending time in the plumbago. A happy, color-coordinated, accident.