Black Phoebe
A few months ago I saw a pair of Black Phoebes hanging around my backyard habitat, but they never got close enough to take a decent picture. I saw them yesterday hanging around near the back porch and on top of the pool. I put a stick in grass a within an hour I had [...]
Mourning Dove, Black Phoebe and a Red Admiral Butterfly
I’ve been lazy in posting some of my new “finds”. Since the weather is nasty today, I thought I’d catch up with my latest photos. This Mourning Dove was kind enough to land close by, a bit too close to frame the whole body. Last year I saw one Black Phoebe in the trees and [...]
Orange-crowned Warbler and a Rufous Hummingbird
I have been processing photos from my latest Yosemite trip all afternoon. I happen to see a larger bird flying away….definitely NOT a hummingbird. I figured it was our Orange-crowned Warbler again. I saw him once last year, but I never got a good picture of it. I wasn’t going to try again since feeders [...]
Merced NWR 3-24-10
It about a month since I’ve been out the Merced NWR. I normally stay until sunset, but since the time change and because the kids are done before sunset, I only stayed for a short time. One of the pools are now dry, the Geese are gone too. I found several Killdeer to be cooperative, [...]
15 Minutes of Excitement!
Spent the afternoon at the “Matenkosky NWR” or maybe “The Backcountry NWR”, haven’t decided what to call my backyard ‘refuge’. Anyway, it was a pretty boring afternoon. I had hoped for the Yellow-rumped Warblers that I’ve been courting these last few days to get closer, but no luck…..until near sunset. All of the sweet light [...]
My First Lawrence’s Goldfinch!
I had a two hours to kill until I had to pick up the kids at Awana. I got my camera, tripod and cushion an headed to the Matenkosky NWR….my backyard. I was hoping to capture a better photo of one of the Yellow-rumped Warblers that I’ve been seeing, but no luck. Instead, I saw [...]
Yellow-rumped Warbler
I made some changes to my backyard pond this afternoon. Didn’t get any visitors by the shore though. I’ve been seeing a pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers in the trees these last few days. This evening I got one to land in the grass for one photo. Hopefully the next few days they’ll come closer and [...]
Scared by a Robin?
Yep, it’s true. I’m so used to seeing the smaller songbirds in my backyard blind that I got startled by a Robin! This is my first Robbin of the season and I wasn’t used to seeing them. Needless to say I missed that shot…so what else is new. Saw this poor White-crowned Sparrow with an [...]
The Day of the Goldfinches
I made a few minor changes to my backyard pond. Some of the birds couldn’t figure out how to come to the water. In the process of trying to hide the plastic, I used large rocks to line it. As I looked at the pond it looked more like a rock quarry than a pond, [...]
The New Backyard DIY Photography Blind, Pond and Waterfall
Last year I wanted to build a small DIY photography blind in my backyard. I had an old play house that my kids used to play in. It worked, but I had to sit sideways and shoot. Not very comfortable. I need something larger and I also wanted to add a small water feature. I [...]
I post all of my new nature pictures, random thoughts, and even my family pictures here. Some of those pictures never get posted to my 